Episode 10 Countryside 999

From the Highlands of Scotland

to the coast of Cornwall,

the great British countryside is spectacular...

BIRDSONG

..but we work and play in it at our peril.

-SIREN

-And when things go wrong...

the emergency services race to the rescue...

This chap is having a heart attack and we need to get him in quickly.

SIREN

There's no police courses for this.

..going hundreds of miles against the clock,

battling the elements...

and braving the weather.

MAN GROANS

From fields and forests...

to cliffs and country roads,

we'll be right at the heart of the action.

With police fighting crime...

I could seize your dogs. I could seize your van,

but I'm going to summons you all to court.

..paramedics saving lives...

BABY WAILS

..and wardens safeguarding our lakes.

Come out of the way!

We're there as the emergency services pull together

to pick up, patch up, and protect the public.

This is Countryside 999.

Coming up...

Yorkshire's heli-medics take to the skies to tackle a French invasion.

The Tour de France has literally just gone straight past.

Traumatic injuries...

And she just took one step out, fell 20 foot.

..and tricky landings during the Tour de France.

'Nice one, Andy.'

'Did we all breathe in then?'

On Windermere, the lake warden with a sinking feeling.

Ah.

And the County Durham beauty spot trashed by vandals.

And that's been yanked up and chucked on there,

so it's all deliberately burnt it.

From the high fells

to the dales...

..Yorkshire has some of the most spectacular

and unspoilt countryside in Britain.

It's a landscape where people come to relax and get away from it all.

Most of the time.

Today, Yorkshire is full to bursting.

It's hosting the start of the world's largest annual sporting event, the Tour de France.

Cycling's biggest stars are spending two days

racing through Yorkshire's long and winding roads.

For spectators lining the route, the party's already started.

But for the emergency services,

this is shaping up to be a very busy weekend.

The Yorkshire Air Ambulance Service have been planning for weeks.

And medical advisor, Dr Jez Pinnell,

will soon discover if the heli-medics

are up to their own Tour de France challenge.

It is a huge thing, we've got

probably up to two million extra visitors

coming to Yorkshire during the weekend.

Many, many roads are going to be closed because of the Tour.

And it's going through very rural areas a long way from hospital.

Some of the places where the biggest crowds are going to be

are going to be very remote.

So some of the big climbs up there, you know, there could be

many thousands of people in areas where there's just sheep.

When you've got major roads closed,

it may almost be impossible to get to a hospital by road ambulance.

The weather's come up trumps,

and massive crowds line every mile of the route.

Within minutes of the tour starting,

Jez and the team take off to their first call.

We've just been despatched to Skipton or near Skipton,

reports of somebody that's fallen through a roof.

That's all we know at the moment,

so we don't know how old they are, what injuries they've got.

With Jez today are paramedic, John Baxter, and pilot, Ian Mousette.

It's a 34-mile journey to the market town of Skipton

just south of the dales.

En route, Jez updates on the casualty.

The journey should only take the chopper 15 minutes max,

but today is different.

Not only are the roads congested, so are the skies.

There are at least five camera helicopters following the Tour.

And it looks like they, the race,

and the heli-medics will hit Skipton at exactly the same time.

Pilot Ian has many years' experience, but this is a team job.

Jez and John keep a sharp look out for helicopters in the air

and people on the ground.

The chopper's down safely.

The problem was that Tour de France helicopters were leading the race,

so as we arrived at Skipton the Tour de France helicopters arrived.

So there was a little bit of confusion for about 30 seconds

whilst three helicopters went past, I think it was three,

and then we dived down in between 'em.

The problem now is that

the casualty's in an ambulance in the centre of town.

The roads are closed and the Tour de France is about to stream past.

CHEERING

The Tour de France has literally just gone straight past as we've come in,

so we did have a hairy landing, we had helicopters everywhere.

Where we were hoping to land, we couldn't...we couldn't land

because of aviation-related issues,

so we've landed in what was the biggest open space.

The issue now is for the crew to get to where we are.

The race has gone through, so hopefully they should be able to come down.

But, as you can see, there's a lot of people here,

which is going to make life difficult for us.

Jez gets an update from a local policeman.

Has the race all gone through now?

So the ambulance can come across?

Right.

