Episode 18 Helicopter Heroes

When you're with someone that's critically ill or seriously injured,

every minute you wait for medical aid to arrive can feel like an hour.

Which is why a helicopter like this can be one of the most beautiful sights.

It certainly was for me when I was a copper.

This is the Yorkshire Air Ambulance, and their business is saving lives.

From the Dales to the big cities of Leeds and Sheffield,

patients in the UK's biggest county are never more than ten minutes from a hospital,

thanks to this 150mph life-saver,

and every day brings a new life or death emergency for its team of flying paramedics.

Two helicopters, four paramedics, five million patients.

Today, on Helicopter Heroes, a teenage boy is accidentally shot by his dad.

It's gone in here.

I'm not sure if the bullet is still in.

They're in the middle of sitting their A-levels,

but the drive home has ended in agony for three sixth-formers.

I couldn't get it to stop.

A biker must be seriously injured, but where is he?

-He's stuck in the tree where?

-Just up here.

-On the fence.

And an accident with a bonfire leaves a woman badly burnt.

Dropped an aerosol can onto it and it's exploded into her.

From car smashes to climbing accidents, the flying paramedics have seen almost every injury

that can happen to the human body,

but sometimes there's a case that takes them right back to training school.

In the Helimed office, sketchy details of a job are coming in.

A 15-year-old, a rifle has accidentally gone off and shot him in the stomach.

The crew scramble, leaving Dave, the dispatcher, to co-ordinate the details whilst they get going.

He has a penetrating wound to his abdomen.

And it's getting more difficult.

The map is showing that the young patient is at the bottom of a steep-sided valley.

It may be impossible to land a helicopter there.

So you think the only way out is a winch to get him out?

A shotgun has gone off in his chest.

He's quite a way from the nearest road.

We've no idea of his injuries at the moment.

There's 2,000 square miles of these Dales and the shooting accident

is in one of the more remote parts of Wensleydale.

Getting to the area quickly is easy at 150 miles an hour and in a straight line.

Pinpointing the patient in amongst all this can be more difficult.

This is Helimed 980....

Back at base, dispatcher Dave has an update to help the helicopter crew find him.

They can see Simon's Seat.

That's the high piece of ground that you're going to fly -

according to my map -

right over the top of Simon's Seat on your way in.

So as you go over Simon's Seat, they should be between there and the grid reference. Over.

If you give me another grid, I'll pop it in, mate.

OK, zero, seven...

Navigator and paramedic Paul Bradbury puts in a new grid reference to the helicopter satnav.

075 607, cheers.

The caller has just phoned back to give a more exact reference to where they are.

So we're just going to try and establish where they are and see what we've got.

Depending on what sort of gun's gone off,

hopefully it's not a shotgun and it will be a bit less of a calibre,

but if it is we'll take him to the more specialist trauma unit.

Fifteen minutes after taking off, Helimed 99 is over the grid reference.

It's in those trees, I think.

-In the trees?

-Yeah, I think so.

OK, just check yourselves for landing, everyone, please.

We're not gonna land just yet, but we'll go down and have a look.

But still their patient is not in sight.

Unless someone's going to come out and give us a wave, I've got no idea.

Well, we've asked them to.

-There's some guys over here.

-Yeah, waving.

At last, they spot the 15-year-old and, despite the slope, pilot Matt thinks they can land safely.

Fifteen-year-old Matthew Barnes was out shooting with his dad when the accident happened.

-How much pain are you in?

-A lot.

-A lot.

You've got a piece of metal wedged down here somewhere.

-It's there, I think.

-It's gone in here.

Yes, it's a rifle that's gone off.

I think the metal's gone in there.

-It could be a part of it.

-He's not sure if the bullet's in.

Matthew is in great pain.

-No, don't try and move.

-He must be in shock, but he's remarkably calm.

Try not to worry too much. You just lie down and relax.

It's cold up here and the wind is beginning to gust hard.

The helicopter can't take off in very high winds,

so it's crucial that the paramedics get Matthew ready to fly quickly.

I'll give you something for the pain.

He needs to get to hospital soon and he's in the middle of the Dales.

Coming up - the team begin to treat the gunshot wound.

It's all in the abdominal area.

Paramedic Darren and I ride a road with a grim reputation for accidents.

It's not the road itself, it's the style of riding.

And a burns victim is flown to hospital in a special pain-killing mask.

-You don't look like Kate Moss today with your burns dressing on.

-I don't, no!

