Captions by Red
Captions by Red Bee
OSHER GUNSBERG: On Bondi Rescue...
Come in, please!
Naughty, naughty!
..Harries meets his match.
(HARRIES LAUGHS)
New Year's Day, when celebrations go wrong.
I'm gonna take you up to the tower.
This guy is the drunkest I've seen in quite a long time.
And... (HORN TOOTS)
Hey, hey! Hey! Move, move! Move!
I get this call. There's a baby dead up on the road.
..a tiny baby,
no breath, no pulse.
(TEARFULLY) I've got this baby in front of me.
Everything was that moment.
SONG: # Take me back to the
# Sweet times, the hot nights
# Everything is gonna be alright
# In the summertime
# Baby, in the summertime
# That is where I'll be. #
(FUNKY MUSIC)
(MEN CHEER)
New Year's Eve.
Despite the weather, lifeguards anticipate
one of the busiest days of the season.
But some things they can't anticipate.
(AIR HISSES) (GROANS)
Flat tyre on New Year's Eve? That's the last thing we need.
Luckily, Beardy knows what he's doing.
After I left school, I did my trade as a mechanic
and unfortunately, I broke my back surfing.
And then, yep, bit hard to do that with that sort of injury.
And started training with lifeguards
that were my mates working down here
and I started on the lifeguards.
Our buggies...are some...are vital.
Like, they've saved so many people over the years
just through getting access to them quicker.
Yep, we're good to go.
Been a long time since I've been in the workshop,
but I definitely know where I wanna be, and it's on the beach.
As lifeguards prepare for New Year chaos,
Harries is gearing up for a celebration of his own.
It's New Year's Eve,
and in the new year, I'll hit my milestone
of rescuing 6,000 people.
I've got 124 to go.
It's a great achievement for me.
(TENSE MUSIC)
Harries spots a swimmer stuck in a rip just 20m from shore.
Come in, please!
Come back in.
Naughty, naughty!
She's been a little naughty, naughty.
She's not swimming between the red-and-yellow flags.
(PLAYFUL MUSIC)
You have to swim hard.
Naughty, naughty. She's with a surfer.
So I reckon she's OK at this stage.
She's getting tired, mate.
Not gonna make it, eh?
Like most people that enter in a rip,
they have to get rescued by a lifeguard.
(HARRIES LAUGHS)
WOMAN: I've never had this.
Thank you too.
She tells me she's from Canberra.
I know the politicians can talk under water,
but this lady can literally talk under water.
A little bit like myself.
Just try my daughter. This one here.
Four hours and I haven't got in.
Thanks. I was calling you for help.
Your mum was in a bit of trouble out in the water.
And my husband's somewhere betting on horses, so he's gone.
He's betting on horses? Never trust a man!
(HARRIES LAUGHS) I nearly died!
Like, hello! I'm a man!
You should trust me, I just saved you.
I'm only here for her - I wanna be in Darling Harbour right now
in the middle of the fireworks, but she wanted to come here.
And look at her, she's dry as! (GIRLS LAUGH)
15-year-olds. Anyone would like them, they're both available.
(GIRLS LAUGH)
Thanks! Thank you!
(HARRIES LAUGHS)
This is the real thing!
This is the real thing.
It's not a spray tan, this is the real thing!
Where am I from? From Bondi!
I've got no time to go get a spray.
(LAUGHS)
But there's nothing wrong with
a spray every now and again, by the way.
Last rescue of the year.
It's a good one.
As lifeguards clock off,
the countdown to midnight is on.
Hardcore partygoers kick on through the night
to catch the first dawn of the new year.
MAN: Happy New Year!
(BRIGHT MUSIC)
Harrison has been rostered on an hour early.
After 10 years in the job, he's seen his share of New Year's shenanigans.
Lifeguarding down here,
a lot of intoxicated people are gonna go for a swim.
A few have a big night, they sleep it off
and they've been in the sun all morning.
You really don't know what's gonna happen.
Hey!
Happy New Year!
There we go.
Morning's just begun.
(PEOPLE CHEER)
Happy New Year, Bondi!
By midday, the mercury has hit 26 degrees Celsius
as the massive recovery party cranks up.
On the sand, heat and hangovers are taking their toll.
Sophia, what we're gonna do is I'm gonna get you up,
I'm gonna get you in the buggy
and we're gonna take you up to the tower.
And that way we can look after you a bit better
rather than have you in the hot sun on the beach, yeah?
Sophia, she had a bit too much to drink last night.
The oxygen's already starting to make you look a bit better. Yeah.
The biggest concern is intoxicated swimmers.
We all know that alcohol and the water are just not a good mixture.
Like, it can just be a recipe for disaster.
Just a guy that...looks pretty intoxicated.
Just...struggling to stay afloat on the bodyboard.
