First Responders
CRAIG: You guys ready? Lean back. Lean back and walk.
-Look behind you. -Oh, my God.
(Dan shudders)
(siren wailing)
This might be the big one.
MAN: Back up! Back up!
-BOTH: Oh! -DAN:
we've rushed to the rescue of people in need.
-TITUS: Hey, hey. -Stay awake.
I'm Dan Flynn.
And I'm Titus Tero.
DAN:
TITUS: 10-4. Patient contact.
...we've handled everything
that New Orleans can throw at us.
Don't let go.
(siren wailing)
But there's a giant network of specialized units...
-Relay.
that most EMTs never face.
♪ ♪
Now we're traveling the country...
Uh-oh. Where are we going next?
-...and rolling up our sleeves...
-(bleep) -Get low!
-Let's go. -Oh, God.
...and shine a light on the heroic actions...
-Pump it!
♪ ♪
Today we're at Pennybacker Overlook in Austin, Texas.
This place has a lot of wilderness, cliffs,
and treacherous trails.
Every year, countless Americans get in over their heads
in places just like this.
Cars go over ravines,
mountain bikers take devastating hits,
and hikers go over cliffs. And when they do,
it's up to first responders to bring them back alive.
Austin-Travis County EMS invited us out here
to be a part of a search and rescue evolution
with their special ops team.
Let's see what's going on.
TITUS:
-JENNIFER: Look who it is. Check this out. -TITUS: Hey.
-What's going on? -What's up?
-What's going on? -Yeah, what's up?
The first thing I see is ropes and guys with harness on.
So, this area is one of the places
that we respond to quite often.
'Cause there's areas where people can fall and get hurt,
or can fall and, and get killed.
We come out, we try to find 'em.
But sometimes the assets that we have--
and we sometimes utilize the air--
we're unable to find them.
So then we have to bring in
one of our other response partners
that have K-9 capabilities.
And for us, that's our TEXSAR partners
-Hi. Brandon Goering. -Dan. Nice to meet you.
-Titus. How you doing? -Hi. Jennifer.
-Jennifer? -Jennifer, yeah.
Very nice to meet you, Jennifer.
These are our experts.
What makes them, you know, uniquely positioned
to help with our search?
Well, the K-9s use their nose, primarily,
whereas we tend to use our eyes and our ears,
and we get distracted by visual things.
-They focus on their nose. -Oh, okay.
So, what are we getting into today?
Titus, you're gonna go with the rescue team.
Dan, you're gonna be with us.
-Okay. -All right, good, I'm good.
But first off, we need an article of clothing.
-From me? -From you.
-Ah, you got to take it off. -You're gonna be the victim.
We got to have something for the dog to search.
We have to have something that only you have touched
-for the dog to follow. -Right here.
-Ah. -TITUS: Boy, you are white-toned, man.
DAN: Told you, I'm a pasty white kid, man.
-Put it in the bag. -Put it in the bag.
They split us off, so I'm gonna go with Finch and Craig
and get suited up, and Titus is going with
the search and rescue team with a K-9 unit.
-You guys ready to go? -Yep. I'm ready if you are.
Let's head down the trail and get this thing started.
♪ ♪
DAN: How frequently do you guys actually have to come out
in areas like this for rescues?
CRAIG: During this time of year, a couple times a week.
DAN: Oh, wow.
-No wonder why people hike up here. -So we're gonna go through here.
DAN:
...I knew at that point somebody was going over
the edge of this cliff.
I just don't know that
I'm mentally ready for it to be me.
Look, man, you tell me I'm playing a victim,
I'm not an idiot.
Like, tell me something that's gonna put my mind at ease
before whatever the hell happens here happens.
All right, I think we can do that.
Oh!
We ran a call here last year-- it was in the fall.
It comes in as a priority-four fall,
and they say someone down the hill says
they hear someone screaming for help.
-Like, right here? -Yeah, like right in this area.
So we get here, and the lieutenant tells me,
"Hey, we found someone. They're right down there."
DAN: How-how far are we talking, like, a few feet?
Probably a good 60, 70 feet down.
-Oh, hell no. -So we set up some ropes,
and we rappel down there.
We find this 20-year-old female,
she's sitting right in the middle of all this cactus.
-Cactus needles everywhere on her. -Ugh.
And something's not right with her.
And as I'm assessing her, I actually do notice
that her pelvis might be a little unstable.
She has some pain when we assess that.
So I'm like, "All right, we're gonna
have to move pretty quickly here."
And so I ask for my second rescuer, my rescuer comes down.
We package her up rather quickly, and we get her
extricated and transported to the hospital, and she survived.
DAN:
of rescues or saves that they've had in the past.
It's almost like the first responder
has a very quiet voice, you know,
we don't go around telling people these stories.
-(laughter) -But, yeah, no, I-I get you.
I feel a little better knowing that y'all know
-what you're doing. -(laughter)
-Put ropes together and... -We'll take good care of you.
-All right, come on, let's go do it. -Let's do it.
CRAIG: Here we are.
You guys ready?
Lean back, lean back and walk.
DAN:
we're probably just gonna be lowered down
to this little area to try to see
if we can trick this search dog
into missing us.
Got to start taking steps. Look behind you.
-FINCH: Look behind you. -Look behind you.
DAN: Oh, my God.
I was wrong.
Little did I know, we were actually going
way over the edge of this cliff.
About halfway down, 120-foot drop onto this
itty bitty three-foot landing.
Uh, I'm running out of cliff here.
-FINCH: There you go. Go ahead and stand up. -Ow.
All right, man.
DAN: Now what?
CRAIG: Now we wait.
TITUS: Hey.