Inexperienced young drivers pay more for their car insurance, and with good reason.

Statistically they're more likely to have an accident, no matter how carefully they drive.

And when they do, the consequences can go beyond any injuries.

It's June, and in schools all over England and Wales,

thousands of teenagers are sitting their A-levels,

the vital exams that will decide their university places, even their careers.

At Harrogate High School, the first sessions have just finished,

but three students may not be returning to the exam hall.

On a nearby country road, a hatchback carrying three sixth-formers home

has been involved in a head-on collision with another car and then a tree.

All three teenagers are trapped.

How deep is that? That's quite deep, actually. Nice and slowly.

The girls have been lucky to survive a big impact with a tree.

Can we deal with this girl?

She's 18 years old, asthmatic and she can't feel anything from the waist downwards.

-OK. What do we call you?

-Charlotte.

-All right, Charlotte.

Charlotte Taylor was about to sit A-level exams in psychology

and general studies, with a university place at stake.

Now, she is seriously injured.

Can you remember what happened?

I was just driving and it just went on the water and I couldn't get it to stop.

I didn't know what to do.

-And you've slid across, have you?

-Yeah.

Cutting! Cutting now!

Charlotte, are you in any pain at the moment?

-Yeah, a lot. Down that side.

-Down the side.

Charlotte's asthma, combined with a chest injury

and worrying numbness in her legs, means she'll get priority treatment.

Her condition is the most serious.

At the moment, the three occupants in the cars are all still trapped by the wreckage.

With the amount of damage to the vehicle,

there's a huge potential for them

sustaining quite life-threatening injuries.

How serious? The paramedics can't tell until she is released.

Charlotte, it's me again. I'm at the side here.

We're just going to widen this door so I can get in properly.

Charlotte's little blue Corsa was her pride and joy.

The emergency services can't afford to let that get in their way now.

-Do you know her name?

-Charlotte.

-Charlotte.

I'll just get that seatbelt.

The car is a write-off and if they're going to release the girls

they'll have to cut the remains apart.

All right, Charlotte, that's one done.

This is a difficult job for the Fire Brigade.

Working so close to the tree is hard and, until the Fire Service

are finished, the paramedics can only watch and wait.

You're dealing with a patient and then you have to stand aside while the fire crews

get about doing their business.

You know, we can't just constantly stay with the patient.

These guys have got to get in. They've got to be able to see where they're cutting

and they've got to make it safe.

Pete Vallance knows the car has hit one of the worst objects

that can be involved in any road accident.

Trees are very unforgiving. You hit a tree and a tree will stay still

and the car, obviously, has not stood up to the impact very well.

There's quite a bit of intrusion into the cab area.

But I'm sure they'll shortly have the roof off

and then we'll be able to get in and start sorting the patients out.

Coming up - the emergency services start to free their patients.

-Where abouts are you hurting?

-All over.

-Well done, son.

-Well done.

The race is on to get a shot teenager to hospital.

And Helimed 99 drops into a local pub to pick up the landlord's mum.

Nothing attracts bikers more than the open road

and in the Yorkshire countryside there are thousands of miles to choose from.

But there's one village that keeps on appearing in the accident statistics.

Squires Cafe at Sherburn-in-Elmet in North Yorkshire

attracts thousands of bikers each week, and the B road they use to get to it

accounts for a staggering 5% of all bike deaths in England's biggest county.

In my opinion it's not the road itself.

It's down to the speed and rider behaviour.

You can't just blame the road itself.

But it's not just the mad and the reckless who end up getting hurt or worse on the B1222.

Many riders are careful, sober and well equipped yet still need their local air ambulance.

Helimed 99 is once again on its way to Squires Cafe.

There's little map-reading required.

The crew have all been to accidents here before.

Just a mile from the entrance to Squires, the wreckage of a bike

is lying in the middle of the road, but there is no sign of the rider.

He's hit a van hard.

He's come over the brow and gone straight into the front of the pick-up.

Helimed 99 is only a few miles away but they still don't know what's happened.

The original caller, from this detail, that phoned the ambulance service

didn't stop and can't really give us any more information

when we we rang him back, so we've had to set off based on limited information.

We've just got to lift and be available should we be required.

Numerous passers-by called 999, but nobody knows where the rider has landed.

The biker has vanished.

They said it's the road that goes up past Milk Bar, they think.

It's a car into a motorcyclist and they can't find the motorcyclist.

It's not with the car, is it? I can't see into the ditch, mate.

I can see somebody waving.