Alcohol is banned on Bondi Beach,
but sometimes that's difficult to police.
I just notice this guy acting really strangely.
He's really just trying to wrestle with his bodyboard.
And I just take a moment to look at him
and I go, "Something's not right there."
Joel's just gone out to have a word with him
or just save him, even, I think.
MAN:
JOEL:
MAN:
This guy actually is
probably the drunkest I've seen in quite a long time.
No, mate. No, mate. Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop.
On a busy day, this is the last thing we need.
We need to be focusing on the other swimmers,
not just this one gentleman.
MAN: Yeah.
So I realised trying to be serious with this guy,
it's just not gonna work - he doesn't wanna listen to me.
So I think in the back of my head, "Let's make this a bit of a game."
I say, "Come on, buddy. Let's have a race back to shore."
Come on.
And just like I'm at home, dealing with my own kids.
MAN:
JOEL:
With the man safely back on shore,
Joel can go back to patrolling the hundreds of other swimmers.
Oh, he's gone back out in the water! Oh, my goodness.
This guy is starting to turn into a bit of a nightmare.
It's Groundhog Day for Joel
as he tries to evict a heavily intoxicated swimmer from the water.
I've just spend the last 15 minutes
trying to coax this guy back to shore
and now he's gone back out.
Hey, buddy. Come on, mate. Come on.
MAN:
I'm back out there
and now I'm starting to get just a little bit more, like,
"Come on, mate. We need to get you back to shore.
"We need to get you off the beach. You're starting to be a pest."
I don't wanna lose my patience, but it's hard to keep your cool.
And the reality is he's taking me away from
watching everybody else on the beach.
I shake his hand. I think he's got it this time.
Yeah, sweet. See ya later.
The lifeguard thought I was drowning.
I was having a laugh. First time riding the boogie board.
The 25-year-old man has no idea
how lucky he is.
Now he has two reasons to celebrate.
Have a bit of a laugh and go to work tomorrow.
(RELAXED MUSIC)
Happy New Year!
This is our family.
This one's our son, Kevin.
We've got the fireman one, which is my dad.
When we come away, when we travel,
these ducks go everywhere on our travels.
The children, they can see the pictures.
We show them the photographs and let them know,
"You've been on Bondi Beach on New Year's Day."
(LAUGHS)
(TENSE MUSIC)
There's nowhere to move.
It's high tide. Can't really manoeuvre the buggy.
So...we're gonna have to be on our game.
It's really testing conditions this afternoon down south.
By late afternoon... Hey!
..lifeguards are plucking people out of the water
almost by the minute.
Grab the board. Grab the board. Here. Here.
Beardy rescues a man well out of his depth.
That's it. Go in.
(WHISTLES)
Then at Backpackers, it's Harrison's turn.
Two swimmers are in trouble.
One swimmer's T-shirt reads 'Korea Army'.
HARRISON:
Right now, he's gone to battle with a rip.
HARRISON:
MAN:
HARRISON:
I was paddling out and all I saw was the 'Korean Army' on the back.
(CHUCKLES) They're definitely not the Navy SEALs.
By 7pm,
lifeguards have worked a 13-hour shift
and rescued dozens of people.
Please get out of the water.
Thank you.
It's time to knock off,
but the beach is still swarming.
HARRIES: It's an extremely busy day on the beach
and we can't leave.
We're just trying to pack up, we're trying to do P.A. announcements.
We're still trying to watch the water.
And then I get this call.
Across the railing, a guy screams out and says,
"Harries, there's a baby dead up on the road."
(OVER RADIO)
Where?
It's New Year's Day.
We've given our absolute all.
And that fatigue level is quite high.
And you've gotta be calm when someone calls out like that
and you've gotta lift - you've gotta lift for the occasion.
(TENSE MUSIC)
HARRIES:
(TOOTS HORN)
Hey, hey, hey!
Move, move, move. Move, move, move, move!
Harries has grabbed a defibrillator and oxygen kit.
When I'm running up,
the guy says the baby's just been laying there for a fair while.
So, you know, I'm just trying to stay calm at this stage.
I'm just trying to take deep breaths.
If it is a baby,
this is the most important thing ever.
Survival of life for a child
surpasses anything I've ever done in my career.
On New Year's Day,
lifeguards have come to the end of a punishing 13-hour shift.
Then a major emergency.
A guy screams out.
He says, "Harries, there's a baby dead up on the road."
Harrison backs up.
You know it's serious because there's bystanders in the park
just pointing, "That way, that way."
What have we got?
You know, you're preparing for the worst.
(SIREN WAILS)
And all of a sudden, I see this baby just on the road.
The baby showed no signs of life. It was not breathing.
(WOMAN SOBS)
The baby has reportedly fallen on its head from a height,
but it's unclear how.
(INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTER)
The patient is an 8-week-old boy.
