Episode 13 Countryside 999

From the Highlands of Scotland to the coast of Cornwall,

the great British countryside is spectacular.

But we work and play in it at our peril.

And when things go wrong,

the emergency services race to the rescue...

He's come off and he's got his leg trapped underneath it.

Oh, man. Oh, this is a nightmare.

..going hundreds of miles against the clock,

battling the elements

and braving the waves.

From the Welsh valleys to winding country roads,

we'll be right at the heart of the action with police fighting crime...

I am tinkering on seizing the vehicle.

..paramedics saving lives...

and lifeguards patrolling the seas.

We're there as the emergency services pull together

to pick up, patch up and protect the public.

This is Countryside 999.

Coming up, in Cornwall

the lifeguards are up against it during the busy festival season.

I'm going to recommend that you go to the A&E

because you might have to have that glued.

The air ambulances scramble to a case where time is critical.

An 83-year-old female having a heart attack.

And in the Scottish Borders,

paramedics are in demand at the races.

Tyrone, lie still.

In the summer months,

the British countryside is a magnet for tourists and sightseers.

And summertime means festival season...

..another reason for day trippers to head

out to the country in their droves.

Just because it's rural doesn't mean it's all haystacks and horses.

In Cornwall, surf's up for the adrenaline-fuelled

Boardmasters Festival.

Newquay's world-renowned waves make it the perfect location

for this five-day surfing, skateboarding and biking bonanza.

This seaside resort sees over a million holiday makers each year.

And the festival brings in 10,000 extra visitors every day.

Safeguarding the surfers as well as the bucket-and-spade brigade

is a team of RNLI lifeguards.

To cope with the extra numbers, the team has doubled to 12.

One of them is local lad Nick Pendrick, AKA Pinners.

This lifeguarding looks like a lot of fun,

cruising the waves on a jet ski and patrolling the beach

in a four-wheel-drive truck.

But it's a serious job when there are lives at risk.

SPEAKER SCRAMBLES

If you're swimming, body boarding or bathing,

you need to be in the centre of the two red and yellow flags. Thank you.

WHISTLE BLOWS

Pinners is a student paramedic and came up through life-saving clubs

before qualifying as a lifeguard.

He's spent a lot of time watching the waves

and knows how quickly people can get into difficulty.

So far, so good today. No rescues is always a good day.

Newquay is tucked away on the Cornish peninsula,

one country road in, one country road out.

And it's on Newquay's Fistral Beach

where the event's surf action takes place.

But where there's boards, there's bruises.

Surfer Andy is making his way to the lifeguard station.

He's had a close encounter with a surfboard.

Take a seat. Cool.

Let's have a look what you've done.

-Does that sting there?

-No.

-No.

Because there's definitely a lump there.

Can't tell whether that's a cut or not.

Right, I'll get some tissue, clean up the majority of the blood,

-give it a wipe and then we'll see what we need to do from there, OK?

-All right.

But it wasn't his board he came up against. It was his friend Dave's.

Andy just got a wave, fell off,

and my board was next to him

and he fell straight on the nose and split his eyebrow open,

which isn't great, obviously.

Just getting him bandaged up now.

-I'm just going to give that a wipe, OK?

-Yeah, mate, don't be shy.

Just clean it up, sort it out.

-There's a cut there and cut there. So we've got two cuts.

-Yeah.

Surfing is a dangerous sport, mate.

I'm going to recommend that you go to the A&E

because you might have to have that glued.

How are we going to stop it bleeding?

We're going to put a bandage on and we're going to block this eye up.

-Have you guys got transport to the local A&E?

-Yeah, yeah.

It's a lucky escape.

Just a few centimetres to the right

and the board could've had his eye out.

-Nice little story for you to go home with, though, isn't it?

-Yeah.

He's going to have some scars, some war wounds, but, yeah.

I don't know what his missus is going to say,

but there you go, happy days.

I'm just going to try and seal this bandage.

Are you sure this isn't a little bit overkill?

If I seal the bandage off then the blood doesn't come off.

Don't worry, you can look on the bright side.

I think it looks better anyway. Better look.

Right, shall we give you a clean-up now?

You can carry it off, mate.

But as they head off,

Nick's called to a serious incident down on the beach.

A girl has had a spinal injury because she's been hit in the head

by a board and we're going to go down and see what is going on.