-He's waving traffic.

-They're down below.

Even from the air they can't see their patient.

We'll get to that field next to it, the ploughed field.

But a local land ambulance crew have spotted broken branches on the wooded slopes of a disused quarry.

The rider has been catapulted more than 30 yards, over a 15-foot-high sign, and down the ravine.

-He's stuck in a tree where?

-It's here.

-On a fence?

It's through here.

For doctor Bob Mark and paramedics Darren Axe and Pete Vallance, this is a difficult situation.

Bob, just bear in mind it is a sheer drop, that guy over there's saying.

This gentleman here in the pick-up was turning in and all I saw was

this bike just do a couple of 360s and the rider shoot off,

obviously into the bottom of the quarry.

Darren's run down into the quarry, but Pete and Dr Bob decide

to scramble through the thick undergrowth and down the steep slope towards the biker.

If we put a board down here and slide him on

-because it's going to go here and you'll never hold him.

-OK, that's fine.

Biker Steve Kirk is lying half way down the slope.

He's got serious internal injuries, broken bones and is struggling to breathe.

-Can we have the board, Steve. Just the board on its own.

-Be careful, Steve.

-Bring it all, Steve, bring it all.

-Have you got a stethoscope?

I've got one in my pocket.

Pilot Steve Cobb brings more life-saving equipment from the helicopter.

It will have to be a quickie, he's going off again and his resps are getting quicker.

The biker's condition is getting worse.

He's going to have some spinal injuries.

His injuries are so severe, the crew know that if they are

to stand any chance of saving his life they must get him to hospital as fast as they can.

Coming your way. Right.

Take his head, please.

I've got to support to his head.

Slide him a bit more, please.

Right, let's just get out of here.

Steve's wearing all the right gear, but even that might not save him.

Darren needs to start getting life-saving drugs into his system

and there's still a long, hard climb back up the side of the quarry to the helicopter.

-We're going up to helicopter which is at the top of that hill.

-It's quite a long walk.

-Put him on to the ambulance and drive him up.

-Right.

It's taken just five minutes to move Steve off the steep bank and out of the quarry.

It's been a huge effort from the whole rescue team.

Can a spare firefighter go and check for gear, please?

Please, anything that's there, bring it with you, please.

Passers-by, ground paramedics and fire crews have all helped to give

the biker the best possible chance of survival,

but for Helimed 99's crew, there's still a lot more hard work to do.

The gent's condition at the moment I would say is critical.

He's had a high speed impact

and then been thrown down into a quarry.

At the moment he's giving us a lot of reasons for concern.

-OK...

-Ooh! Is that pulse right?

Is that the cardio, Pete?

As the crew gets Steve wired up to the helicopter's monitoring equipment,

the extent of his injuries become clear.

He's unconscious and his heart rate is dangerously slow.

He needs to get to the expert care only a hospital can provide.

-What have we got, Daz?

-67, I want to start to...

Helimed 99, we're en route now. ETA is five minutes.

Is it possible for you to get us a trauma team doctor up to the helipad for our arrival?

Patient now going into arrest.

We'll put down at Wakefield.

Don't lean over.

The team are coming up now, Bob.

They're in the vehicle.

The team have been fighting to keep Steve alive for half an hour.

They're exhausted, but at least their patient is now in the hands of a hospital consultant.

He was in cardiac arrest when we arrived on the pad here.

We were met by a trauma team from the emergency department,

where they secured his airway by intubating him.

And we continued to carry out CPR to resuscitate him down to the unit.

GCS was about four.

-A nasty airway.

-When did he arrest?

About ten minutes ago? Yeah.

When they've looked at the X-rays, some of the internal injuries have

made it really incompatible with life.

He appears to have sustained quite a severe neck injury,

chest trauma, and a number of fractures to his limbs.

He was really up against it from the point of impact, really.

We just did what we could do, but I think we were fighting a losing battle right from the beginning.

Sadly, in spite of all the medical teams' efforts, Steve lost his fight for life.

But most bikers here accept there is an element of danger to riding on two wheels

and, despite knowing the risks, many keen motorcyclists refuse to give up.

I've hitched a ride to Squires with Darren Axe.

Despite dealing with patients like Steve almost every week, he's a regular here.

-This is Darren.

-Daz. How are you?

Tonight, some of Steve's mates have come to talk to Darren about the crash.

His family say he was a steady rider who never took risks.

Just overtaking in the right places and everything. He were just a good rider.

I've been riding 22 years and you do it because you enjoy doing it.