I'm really excited about my K-9 finding a patient.
I've never done this before. This is what we're here for.
You know, to do something new.
So, Jen, who is this?
This is Seeker. He's a trailing dog.
Okay, and what makes him a trailing dog?
Uh, he's scent-specific, so he's gonna follow
the matching scent article for the path that someone walked.
That dog's about to teach me something
I never done before.
(commands)
Here we go.
Once Seeker got that scent, he was gone.
It's up to you to keep up with him.
See, his nose is down.
He's definitely tracking.
-Ah, he's going to the gate. -He picked up the fence.
-All right. -So the trail must go this way.
TITUS:
once he locates that particular person that he's looking for,
he's gonna sit down and bark.
(barking)
-There he goes. See, he sat? -Is that the signal?
That is the signal-- he sat and he started barking.
-(barking) -(Dan exhales)
TITUS:
We-we located where the patient was.
Now we got to go get him.
Thank y'all.
-Finch, you're gonna be rescuer one. -Yes, sir.
Titus, you're gonna be rescuer two.
So you'll go over.
Rescue two is going off the side of the cliff with rescue one.
Golly.
Before we go over, what's the game plan right now?
So we're gonna go down there, assess the patient,
-just like you do on your regular calls. -Right.
The only difference is we're on the side of a cliff.
-It's a big difference. -(chuckles)
-You'll get it. -All right.
Craig and-and Finch was there,
so I knew they wasn't gonna let nothing happen to me.
Get the rope on, get the helmet on.
You know, just listen.
This is what we do. We are subject matter experts
-in technical rescue, okay? -Right.
You got a link here, 9,725 pounds, nothing's gonna happen.
-Right... -Now you're one of us.
-All right. I'm one of you. -Okay?
Like, in the back of my mind, I'm telling myself,
"Titus, you can do this."
-Rescuer one ready? -Rescuer one ready.
-Rescuer two, are you ready? -I'm ready.
It's time to go to action.
Lean back, lean back, lean into the-- there you go.
Tension that system, want that rope tight.
-All right, there you go. Keep coming. I got you. -Keep going, keep going.
-Keep looking at me. -You're good.
Now look down, look where your feet are going.
And take a step back.
Austin-Travis County EMS invited us out here
to be a part of a search and rescue evolution
with their special ops team.
And I've been stuck on a tiny ledge for about an hour
waiting on Titus to come rescue me.
(exhales)
Lean back, lean back, lean into the-- there you go.
Tension that system, want that rope tight.
TITUS:
and I'm roped to, like, nine different pulleys.
All right, there you go.
-Keep coming. I got you. -Keep going, keep going.
-Keep looking at me. -You're good.
Now look down, look where your feet are going.
And take a step back. There you go. Good.
TITUS:
they have a whole team that's just lowering me slowly.
Titus, take your hands off the rope.
All the way up, like this. Excellent.
-Aw, like a boss. -Trust that equipment?
Yeah, I trust it.
It takes a bit to get the technique.
I'm coming for you, Dan.
But it's a hurry-up situation.
Very good.
-But, no, I'm caught right here. -All right, hold.
-Hold! Hold! -Hold!
There you go. I got you. I'm coming, man.
-My leg, man. -Yup.
So lift that leg up and over that red rope.
There you go. I'm coming to you.
-Slow lower. -Slow lower!
All right, again, same thing, push off.
There you go.
All right, my hero.
-Look where I'm coming. -I'm coming, Dan, I'm coming!
Got some stickers!
Oh, (bleep).
Three, two, one.
Rescuer one on the ground.
All right, so we can do some assessment.
They opened up this-this awesome rescue bag
that-that Finch carried down on his back.
Everything that you would need
in an emergency, on his back.
Please send down the basket.
The Stokes basket that we use
is a titanium basket. It weighs about 12 pounds.
So it's super lightweight, but it's super strong.
The ropes on the mountain started moving,
and you see this big Stokes basket coming down the cliff,
which is what's used for a rescue.
I did not think they were gonna actually
strap me into that basket,
but that was most certainly the plan.
Whoop, got you.
Oh, (bleep). Oh, (bleep)!
All right, let's do it.
-Set. -DAN:
I mean, literally, like, strapped down in there,
and you can't move anything.
I mean, you are at the mercy
of the ropes and the rescuers at that point.
Stand by. Stop.
DAN: Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
-Doing all right, Dan? -(bleep), no.
Slow haul!
DAN:
He's actually directing the basket with me in it.
-A bad spot. Let's go! -Oh, my God.
So he's making sure that I don't
spin and end up riding face first into the cliff.
That was a scary experience.
Told you we'd make it up top in one piece.
Oh, my God.
Worst, terrifying situation, thing--
can't talk-- thing I've ever been involved in.
Oh, my God.
I feel like if I actually would've had a broken leg,
it may have been healed.
I was so happy to be off that damn cliff.
Haul team ready.
TITUS:
but it's much harder to walk up.
When I saw him come up...
All right, good to go.
Break it out. Let's go.
...like, I felt, like, we had both just climbed Everest.
-Y'all enjoy yourselves? -Dude, did I?
I enjoyed myself. Y'all-- you got me to get over a cliff.
You didn't want to go, did you?
(laughter and indistinct chatter)
Those guys are professionals.
Those guys are amazing, like, I mean,
I am so proud to be colleagues with them.
I know we joke about a lot of things,
but we have had fun with you guys today,
but, y'all, what y'all do here is unbelievable.
-TITUS: It's amazing, man. -Thank you.
And we're very, very humbled
-to have been able to be a part of it with you guys. -Right.
-One of the best things I ever done, bro. -Yeah.
I mean, like, seriously, like, that was it.
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