The lifeguards have got the surfer-friendly beaches covered,

but Cornwall's a huge county.

With over 400 miles of rugged coastline

and many remote communities,

it needs specialist emergency services...

..like the Cornwall Air Ambulance.

It's agile, speedy, and it saves lives.

This hi-tech service manned by paramedics from

the South Western Ambulance Service

has been running for 26 years.

Today, air paramedic Mick MacLachlan is taking a call.

Goodbye.

We're off to Liskeard.

They've given us an 83-year-old female having a heart attack.

There's no time to waste.

From their base in Newquay,

the helicopter will fly east to the town of Liskeard.

It's 23 miles as the crow flies.

But at an average speed of 140mph,

this machine covers the ground in less than ten minutes,

and every minute counts for heart-attack patients.

Today, Mick is joined on board by air paramedic Mark Fuszard.

Both are trained in advanced trauma life support.

We're off to Liskeard, which is

east of where we've just departed, east of the county.

An 83-year-old female

who's been diagnosed with having a heart attack.

With a third of heart attacks in the UK proving fatal,

Mark knows the situation is serious.

Is it right in the centre, is it?

-Not far away.

-There's a rugby ground there, isn't there?

-Castle Pleasure Park is where they're bringing her to.

-Oh, OK.

-Which doesn't ring any bells with me.

-No, nor me, neither.

There is a need to get her into hospital fairly quickly.

We have paramedics on scene which have treated her,

but now we need to be involved

due to the rapid transport to...to hospital.

There's two cars on the scene.

-They did have an ambulance running to them.

-OK.

As an aircrew paramedic, we pretty much have the basic skills

that they do as a road ambulance paramedic.

But how this job differs is obviously in the way

we take patients to hospital.

We have to be able to navigate a little better

than you would on a road ambulance.

We haven't got the sat-nav capability that you would have

on a road ambulance, so it's back to basics, back to maps.

It's slightly different when we land at the job.

We can't land right outside the patient's front door

like you could with a road ambulance. So we land in a field,

we land in a football field, and we land on beaches.

I'm assuming it's that park bang on the nose.

That would be right with the grid.

Is that the grade for the scene?

Two cars, they were just very close.

There's the two cars down there, at three o'clock.

Paramedics Mark and Mick work with pilot Mark Woodward

to find the best landing spot.

This chopper can land in a space as small as a tennis court,

but this time the team are looking for a park.

Three pairs of eyes speed up the job.

We've got good access from the bottom right-hand corner

as we're looking at it.

Someone is walking up the little access route there.

Just check it is that park. I'm quite happy with the park.

I think that's looking good.

And then we've just got a little transit from where the cars are,

right to the corner of that field.

Looking good access.

It's a team effort.

Mick checks in with the ground crew already on the scene.

Hello, there. It's Mick on Helimed. We're just overhead scene now.

We've identified the park and notice you're still on scene.

Do you need assistance at the house or will we meet you

-down at the park, over?

-Yeah, we will need assistance.

We will put down and we will come along to see,

and come up with a cunning plan, over.

-You happy for landing, are you?

-Yeah.

-Thanks.

But at the last minute, pilot Mark spots a problem.

OK, there is a couple of people right in the middle of the park.

I gather the son has come up to meet us at the park,

so hopefully one of them is him.

My approach is going to take me

pretty much over the top of those people.

Mark must avoid landing too close to the people who've come to meet them.

Can we see a good way out there?

There is a good path there, Mick.

Top right and top left.

OK, clear.

If one of you could jump out as soon as we land.

Roger that. I'll do that.

Good to your right. Well clear, no wires to affect.

Dog walkers. Which side of the park do you want?

That side, where they are.

This chap here is waiting for us.

Still good to your right.

OK, I'm going outside the right door. Good to go there, Mark?

OK, we're off.

What's that? 9:02 we landed.

The patient's son, David, meets them as they land.

He's doing all he can to get his mum the help she needs.

Just show us which way to go.

Later, Nick finds the patient, Elizabeth,

is so ill she can barely respond.

-Elizabeth. Can you hear me, ma'am?

-Mm?

-Do you have any pain at the moment, my love?

-Mm?

Do you have any pain at the moment?

Back on Cornwall's north coast...

..lifeguards patrol the surf of Fistral Beach in Newquay.

They need to be vigilant to ensure the safety of the families

and fun-seekers who visit every summer.

