A pregnant caller contacted the call handler being filmed for BBC Ambulance after she started bleeding and developing cramps while on the toilet, leading to a heartbreaking miscarriage
A 999 call handler has been praised for the calm and compassionate way she helped a caller in her time of need.
The pregnant caller contacted the emergency services after she went to the toilet and started bleeding. She was also experiencing severe cramps and told the handler that she suspected she was having a miscarriage during the episode of BBC Ambulance.
A snippet of the call was shared on TikTok, where users rallied to praise the call handler for her empathetic demeanour, with one saying “god bless her” and “what a brilliant person”.
During the call, the distressed woman says: “I’m calling you because I’m pregnant. I felt this morning, like some cramps, down there. And then now when I went to the toilet. I just don’t know what it is. I just don’t know if it’s a miscarriage or not.”
The handler checks if the woman is having any “serious bleeding” or serious cramps while on the phone, to which she said she was only suffering cramps.
In an incredibly calm tone, the handler explains: “So I need you to listen to me and do exactly what I ask you to do next.” She goes on to guide the woman through the process of making herself safe by taking towels and laying them underneath herself.
When the woman asks for her to repeat the instruction, the call handler assures her: “It’s fine, don’t worry. We’ll do it together, okay.” While the woman’s husband, who is also on the phone, goes off to fetch the towels, the call handler tries to put her at ease, saying: “Please don’t worry.”
She’s asked about the cramping and reassures the woman, who she calls “sweetheart”, that the steps they’re taking are to help in case of the “worst case scenario”. She guides the woman to put the towel under her bottom and to lay back down, adding that it’s “very important you don’t sit up”.
Before she ends the call so that a paramedic can speak to the caller directly, she tells her: “Alright sweetheart, you do that. You’re doing absolutely brilliantly.”
After the call ends, the call handler says: “That was awful. That was absolutely f*****g awful.” I got like, I got so stuck. The heartbreak in her voice. She just sounded like so innocent and just so like, she didn’t know what to do.”
The call handler goes on to explain why the call affected her so much, explaining that when she was 21 she found out she was pregnant and carrying twins. When she was nine weeks pregnant, she was out shopping when she suffered a miscarriage of her own.
In the comment section, TikTokers applauded the woman’s demeanour as they also shared their own traumatic experiences of miscarriage. One wrote: “What a brilliant person god bless her. the lady on the phone will never forget your kindness in this situation. thank you!!”
Another woman said: “The female doctor that confirmed my daughter had passed at 25 weeks was heartless. She left me traumatised.”
A third woman shared her experience, saying: “The female doctor that confirmed my daughter had passed at 25 weeks was heartless. She left me traumatised.”