But somehow, 12 minutes after the chopper landed

the ambulance gets through.

Helimed 99. Ambulance is here, don't worry about it. Over.

Finally, Jez meets the casualty.

-Hello. Are you all right?

-Yes. And you?

JEZ LAUGHS

In the ambulance is 48-year-old Sally.

Hoping to get a better view of the race,

she has fallen through the roof of a mill.

-Her head's then hit a table.

-Right.

-She's clearly then got a boggy wound at the back of the head.

-Yep.

When we arrived, there was a fire officer of one of the mills.

The other thing she's complained of is pain in her right elbow

-which we've splinted with a splint.

-Yep.

She's had two lots of 2.5 morphine

-and 4mg of ondansetron.

-Super.

-And she's comfortable with that at the moment.

-OK, lovely.

Sally has a serious head wound and may have suffered other injuries.

Daughter, Emma, saw her fall.

We were watching the Tour, my mum owns a salon at the Corn Mill in Skipton,

and it's about 20 foot and then you've got a corrugated roof.

And there was a load of people up there

and me and my mum decided to go up to watch the Tour from up there.

And she just took one step out, fell 20 foot.

It is a timber roof, but the slant of it was corrugated plastic.

And she's just plummeted straight through it.

HEARTBEAT

-What's her name, mate?

-Sally.

-Sally.

Hello, Sally.

I'm Jez. I'm another doctor.

We're going to take you in a helicopter to Leeds.

All right, darling. Where's it hurting you at the moment?

Back of your head? And your elbow.

Okey-dokey.

Sally's strapped to a spinal board.

When she fell into the mill yard, she hit a wooden picnic table.

Hello, it's Dr Pinnell on Helimed 99,

bringing you a patient from Skipton.

Er...she has got a head injury and an arm injury.

'She had clearly fallen a long way and that in itself

'raises our suspicion that she might have'

some significant injuries.

Her conscious level was slightly reduced,

she was a little bit drowsy, had been a little bit confused.

'But clearly if she did have a head injury

'that was progressing to something more serious,

'the quicker she gets into hospital, particularly a hospital

'such as a major trauma centre, then the better.'

Even though the Tour's passed through town,

there are still people everywhere.

Sally's being taken to hospital in Leeds.

And with roads still closed...

..the helicopter is her best chance of getting the specialist treatment she urgently needs.

Every year, over 14 million people come here,

the Lake District National Park.

It's one of the most popular holiday destinations in the country.

And this is one of the busiest lakes, Windermere.

Ten and a half miles long,

Windermere is England's largest natural lake.

Whether on the shoreline...

or out on the water,

taking it easy...

or doing it the hard way...

..for many people, this is holiday heaven.

But for others, Windermere is their workplace.

Steve Phelps works for the council as a lake warden,

Windermere's water-borne emergency service.

I enjoy working here very much. It's a beautiful place to work. It's...

The nature of the work is so varied that you never get bored.

This is my 20th year as a lake warden.

I must admit, when I first joined the job

it was a case of, "Well, it'll be great to swan about in summer on a boat

"and mooch up and down Windermere with not a lot to do."

How wrong can you be, really?

We are on call-out from the coastguard,

we are their eyes and ears on the water.

If somebody's in trouble and rings 999 and asks for the coastguard,

then it's us that attend.

You've always got to be looking,

not just what's happening directly in front of you.

You could be 20 yards away from something happening directly behind you

and not notice it unless you keep turning round.

Hang on.

These lads look like they've lost their football.

I'll see if I can get it back for 'em.

It's quite shallow in here,

so we're going to have to be careful where we go.

Ensuring minor mishaps don't become emergencies

is an important part of the job.

You'd be surprised how many people get into difficulty by chasing things like a football,

a small inflatable dinghy that's blown away

or even a dog that's entered the water.

We've had a few cases recently where people have actually drowned

by trying to rescue their dog and the dog has survived.

So rather than risk that young lad getting in the water

trying to get his football back,

we went and got it for him.

It's not just people the lake wardens watch out for,

they also look after the lake itself.

We have...a boat that's been abandoned

in an area called White Cross Bay,

which is about three quarters of a mile north of here.

The boat's still there, the thing that I'll be checking for

is to see that there are no pollution problems.