In 2012, they dealt with almost 100 incidents.

Today, one of Europe's biggest

surf, skateboard and BMX festivals is under way.

The impressive displays and competitions

mean visitor numbers soar.

Both the beach and water are super busy,

keeping the lifeguards on their toes.

Let's have a look at what you've done.

Earlier, Pinners patched up surfer Andy's head

after he had been hit by his friend's surfboard.

But, after sending the patient to A&E,

Pinners was called to an emergency on the beach.

RADIO CHATTER

It sounds nasty.

A lifeguard patrolling in the truck down at the water's edge

has radioed for a spinal rescue board.

A girl's had a spinal injury cos she has been hit in the head

by a board and we're going to go down and see what's going on.

With any spinal injury, it's vital the patient is immobilised

as soon as possible and taken to the nearest hospital.

-What's your name?

-Georgie.

-Hi, Georgie. Right, I'm Nick.

I'm one of your lifeguards and this is Simon.

Simon is a paramedic at the event.

The lifeguard who reached Georgie first

has fitted her with a neck brace.

An out-of-control surfboard has hit her on the head.

Event medic Simon Denman has been drafted in

as specialist backup during the busy festival.

-Just stiff?

-Yeah.

-OK.

No tenderness in the centre of her neck is a good sign,

indicating it's not a spinal injury.

That's OK.

OK.

-Thank you.

-All right?

On our arrival at the scene, they were treating,

rightly so, for worst-case scenario.

She was able to mobilise her neck fully,

which meant that she could basically put her chin to her chest

and rotate her head 45 degrees each way with no eliciting of extra pain.

And the pain that she did have was to the side of her neck,

which led us to believe it was just a muscular injury.

RADIO CHATTER

Today's choppy seas have left the sand uneven.

Taking it slowly means Georgie

gets a smoother ride to the lifeguard station.

Now Simon can examine her more thoroughly.

Right, your blood pressure's absolutely fine.

Your heart is pounding away quite a bit.

It's probably more due to the...

Probably the pain is going to bring it up a little bit

and the fact that you're nervous as well. All right? But...

So you got no blurred vision, not knocked out or anything like that.

Your neck's going to ache a little bit.

Where you've been hit, OK, you've got no marks,

no visible lumps or bumps there.

I think it is just an isolated blunt injury

that hasn't damaged the neck, anything like that.

Your heart rate, although a little high, it's not dramatically high.

-I don't think you're going to collapse on us.

-OK!

-All right?

'Injuries like this girl's,'

the energy involved in this isn't as much as someone being hit by a car.

The surfboard wouldn't be moving very fast

and, by the nature and design of a surfboard,

it's light because it has to float.

There's not a huge amount of weight

and not a huge amount of speed behind it,

so there is not as much concern. You still...

always think of the worst-case scenario and work your way back.

Relief all round. Georgie's ordeal is over.

Later, the festival keeps drawing in the crowds

and Simon's called to another damsel in distress.

It looks dislocated from here, sort of thing. You know it does.

-How is the pain?

-Bad.

Coming up...the air ambulance crew reach 83-year-old Elizabeth.

Thrills and spills at a festival in Cornwall

when a skateboarder bails mid-stunt.

We'll have you off to have an X-ray.

But first, in the Scottish Borders, there's a jockey down.

-How's your neck?

-What's on my legs? Agh!

BIRDSONG

Dumfries and Galloway in Southwest Scotland.

2,500 square miles of rich, rolling countryside.

The population of just 150,000 swells in the summer

as tourists flock to explore the landscape.

One way to enjoy the views is from the saddle.

Today, horses and riders

have gathered in the small market town of Langholm

for the annual Common Riding and races.

The festivities attract thousands of people to the town

for a traditional family day out.

But over 150 horses and large crowds of onlookers

make for an interesting mix.

Paramedic John West has travelled 30 miles from Dumfries

to be there just in case.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

The extra support is good news for local paramedic Greg Hanson.

This is an annual event.

It's particularly of interest to the ambulance service

because the number of people in the town

on this specific date multiplies severalfold.

This creates a far higher demand on the services

than we normally see.

The best-case scenario is, today, that we have a quiet day,

that people stay on their horses and enjoy their day.

Worse-case scenario is that they don't stay on their horses!

It's an event that began as a way of marking

the boundaries of the town's common land.

