Man had to be rescued after getting stuck 'head first' in a storm drain

The man got stuck at a home in Low Grange, Billingham, and had to be taken to hospital after Cleveland Fire Brigade was called out.

A meeting on December 21 heard how Stockton Council’s One Call service was first on the scene.

Councillor Ann McCoy said the service had saved lives in the past at the Home Safety Association meeting.

And Paul Bell, from One Call, responded by referring to the case.

He said: “Everyone was congratulated except us who were first on scene. It was a gentleman who’d fallen down a drain head-first.

"It was filling up with water and we got there and managed to get the emergency services. But obviously we weren’t mentioned in the report.”

Coun McCoy said this was a “shame” given the work they did.

She added: “Everybody who works together in partnership ought to get that recognition – we’ll make sure this is in the minutes of this meeting if nothing else to highlight that.”

One Call is a council-run home care service which offers 24/7 help to adults aged over 65 and others.

It offers sensors around homes linked to a unit monitored 365 days of the year to respond should incidents unfold. The idea is the service helps people live safely and independently in their own homes for longer.

Figures on the performance of the service were also offered up to the committee.

A total of 128,544 calls were made to the service between January this year and the end of November – with 98.2 per cent answered within 60 seconds and 99.9% answered in under three minutes.

Its teams attended 5,407 times at homes – with 98.7 per cent visited within 45 minutes.

Almost 2,000 of these cases were to residents who’d fallen – with only 15 per cent of these cases leading to further medical treatment.

Coun McCoy said these were excellent statistics given the staffing pressures the service had faced.

“It demonstrates excellent service from your department,” she added.