Windermere's water quality has been declining

and oil leaks from boats are a problem.

Five litres of spilt oil can cover a surface area

the size of two football pitches,

blocking out oxygen and suffocating wildlife.

This is a boat that sank on its mooring out here in the bay.

My main concern was that there were going to be pollutants

escaping from this boat and into the water,

causing a problem for the local wildlife, there isn't.

I'm quite happy that there's no pollution problem here.

Steve's keen to keep Windermere beautiful...

..but all sorts of rubbish gets dumped in the lake.

In 2013, a litter-pick recovered ten tonnes of rubbish.

Divers collected chemical-filled car batteries, a child's scooter,

and even a toilet complete with cistern.

To prevent anything else littering the lakebed,

Steve and colleague Jon head out to inspect another boat,

that could be in danger of sinking.

We're heading south from here towards an area called Storrs Hall,

where we have a number of boats on moorings.

We've had a report that one of the boats on those moorings

is taking on water.

Ah.

Well, he was right, it's taking on water.

RADIO CRACKLES

We're alongside this vessel at the moment,

it has got quite a lot of water. And if you could then inform the owner

that we're going to pump this boat out,

but he does need to come and look at it at his earliest convenience.

'Roger, Steve. Thanks for that.'

It's a small electric pump which we carry on board.

This one is sufficient to pump out

what we're going to get from this boat.

With a bit of luck, two or three minutes and we'll have got rid of the water that's here.

If we didn't pump out the water now,

it would take on more water through natural rain

and waves washing over the back.

Eventually there'd be enough water on to sink it.

The main angle if a boat sinks is the environmental pollution

that you can get from certain boats.

Fortunately, we have spill kits

which are supplied to us by the Environment Agency.

If we get a spillage whilst we're out and about,

a boat's sunk or a boat's engine has blown

and they're leaking some sort of fuel,

then we can go along and soak up with soaked mats,

put booms around things that have sunk to contain any contamination.

Steve turns detective to diagnose what's wrong with the boat.

The problem here is there are two drain holes here...

..which are blocked with rotting vegetation by the looks of things.

A simple tool like a screwdriver shoved down the hole

would have saved all this problem.

We have two or three that sink in a year,

but we will probably deal with maybe 50 or 60 like this in a year.

OK, Jon.

Yeah, waterline's looking good.

The back end of the boat now is sat where it should be sat in the water.

That's been a fairly successful patrol.

We've had a gentleman whose boat was taking on water,

if it had been left for any amount of time it would have sunk.

So, all in all,

that was a well worthwhile hour and a half out on the water.

Definitely time for a cuppa.

I'm an outdoors person, I hate working in an office,

I hate working inside, I have done in my younger days,

but for the last 30 years, I've worked outdoors.

Not a bad office, that, is it?

In Skipton, in the Yorkshire Dales,

48-year-old Sally has a serious head wound.

One of the millions of spectators lining the route,

she was trying to get a better view,

when she fell through the roof of a building.

-She's clearly got a boggy wound to the back of the head.

-Yeah.

Sally needs specialist hospital treatment, but with roads closed,

the Yorkshire Air Ambulance is her best chance of getting it.

So let's just have a quick look at you before we go.

-Does your breathing feel OK?

-Yeah.

Yeah? Take a nice deep breath.

-That feels all right, does it?

-Yeah.

-Do you remember everything that happened?

-Yeah.

-You do?

-OK. Have you ever been in a helicopter before?

-Yeah.

-Have you?

-You have?

-Yeah.

-So you know what to expect?

-Yeah.

It gets a bit noisy, OK? All right, Sally, your daughter's just there.

She'll be fine. All right?

As the helicopter prepares to leave...

..daughter Emma has to trust her mum to the care of Dr Jez Pinnell.

She's fallen through about 20 feet.

Just in view of how far she's fallen,

we're going to take her to the major trauma centre, which is Leeds.

With the Tour moved on and skies clear,

it's a ten-minute flight to the trauma centre at Leeds General Infirmary.

We know that people who are critically injured,

their outcomes are better if they go directly to a major trauma centre.

And going to a local hospital just...

can delay that time that it takes to get to the point of definitive care.