Nowadays, over 150 riders, big and small,

gallop through the streets of Langholm.

We're gan' frae the toon

And first of a'

I'll cry the Langholm Fair...

A horseback proclamation is just one of the spectacles

of this 250-year-old tradition.

..the proclamation of the Langholm Fair upon the Castle Craigs.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Hooves on tarmac can be a tricky combination

and the noise and excitement could easily spook the horses.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

But they make it through the town safely.

Next, they head to the local racecourse,

where the horses can go at full gallop.

Paramedic Greg knows the challenges of the festival all too well.

You can see from the left-hand side,

there's people that spill onto the road,

they've got absolutely no intention of moving anyplace.

This is Langholm's day and they treat the main road really as theirs.

This is typical.

Narrow roads, more traffic parked in them

than perhaps we'd normally expect on an average Friday,

just because of the increased number of people in the town.

The worst-case scenario, really, is we've got to get the police

and get cars moved or, indeed, find an alternative way around.

And that can lead to delays.

There are almost a million horses owned in the UK

and riding accidents can be very serious.

Especially when you're going as fast as this.

Right, guys, can I get in here?

Aye, sorry, he's a paramedic and I'm an A&E nurse.

Paramedic John is called to a fallen jockey.

Who is this young gentleman?

-Tyrone.

-This is Tyrone.

-Tyrone. I'm John.

Silly question, are you sore anywhere?

How's your neck?

What about your shoulders or nothing like that?

Tyrone's been thrown to the ground

as his horse slipped coming into the final straight.

He's conscious but he's fallen from a height at speed,

so his injuries could be serious.

-Just leave them. Just leave them.

-Tyrone, lie still.

Earlier, air paramedics Mick McLachlan and Mark Fuszard

flew to a call in Liskeard in the east of Cornwall.

83-year-old Elizabeth has collapsed with a suspected heart attack.

There is need to get her into hospital fairly quickly.

We have paramedics on scene but now we need rapid transport to hospital.

The Helimed has landed and Elizabeth's son, David,

helps the crew reach his mum quickly.

-Ground crew paramedics were first on the scene.

-Hello there.

Hello, Rob, you all right?

Hello. Hello, my dear.

Elizabeth lives on her own and has a panic button.

When she pressed it, her son, David, raced to his mum's side.

Sat at her computer, went all clammy and wet, then that was it.

Sat in there, then pushed her lifeline.

They called me and I've just rushed right round.

So...

She was fine this morning, running round Morrisons,

brought her home, had lunch.

And now, look. Here we are.

Elizabeth is in her 80s.

If she is suffering a heart attack,

the sooner she gets to hospital, the better the chance of survival.

Elizabeth. Can you hear me, ma'am?

Hello. My name's Mick.

-She's very, very deaf.

-She's very deaf? OK.

VERY deaf.

LOUDLY: Elizabeth?

My name's Mick. We're just going to pop you up to the hospital, OK?

And the quickest way to do that is in a helicopter.

My colleagues are just getting a stretcher in the house for you.

We're going to lift you up onto the stretcher

and just pop you up the road into the helicopter

and whisk you away to Derriford, OK, my love?

ELIZABETH MUMBLES

Where is she going? A&E?

She's barely conscious, which is a worrying sign.

They need to get her to Derriford,

one of the largest hospitals in the south-west.

Around a 30-minute drive from Liskeard,

it's less than ten minutes by air.

The reason these patients are having a heart attack

is there is a blockage in the coronary artery.

That coronary is not getting blood to that part of the heart muscle

and that heart muscle is starting to die off.

We need to reperfuse that part of the heart

by unblocking that coronary,

thus making sure that the blood supply to the heart is resumed.

Because, as that heart muscle is dying,

the heart isn't functioning quite as well.

The longer that goes on,

the less chance that heart will have of functioning properly again.

-Do you have any pain at the moment, my love?

-Mm?

Do you have any pain at the moment?

Elizabeth has recently been unwell.

She went up to the hospital a couple of weeks ago in an ambulance.

-Her heart rate was 161, it peaked at.

-OK.

-And they said she had a bit of an irregular heartbeat.

-Right.

You said she's been to the doctor's this morning.

And she's just had a urine test and that came back clear as well,

so she was quite made up this morning.

Plus she's lost eight pounds.

She's lost about eight pounds, did you say?