I wouldn't sell my bike and part with it, even with the job that I do.

And we were working on him continuously.

And the other thing is, the team in resus - there were consultants,

doctors, nurses, specialists, all waiting for us when we got there.

So, you know, they couldn't have done - any of us - any more.

What is your memory of that night?

-Can you remember?

-Yeah, I was here.

I was here and I was the last person out of us to see Steve alive.

We went out of the gate, turned right and that was it.

And I got a phone call from his telephone by somebody else

that was actually present at the scene.

He rang me and I came back, just as these guys were dealing with him.

Sometimes, no matter what you do and in spite of your best efforts,

with the skills that you have, nothing will change the final outcome.

Yeah, yeah.

But, to be fair to Steve, we did everything, everything within the limited skill that we have

to try and revive him and to try and save him.

I think most bikers are people out to enjoy themselves,

have a good time, ride their bikes and,

because of circumstances sometimes beyond their control, they wind up in a bad situation.

It's not always the biker's fault.

Somebody in a car or a lorry that doesn't see you or doesn't turn,

you can be in real trouble straightaway.

-It's not going to put you off?

-Never. Never, ever put me off.

Darren's lost count of the times he's been called to Squire's Cafe.

I'd like to wish that I never have to come here to pick another person up,

from here or the surrounding area, but I'm sure that at some point we will.

It's time for us to hit the road again.

In my days as a copper I dealt with my fair share of bike crashes and I wouldn't be riding pillion

if I didn't know the man up front was an expert rider, but others aren't quite as careful.

Another weekend, another 999 call to the B1222.

It's a male on a motorcycle.

There are medics on the scene doing a chest drain.

Bi-lateral leg fractures, abdo injury.

The accident has happened only a few hundred yards from the cafe.

-Can you see it?

-Yeah, there we are, look.

The team know the outlook is bleak, but they fight for every patient.

High-speed motorcyclist into the wall.

He's had three and a half litres of fluid now, tubes.

There are some leg injuries. I've listed everything.

I've scribbled it all down and his name in on there.

It's obviously serious.

The gentleman, at the moment, is in cardiac arrest.

He's had a high-speed motorcycle accident.

They've been working on him hard.

Come down this side, guys. Feet first.

As Helimed 98 takes off, it flies over another bike crash.

Both riders had been at the cafe at the same time.

One turned left, one turned right.

Both were critically injured.

Sadly, neither survived.

No wonder the regulars of Squire's are also amongst the biggest

supporters of the Air Ambulance charity.

Coming up - the Helimed team start work

as the fire service finally free the teenage victims of a car crash.

No, don't touch the other one.

And this burns victim's treatment may look bizarre, but it could save her face from scarring.

Up in the Dales, shooting is a major sport.

But for one father an outing with a gun has ended in a terrible accident.

A rifle has accidentally gone off and shot him in the stomach.

Dave, the dispatcher, has scrambled the crew to a remote moor in the Yorkshire Dales.

15-year-old Matthew Barnes was out shooting with his dad when the accident happened.

Paramedic, Simon Cavanagh, immediately gets to work.

It's clear Matthew has two wounds in his chest.

We have a piece of metal wedged down here somewhere.

It's gone in here.

Matthew's dad, Steve, was actually using the gun, a 308 calibre rifle, when it backfired.

It's a rare accident and when it happens it's usually the person

shooting the gun that gets hurt and sometimes fatally injured.

You just need to relax your arm.

Steve was doing everything by the book and Matthew was standing well behind the gun.

Part of the gun's exploded and blown back and hit him.

He just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The crew need to get on and treat Matthew's wounds and get him to hospital.

Even though he's in great pain, he's being a model patient.

He's calm and allowing the paramedics to get on with their job.

Apart from us sticking needles in you, how is your pain score?

-If you could score it out of zero to ten?

-Nine.

And it's all in your abdominal area? Where else is it?

-In the chest.

-OK.

The helicopter will be with you in about ten minutes.

Back at base, dispatcher, Dave, rings up Harrogate Hospital to get them ready for the emergency.

They're querying an exit wound.

Whether it's gone right out or whether it's still sticking out.

A doctor and nurse will be fine to meet them.

Despite the remote location, a local land ambulance crew has come to help.

What's happened?

What we'll do, guys, we'll take him as he is

-and hoik him across, straight on to there?

-Yes, yes.

Like a lot of country sports enthusiasts,

Matthew's dad has helped raise money for the Air Ambulance.