At this stage, the baby is clinically dead.
His father can only watch on.
The father was literally on top of me, and...
To be a father and look up at him
and to see water coming out of his eyes...
You know, a dad to a dad...
..you just wanna give it your all.
(WAILS)
The baby's mother is unable to watch.
Resuscitating a tiny baby
presents major challenges.
BEARDY: We go to pull the defib out and I see
a baby that is so small
that it stops me instantly.
Lifeguards must urgently administer manual CPR.
I did have an obstacle, that there was a head trauma and a hip trauma
but I just had to get breaths into that baby.
Generally, I would have picked the baby up and gone for it.
Lifeguards decide to ventilate the baby
with a bag mask and oxygen.
Harries was in there to quickly adapt
our oxy kit down to an infant size.
We've only ever done that in training.
There was no time to think. It's just do.
(WAILS)
I knew that I had to get breaths back into that baby.
(MOTHER SOBS)
All those rescues that I've done, nearly 6,000 rescues,
over 70 resuscitations on these beaches
of people that have been clinically dead,
it comes down to this one moment.
After the third breath of breathing that baby up,
I started to see the rise and fall of the baby's chest.
Oh, my God, this is so...
This is working, this is effective, what I'm doing,
giving these rescue breaths to the baby.
But it's not out of the woods.
It still had a massive trauma.
Two critical minutes of care has brought the baby back to life
when the paramedics arrive.
Paramedics now need to get a cannula into the baby.
They needed to get a line into this baby.
And one way they can get a straight line
is actually going through... using a drill
and going into the bone marrow, into the shin.
And so they can get...administer drugs in there straightaway.
Watching all the paramedics, seeing how calm and...
The wealth of knowledge they have is...is incredible.
The baby still needs assistance to breathe.
Lifeguards and paramedics hope for more signs of improvement.
The worst thing about... with a baby is
you want to hear them cry.
You know, it's actually concerning when there's no noise.
We still didn't have that baby responding at that stage.
After around the eighth, ninth breath...
(BABY CRIES)
..I hear the baby...cry.
(BABY CRIES)
To hear this baby scream
was just the greatest moment ever.
(BABY CRIES)
(SIRENS WAIL)
New Year's Day, and lifeguards have just
brought an 8-week-old baby boy back to life.
(BABY CRIES)
It was a miracle, really. It was a New Year's Day miracle, you know?
And... Far out.
Yeah, it's... (LAUGHS)
That's 10 New Year's Days down here,
but I tell you what, that's one I'll never forget.
To see the look on Harrison's face
and to see the look on Beardy's face,
this was real, this was raw, this was rare.
It doesn't matter if you're a battle-hardened soldier,
it's going to affect you.
You've gotta bring out your A-game.
It's going to test you to your core.
And there was so much going through my mind.
Of course, like, my two boys. Like...
My world.
And then...
..there's a lot more that affects me that...
I lost my father, like, six months ago.
And all of a sudden, like, I've got this baby.
I've lost someone that's elderly and I've got this baby in front of me.
And I...and I'm thinking I've lost my father,
but here's my chance to have an infant,
to give this child a new life.
Everything was that moment.
But the baby may not be out of danger yet.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC)
A Special Casualty Access Team, known as SCAT,
arrives to help assess any head trauma.
And incredible seeing that chopper coming
and just landed straightaway on the golf course.
On the Toll chopper as well, they've actually got a doctor.
All hands were on deck for this incident.
Intensive Care paramedics handed over to the SCAT team
and they treat the baby.
They loaded the little boy straight in
to get him straight to the kid's hospital.
(SIRENS WAIL)
Not long after,
lifeguards get news the baby is likely to pull through
without major complications.
Oh...
That was, for me...
..the greatest moment in my career.
Getting those breaths in was everything.
Mate. Lifeless baby, poor thing. That was gnarly.
Without Harries working on that baby...
You know, he saved that baby's life.
(LAUGHS) Pretty bloody special.
Good work, mate. We did good work.
I can't commend our team...
..more from what we're up against
than in situations and incidents
where we have to deal and we're faced with
the resuscitation of an 8-week-old baby is crazy.
It's an amazing effort by Harries, Harrison.
You know, all of us that turned up.
It's...it's very unfortunate, but I'm really proud of the team.
It's good. It's amazing.
Hopefully one day, that little bub will come down
and he'll be a little boy
and maybe he'll even be a lifeguard one day
and he'll remember what we did for him.
It's all part of what we do down here.
We just do it 'cause we love it.
And we're good at it.
Next time...
Conditions are rough. It's like a washing machine out there.
..an entire family fights for their lives...
Everyone was frantic.
..and a race to find a fallen man.
I don't know whether I'm gonna find someone at the bottom of the rocks
or someone sitting there, hopefully, alive.