-Yeah, she has been on a diet.

-Right, OK.

-Yeah.

Mick and the ground crew must work together to move Elizabeth.

-Everyone got a bit?

-Yeah.

-You all right there, Rob? Ready, set, lift.

She's seriously ill and needs specialist care.

-Just lean back for me.

-Just come around this way a little bit.

-All right?

-Yeah, yeah, I'll just...

ELIZABETH MOANS

Don't worry, we'll soon have you laid down.

Ready, set, lift.

There we go.

-Elizabeth, how are you feeling at the moment, my love?

-Hm?

How's that discomfort in your chest? How is it at the moment?

Well, basically,

it appears that Elizabeth is having a heart attack, OK?

Her heart rate's slowed right down

because of the damage to her heart muscle.

And, because of that, she's slightly compromised.

Blood pressure's not quite as high as it should be.

So she's conscious and alert

and aware of what's going on, but very drowsy.

The downside of that is it slightly limits...

We have to be careful what pain relief we give her

cos her blood pressure is so low.

And one of the side-effects of morphine is it drops down.

But the faster she gets to the hospital, you know,

the better the result, so...

-Out of the way, guys.

-Quick, quick.

Back at the park, the Helimed's attracting attention.

If you land in public places, it's...

it's always a complete nightmare cos, you know,

the school holidays, weekends, stuff like that, you know,

you get lots of people coming out.

You know, there was one person in the park

when we were approaching to land.

now there's, I don't know, a couple of hundred.

Right, we're just going to raise you up there, Elizabeth.

You stay nice and still.

Slide, ready? Slide. OK, and down.

As the crew gets Elizabeth on board, pilot Mark deals with the crowds.

Can I ask you to go right back? Right back, please.

Right back.

-She's had three lots of atropine.

-OK.

Mark makes sure Elizabeth is comfortable.

Elizabeth? Elizabeth?

Open your eyes. Can you hear me? Can you talk to me?

-Have we made you comfortable?

-Mm?

Are you warm enough? You're warm enough.

We are going to fly you to Derriford,

we are only probably going to be a few minutes before we get there.

The Helimed takes off but Elizabeth is in a critical state.

The sooner she gets to hospital, the better.

Back in Newquay and the beach is buzzing.

It's the Boardmasters Festival, swelling the August crowds.

And the casualties keep on coming.

Earlier, festival medic Simon Denman treated an unlucky festival-goer

with a suspected spinal injury.

Away from the shore, there's also plenty of action.

Simon's making his way to the security cabin.

'Scuse, guys.

'Scuse.

But the crowds are slowing him down.

He's been called to a girl with a dislocated shoulder

who's in a lot of pain.

Hello.

-So, what's your name, first of all?

-Bex.

Bex, what's happened?

Right, so you've dislocated it before. And what normally happens?

-You normally have to go to hospital to get it put back in?

-Yeah.

So it's...? Yeah, posterior dislocation.

So we'll have a little look but...

..it looks dislocated from here, sort of thing. You know it does.

-How's the pain?

-Bad.

-Bad? What do you normally have for it?

Bex is putting on a brave face.

She has a painful condition called hypermobility,

which means her joints can pop out of their sockets.

Simon gives her gas and air to take the edge off the pain.

But she needs a stronger painkiller and hospital treatment.

Yeah, she's fully conscious, GCS 15, it's an isolated injury.

No, no blood loss, it's a closed injury.

She's previously dislocated it before and it's a posterior dislocation.

Yeah, no worries. Thank you. Bye-bye.

What I'm going to do is put a little needle in her arm,

and give her some morphine, just to take the edge off the pain.

That'll also help with the spasming

that's causing some of the pain as well.

So hopefully get her a bit more comfortable

for her transport to hospital.

-Make sure we've got everything ready.

-Oh, no. I'm terrible with needles.

-You're terrible with needles?

-Want me to hold your hand?

-Yeah!

SHE LAUGHS

On top of the pain, Bex now needs to face up to the needle.

Fortunately for her, help is at hand...

..from a friendly security guard.

The next thing we're going to give you is a little bit of morphine.

So what we do is we mix the morphine with nine mil of saline.

It means we can easily, you know, choose what dose we're giving you.

-Her ambulance is here, mate.

-OK, so the cavalry's arrived.

-Starting to ease off at all?

-A little bit.