So they have all the expertise there,

they manage patients with major trauma on a very regular basis.

And if she needed some form of intervention, such as neurosurgery,

then she could have that immediately performed in the hospital.

Leeds General is one of only seven UK hospitals with a helipad.

Pilot, Ian Mousette, guides the chopper

through the cluttered skyline of the city centre.

We're landing on an elevated helipad in an urban environment,

an extra safety measure is having a fire crew there on standby,

so if we did have a fire as we were landing,

it could be immediately extinguished.

So that's obviously good for us in terms of the aircrew,

but obviously landing on top of a hospital...it's vital.

OK, mate. Ready? Lift.

Keep coming. Keep coming.

The fire crew help deliver Sally to the waiting trauma unit.

Dr Jez briefs the team.

She was on a roof in Skipton trying to get a good view of the Tour,

she's gone through the roof, landed on her feet on a table,

remembers the incident.

-Thank you very much.

-Thanks, guys.

In the 14-year history of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance,

their skills and expertise have never been in such demand.

And the Tour de France isn't over yet.

It's Sunday, the Tour's second day in Yorkshire.

Anticipating another hectic shift is paramedic Graham Pemberton.

It's something that I could have stayed at home and watched on television

and it would have been interesting, but to actually be part of it

is going to be something I can tell my kids about.

It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, really.

Graham's in one of the three Air Ambulance helicopters flying this weekend.

From the base near Wakefield,

they're heading 25 miles north to a country lane outside Harrogate.

The casualty is a cyclist, but a spectator, not a racer.

There's an ambulance on scene,

but once again the best option for getting the casualty to hospital

is by helicopter.

First, pilot Andy Hall needs to find a safe landing site.

They spot a potential site, but it's not going to be easy.

There's trust between everybody.

It's trust from us as the aircrew with the pilot, of their ability,

and trust from the pilot that we're going to shout out if we see anything

that starts to become a bit dangerous. So it's good teamwork.

Graham sets off towards the crash site.

With no medical update,

only now will he discover just how badly the cyclist is injured.

50 miles further north,

the Pennine hills meet the rolling countryside of the Durham Dales.

Teesside is celebrated for its unspoilt scenery

and people living here want it kept that way.

Helping the local community protect the countryside

is one of many challenges facing County Durham's cops.

PC Steve Purchase is based in Barnard Castle,

Teesdale's main market town.

I mean, geographically the area that we cover is huge,

it's got a relatively small population

because most of the area is...it's rural and villages.

Because of that, it does make it difficult for us

to get out and give everywhere the attention we would like to give it.

For the rural people,

sometimes they feel like they're a long way from any help.

Steve's been a policeman here for five years,

getting to know the patch and its people.

There's a strong sense of community here.

People know each other

and people get together and help us with the problems.

'It might seem minor when you talk about it,

'but some of these things do affect people's quality of life quite badly.

'And sometimes if you can fix those little problems and make things better for somebody,

'then, you know, you get a sense of satisfaction from doing that.'

Steve's responding to a call

from one of the smaller villages in the dale.

We're heading towards a village called Cotherstone.

We don't generally have too many problems there.

We've had a call from a lady living up there

reporting that some items of property on her land

have been damaged, some of it burnt.

From Barnard Castle, Steve's taking a four-mile journey to Cotherstone.

-Hello. Is it Ruth?

-Yes.

You took some finding, but we got here in the end.

STEVE LAUGHS

Ruth's reported an upsetting act of vandalism.

'Some fires have been set on this lady's land.'

There's a few things that have been burnt.

The remnants of the fire here.

Some paperwork. We've got some schoolwork.

Now, whether this belongs to somebody who's been involved in starting the fire,

or whether it's just somebody's found it in the bin

and used it to start the fire, I don't know.

We'll go down and we'll have a look at the...at the site,

at the scene and see what there is.

It is, it is.

It's a shame when people go and spoil it like this.

It's...just idyllic out here.

Especially when you get down this side when you're away from the road and everything,

it's just tranquil, isn't it?

Ruth takes Steve to a nature garden she established with her husband.

Deer over there.

There's usually two of them running around.

The pond you're coming to, we created over 30 years ago.

We created this area for ourselves

and the village has come to love these ponds.

