TV

Ambulance: BBC viewers in pieces after ‘desperately sad’ episode featuring suicides

Viewers found it "utterly heartbreaking" to watch

Ambulance had viewers in tears last night as it continued on BBC One with a particularly difficult-to-watch episode.

Those watching at home on Wednesday (October 28) evening called it “utterly heartbreaking” and “desperately sad”, as it showed emergency services staff dealing with Britain’s mental health crisis.

On Ambulance, a call handler broke down as she assisted a woman helping a patient who hanged himself (Credit: BBC)

What happened in Ambulance on BBC One?

At the very start of the episode, a 999 call handler received a call from a distraught woman who was with someone who had hanged himself.

The call handler spoke calmly and clearly as she said: “I’m going to tell you how to give mouth to mouth, okay?”

But once the call was over, her composure crumbled and she broke down in tears, covering her face before being comforted by others in the room.

BBC viewers felt for the call handler, who was overcome with emotion (Credit: BBC)

On Twitter, one viewer said: “Wow, two seconds of #ambulance and I’m welling up, incredible by the call handler.”

Read more: Ambulance: Hoax call on BBC documentary leaves viewers fuming

A second wrote: “That’s a traumatic start to #Ambulance tonight. Bless the call handler, what an amazing job she did.”

“I want to give that call handler a hug,” said a third, adding: “She must have felt so helpless.”

https://twitter.com/mikecornes/status/1321558761211912204

Mum holds son’s hand as he dies on Ambulance

Later in the episode, paramedics responded to another hanging. The 36-year-old’s mum, Ursula, found him hanging and called 999.

God that poor woman losing her son like that, utterly heartbreaking.

Unfortunately, when an advanced paramedic joined the others on the scene, they did everything they could but were unable to save the patient.

The advanced paramedic joined other emergency services personnel on the scene of another hanging (Credit: BBC)

They had him on life support and the advanced paramedic went to get Ursula, to break the news to her.

And it was what the paramedic said to her that had viewers at home in tears. Wanting to do everything he could to comfort the devastated mum, he asked her if she would like to come and hold her son’s hand as they took him off life support.

In crushing scenes, she sat with him and held his hand as he was pronounced dead.

The patient’s mum, Ursula, sat with her son as they removed life support (Credit: BBC)

What did BBC viewers say?

On Twitter, one wrote: “#Ambulance broke my heart. The poor man took his own life, they tried for over 30 minutes to resuscitate him. And then his mum came to hold his hand as he passed.”

Another BBC viewer tweeted: “That poor mum going to hold her son’s hand at the end after he took his own life. If you need to speak to someone, call the Samaritans 116 123 #ambulance.”

Read more: Ambulance: Viewers in tears over ‘compassionate’ bystander’s care for suicidal woman

A third put: “#ambulance that just broke my heart, the team asking that mum if she wanted to hold her son’s hand and say goodbye after he’d committed suicide.”

A fourth wrote, alongside crying emojis: “Poor mum… that’s so desperately sad…”

Someone else said: “God that poor woman losing her son like that, utterly heartbreaking #Ambulance.”

Others said they found it really difficult to watch.

https://twitter.com/Maxee_Collie/status/1321566300519452676

https://twitter.com/jscstirling69/status/1321566087146885120

What did you think of last night’s episode of Ambulance? Leave us a comment on our Facebook page @EntertainmentDailyFix and let us know what.


Nancy Brown
Associate Editor