-A little bit.

-Not a lot.

-Good. Good.

With the pain relief kicking in,

Bex's journey to A&E should be more comfortable.

She faces a 15-mile ambulance ride

along country roads congested with holiday traffic.

Just getting out of Newquay is a challenge.

Back on the beach, surf's up

and the surfing competitions are in full swing.

Away from the waves,

it's the cyclist and skateboarders who are thrilling the crowds.

But all these sports bring their fair share of injuries.

19-year-old skateboarder Jake has come off his board mid-stunt.

It's another job for Simon.

There's obviously quite a bit of swelling there.

Can you move it, can you bend it up?

-Yeah.

-Push my hand down.

-Push, push, push.

-There it's starting to hurt.

-All right.

Any pain down the front at all?

It's, like, sending pain towards there.

When you went over on it today, was it just impact?

The guy's board went straight into my ankle.

Right, so it was an impact into the side of your ankle.

Chances are, because you can't weight-bear on it...

it's going to be off to have an X-ray.

-So we need to get you up to Minor Injury Unit.

-Yeah.

Because you can't weight-bear at all,

the rules are such that it needs an X-ray.

Despite the injuries,

it seems Jake just can't get enough of his skateboard.

I was just skating the ramp.

I shouldn't have been skating on it, really,

because I had a previous injury on my ankle

where I've just hyper-extended it.

I was just coming back down the ramp and another guy lost his balance,

came flying towards me, we kind of crossed paths

and I kind of just hit my ankle right into his skateboard,

and that just agitated it again.

Think I'm just going to grab a beer and head up to the hospital.

Ah, beer. Now there's one sedative Simon doesn't carry in his kit bag.

And that skateboard makes a handy crutch.

Whether he should be skating again

or whether he will be skating again are two separate things.

I wouldn't have thought it's advisable to skate again soon

but I expect he'll probably be back on it this afternoon.

In south-west Scotland, Langholm's annual Common Riding Festival

draws thousands of visitors every year.

But as the racing gets under way, a jockey takes a nasty fall.

-Right, guys, can I get in here?

-He's a paramedic and I'm an A&E nurse.

-Who is this young gentleman?

-Tyrone.

-This is Tyrone.

-Tyrone? I'm John.

Silly question - are you sore anywhere?

How's your neck?

With 27 years' experience,

paramedic John West knows how serious this could be.

'Fact that he's lying motionless,'

you're thinking, is he lying there because he's just been winded

or the fact that he is seriously injured?

PEOPLE TALK OVER EACH OTHER

'Because of the height of the horse, that we'd seen him on,

'it's a fair height to come down and, of course,'

because we hadn't witnessed it, we didn't know if he'd landed

on his head or just landed on his back or landed on his bum.

-Where are you sore?

-He's a jockey.

-Is it just your eye?

It's intense. Not only is Tyrone hurt, but his horse is too.

It's being attended to nearby and upsetting bystanders,

but John's priority is Tyrone.

We'll not bother about your eye the noo, right?

Your eye is the least thing that I'm interested in at the moment.

John's main concern is whether Tyrone has suffered a serious neck injury.

He must make a swift assessment.

Just leave them. Just leave them.

-Forget your boots, Ty.

-Tyrone, lie still.

Put your legs down and listen to me.

-You don't want to listen to anybody else.

-Ty.

I need to sit up and just...

You just want to sit up?

-Ty, let them tell you...

-No, I'm fine.

-Let them tell you what to do.

-Your neck's fine?

-OK?

-All right.

John's confident Tyrone is not seriously injured.

-Not with an eye like that, you're not, darling.

-Can I have a mirror?

No, you don't need a mirror.

-Take your time.

-What day is it?

'He had quite a substantial eye injury.

'After two or three minutes, we ascertained that

'that was the only injuries that the gentleman had received.'

Although someone was holding his neck

and someone was trying to hold his legs, when I actually

looked to speak to the gentleman,

it was quick to realise there was no actual injuries.

-I would have won, you know. I would have won.

-You would have won?

He's back on his feet,

but jockey Tyrone is not keen on a hospital visit.

'You've got to go by what he's wanting,

'give him the option, "Do you want to go to hospital?"

'or, "We're advising that you go to hospital." '

In this case, he assured me there was nothing wrong with him.

We said to him that if he did become unwell,

because we were next to the race track, we were there if required.