In fact, they're named now after my husband, Kennedy's Ponds.

These ponds hold a lot of memories for Ruth

since her husband, Kennedy, died.

The whole story is that

where we lived a duck came in and she had some ducklings

and we thought, "Well, we'll create these ponds."

And it was all done locally

and Natural England helped us with the trees.

And we created this and made the area along the right-of-way

especially for people when they came walking by.

Steve's seen similar vandalism before.

He's piecing together what might have happened.

I wonder if it's somebody's recycling bin or something they've taken down

and that's why we've got all the paper.

That chunk of burnt wood

has been cut off by us to provide seats for people to come down,

to be natural for them when they want to sit here and have some peace and quiet amongst themselves.

And that's been yanked up and chucked on there

and put by the wood along the edge, so it's all deliberately burnt it.

There's little evidence to go on.

I'll put these cans into a bag here.

We'll take them away with us.

I did officially request that when the police came

if they could see if they can do any fingerprinting.

Yeah, I can't do it myself right now,

I would have to get someone to come and do it.

One of our CSIs. But...yeah, I'll take these cans.

I should have brought a bigger bag.

Ruth and Steve walk back to the house,

where a confrontation with a yappy dog turns into a lucky break.

DOG BARKS Oh, hello.

-All the rubbish in there is our rubbish.

-Right.

Cos I put it out and then I went out in the morning

to put some more newspapers in and the whole thing had gone.

Ruth's neighbour, Pippa, was about to call the police herself.

She reveals that her wheelie bin has gone missing.

I was completely mystified.

-I've literally just ordered a new wheelie bin.

-Was it a recycling one?

-Yeah.

-Would it have had a school planner in it?

-Yeah.

From Queen Margaret School, yes.

It's a bin of some sort that been burnt down there.

-Right, so the whole bin's been burnt? Everything?

-There's parts of...

The only recognisable thing apart from magazines

is like a diary, a year planner from school.

Because there were a load of cans. Those would have been in the bin.

-Right.

-Because we've had the boys staying for the weekend.

-I see.

So everything was in for recycling.

Someone's taken the bin and started the fire,

but Ruth's no nearer knowing who it was.

It's a lovely village.

It's absolutely great living here.

And it's such a shame that you have just a small incidence that can spoil it.

But then that's life, isn't it?

It is low-level crime, but it's something that...

That area is very personal to Ruth,

so it's going to affect her,

but it's also an area of pride for the whole community here.

It's not a high-value crime,

but it doesn't have to be, it's the way it upsets people is what matters.

I'll be back in touch. I'll probably...

I'm back in tomorrow afternoon.

-OK, nice to meet you.

-Take care.

-Take care.

-Thank you.

-Bye-bye.

A month later, Steve's been unable to catch the culprit.

But there is some good news for Ruth.

Somebody has anonymously been up to the scene

and actually cleaned up the mess as best they could.

Whether that's been the people responsible with a sense of guilt

or whether it's just been some kind-hearted members of the local community, I don't know.

But, obviously, Ruth was over the moon

that somebody had took it upon themselves to do this.

So, I suppose, it does show there is a sense of community there.

It's day two of the Tour de France's visit to Yorkshire,

and the Air Ambulance has been called to Harrogate

and the latest casualty.

After a tricky landing...

..paramedic, Graham Pemberton, makes his way to the ambulance,

where an injured cyclist is receiving emergency treatment.

All right there?

-His lumbar spine?

-Lumbar.

-OK.

-Lumbar thoracic.

-OK.

-You're doing well, Henry.

-Is it Henry?

-Henry, yeah.

Just sit...lie still for us, Henry.

Let me know if you're getting any pain in here.

-Is that all right?

-Yeah.

How old are you, Henry?

How old? All right, don't nod your ahead, Henry.

OK? That's really important, all right?

Graham had been told the casualty was 18 years old,

but Henry is just 13.

On his way to watch his cycling heroes,

Henry was coming down this hill.

He didn't make it round the bend,

lost control and fell headfirst over the bridge.

-So where did he land?

-On the banking.

-He landed on a hard surface.

-Oh, right. OK.

Face first?

Henry was cycling in a group with his stepdad, John, and mum, Jane.

On here... Here's his helmet.

-That's his helmet.

-Yeah. All right, we'll take that with us.

Yeah, so that's his...

BEEPING

So he's come over that bridge,

face first onto the ground.

And...has he been unconscious?

So he's amnesic, he's got retro-amnesia. Right.

John takes Graham to see exactly how far Henry fell.

Is that his skidmark there?

Probably, I didn't see it. But he ended up...down there.

-In there, on that.

-So it's probably about 12 feet, ain't it?

-Yeah.

OK. He's lucky he didn't hit the edge of the bank.

Well, they're very robust creatures, are kids,

and they recover remarkably quickly

from injuries that you and I wouldn't walk away from.

So...

He'd fallen 12, 15 feet, maybe, over the bridge

and down to the river bank.

So immediately I was thinking, "If he's fallen headfirst,

"he's taken quite a big impact to his head."

But also what struck me was that he landed on the side of the river.

Now, the river was lined with stone flagging

and my concern had been whether or not he'd actually hit the stone.

Henry could have serious head and back injuries.

We've got a patient to bring to you.

It's a 13-year-old male. One-three-year-old male.

He's got facial injuries and he's also got lumbar-spine tenderness.

We're just about to lift, so we'll be with you very soon. All right?

Mum, Jane, will travel with Henry.

I'll give you the nod when it's OK for us to talk, all right?

He won't be able to hear us, though.

Henry's Tour de France weekend is over.

The chopper takes off for the trauma unit at Leeds General.

Over the two days of the Tour de France,

Yorkshire Air Ambulance attended 21 incidents,

around five times their average.

Sally was one of the first casualties,

when a fall from a roof landed her in hospital.

There was a load of people up there and me and my mum

decided to go up and watch the Tour from up there.

And she just took one step out, fell 20 foot.

The roof Sally fell through has been repaired.

And two months later, Sally is also on the mend,

back at work in her beauty salon.

I had quite a bad cut to my head, which took some time to clear up.

I'm still sort of getting dizzy spells.

And that can last...post-concussion can last up to three months.

Everywhere else, I was really lucky, it was just cuts and bruises.

I just thought it'd be a good view to go upstairs and have a look.

So me and my daughter went upstairs and tried to get onto the roof.

And I didn't look where I was walking

and there was some plastic sheeting on the roof and I just fell through.

There was a table and I think that table broke my fall.

And then I went back onto my head and smashed my head onto the concrete.

I can remember falling,

but I can't remember actually touching the ground.

I must have just passed out.

Sally missed the race as the ambulance and helicopter

battled with the crowds to reach her.

Couldn't have picked a worse day for it, no. It was so busy,

there were no cars about in Skipton, all the roads were shut,

but, you know, considering how many people were in Skipton on the day,

the Air Ambulance Service did an amazing job.

Tour de France fan, Henry, also took a tumble.

When he careered over this bridge, his injuries looked serious.

How old are you, Henry?

How old?

All right, don't nod your head, Henry.

OK, that's really important, all right?

Three months later, he's made an amazing recovery.

It did look quite dramatic.

I had some serious strips above my eyebrow there, there's a scar now.

And I've just got a graze along my leg there

where I had a massive graze.

I've just got a graze on my leg there and that's about it, really.

They say bicycles are like horses -

fall off and the best thing to do is get straight back in the saddle.

And Henry's back on two wheels.

I was pretty certain I was going to hit the bridge,

cos it was a reasonably small, like, barrier thing.

All I thought was, "I'm going to get rid of the bike. I want to get off the bike."

And that's all I can really remember.

So he's come over that bridge, face first onto the ground.

So he's amnesic, he's got retro-amnesia. Right.

It did knock my confidence dramatically,

cos I really do enjoy my cycling, so I thought, "No, let's carry on

"and let's just see how it goes."

And so, yeah, I'm still going and it's really good.

It's been all go for Britain's rural emergency services.

In Teesdale, Ruth's wildlife garden has sprung back to life,

to be enjoyed by friends, family and fellow villagers.

Four months after her fall,

beautician Sally's recovered from her head injury

and is free from headaches and dizzy spells.

And cyclist Henry is now fully fit,

having just ridden 172 miles on a two-day trip to Wales.

And you thought it was quiet in the countryside.