LAUGHTER

It's been a lucky escape.

I was just going to take up the lead and, um...

the horse just slipped.

Unfortunately, I went down with a bang, and that's the result of it.

'I was a bit sore, slight headache and I could feel a lump on my eye.

'I wasn't confident enough of myself to move'

until I got the all-clear from the ambulance people.

With an accident-prone sport like this,

it's vital to have medics on hand.

You need an ambulance when there's racing,

especially when horses are racing and galloping.

They've got to be there, it's essential, you know,

for safety reasons, you've got to have them.

But he's not going to let today's experience put him off.

I've fallen off hundreds of times, so...

once the swelling's gone down, I'll be riding again.

But today, tough guy Tyrone will have to watch from the rails.

Earlier, the Cornwall Air Ambulance raced to an urgent call.

83-year-old Elizabeth was having a heart attack.

She called for help using her panic button.

Her son, David, reached her first.

Sat at her computer, went all clammy and wet

and then that was it, sat in there, then pushed her lifeline.

They called me and I just rushed right round.

Elizabeth is very unwell, so she is being rushed to Derriford Hospital.

In cases like this, a helicopter can make all the difference.

What I might do is just get you

to pop that onto the oxygen cylinder behind me, if you could. Yeah.

Elizabeth? Elizabeth, if you can hear me,

I'm just going to pop a little oxygen mask onto your mouth.

For your information, we're going to be arriving at about 15:48.

She's still a little drowsy and that's probably due to the fact

that her heart rate's not quick enough to get the oxygen

around her body to diffuse to her brain,

so that may be the reason why she's a little bit...

a little bit reduced on the level of consciousness.

We need to get this lady into the department

that can have a look at the heart, do another ECG

and then try and find the reason why this heart is actually slow today.

We're going to be five minutes before we land at Derriford,

so this lady has got into the emergency department really quickly,

and that would have taken 45 minutes by road.

Quite twisty, quite a narrow kind of...

Especially this time of year with the traffic congestion,

that could be up to an hour, really.

But this is why this is so vital.

Elizabeth, can you hear me?

Elizabeth, if you can hear me, can you open your eyes at all?

She is looking round when I open her eyes, mate.

Unfortunately, she's not looking like she's going to respond.

Elizabeth, if you can hear me, we're about four minutes from hospital now,

so we're going to get you into a department

and get you seen to by the doctors,

get you onto a slightly more comfortable bed.

-Two minutes to landing.

-Two minutes. Thanks, Mark.

OK, we're just approaching Derriford now,

-so about 45 seconds we'll start our descent to land.

-OK.

She's very pale.

Mick called ahead to the hospital,

so the resus team are ready and waiting.

-Basically, we've got an 82-year-old lady.

-Yeah.

She has been a bit unwell lately and she just went to the GP this morning

to get results of an array of blood tests, all of which

-have come back normal.

-Yeah.

About 2:40pm this afternoon,

she was sat at her computer,

suddenly felt clammy, dizzy,

short of breath, nauseated,

lay down on the couch thinking she was going to pass out,

-like there was a great heavy weight on her chest.

-OK.

While Mick briefs the hospital staff,

Mark prepares to get Elizabeth off the helicopter.

Yeah, we've brought this lady to Derriford.

It's taken a few minutes although she's in the right place.

We've got here really quickly

and she's going to be where the doctors can actually examine her,

do an ECG, find out exactly what's going on and hopefully treat her

and then get this lady back home hopefully as soon as we can.

The plan for the rest of the day is, we'll sort our kit out here.

We haven't used to much of our kit, so we are still good to go

if we do get another emergency call,

so as soon as Mick's ready and he comes back to the aircraft,

we're available for the next emergency call in the county.

From receiving the call, it's taken the air ambulance crew

just 55 minutes to get Elizabeth to hospital.

Now it's over to the hospital staff.

In Scotland, despite his ordeal,

Tyrone the jockey was back in the saddle the very next day.

At the Boardmasters Festival in Cornwall,

the injuries kept on coming, but thanks to the lifeguards

and paramedic Simon, no major injury spoilt the event.

Elizabeth spent a week in hospital, receiving specialist care,

but her heart was very badly damaged.

Sadly, she passed away with David and her family around her.

They sent us a photograph of Elizabeth in happier times.

It's no easy job

working in our emergency services across the country.