I've made contributions before.

Right, you're getting your money back now.

One, two, three.

Well done, son.

The wind is getting up and they need to get going soon,

but because it's blowing in the right direction, pilot, Matt,

thinks it'll help them get to Harrogate more quickly.

It's actually quite beneficial sometimes to have a bit of wind to come into as you land

and with the wind going the way it's we'll get this to Harrogate even faster.

With a large hole in his chest and a chunk of metal still in there,

the crew can do is dress Matthew's wounds, give him pain relief

and get him into the warmth of the chopper.

His body has been losing heat, so he's wrapped in a special thermal sleeping bag for the flight.

He's doing all right, aren't you, Matthew?

It looks like a chunk of breech which has come off the gun has entered just below his rib cage.

You can actually see it underneath the skin.

He's looking quite stable at the minute, but, obviously, it's a time-critical thing.

Coming up - surgeons are on standby as Matthew is flown to hospital for an emergency operation.

And paramedic Lee spares a patient's blushes after a fire burns through her clothes.

I don't want you walking through t' car park like this, you'll frighten people!

Hitting a tree is one of the worst things that can happen to you in a car.

And in North Yorkshire, three teenagers are trapped

after their supermini was wrecked in a devastating impact.

Firefighters are taking apart 18-year-old A-level student Charlotte Taylor's car.

She was driving two friends home when they collided with another car and hit a tree.

Now, they're about to be cut free.

Basically, we've cut the roof off to make as much space in the vehicle as we can.

We have also taken the doors off

to allow us to see if there are any trappings in the lower part of the vehicle.

to make sure the feet are clear when we take the casualties out.

-Charlotte, what's your arm like? Can you move it for me? And this one?

-No.

Is that one hurting?

-Yes? Whereabouts is it hurting?

-All over.

Now the roof is off, the paramedics can start to remove Charlotte's

rear-seat passenger, school friend Natasha.

The team are treating all the girls as if they've suffered spinal injuries until they know otherwise.

We're unable to get to our patient until the rear-seat passenger had been taken out.

She's still conscious, still talking to us.

Her injuries at this moment

appear to be mainly just around the shoulder

where the seatbelt has caught her.

She's got some abrasions there, and possibly fractured her clavicle.

-Give us a splint for her arm, if we've got one.

-No, don't touch the arm!

Statistically, young drivers are much more likely

to have a road accident and the odds are even higher if other teenagers are in the car with them.

Luckily, they're also much more likely to recover well from traumatic injuries.

Helimed 99 always gets the most seriously injured patient.

Charlotte will fly today, straight to the trauma centre at Leeds General Infirmary.

-I can't make my legs straight.

-Don't worry about your legs, they'll be straight in a minute.

The first one coming down your back now.

Right, I'm going to drop the seat back.

Is it all right to grab her jeans there?

No, not my right leg, you can't move it. No, this one.

With her being the driver there's evidence

around the steering wheel that she's come into contact with that.

Certainly the seatbelt as well has done its job,

but injured her in the process and the bulk of the damage is round her side.

We're just going to move your seat back a little bit, love.

Ready, steady, slide.

-Ready, steady, slide.

-Ahhh!

That's it now, Charlotte. That's it.

Charlotte has been trapped for nearly an hour, but now she's only minutes from hospital.

15 miles away, at Leeds General Infirmary, a medical team is already on stand by to examine her.

Her friends will also soon be undergoing treatment.

The end of a traumatic day for all three teenagers.

A crash at any age is frightening, but with somebody in control that's not been driving long,

it's always frightening and the fact that she's got the fire service,

the ambulance service and the police service

all around her all trying to help her.

Cutting the roof off, all the noise, all the vibration.

To put the icing on the cake, this big yellow helicopter lands

which, obviously, is quite worrying.

But she's quite calm now and we'll get her to hospital.

Charlotte probably doesn't realise it yet, but the impact

she and her friends experienced could easily have been much worse.

Quite simply, trees are killers.

The car is quite extensively damaged.

There was intrusion, also, in the compartment which brings the potential for having injuries

up even higher, because bits of the car were stuck into the compartment where the people were sat.

I think the three young ladies there have had a very lucky escape.

Charlotte needs surgery, but it'll be some days before doctors have a full picture of her injuries.

Sitting the rest of her A-levels now looks a remote possibility.

School had broken up for summer by the time Charlotte and her friends had completed their treatment

and none managed to sit their vital exams.

But at least they're back on their feet now and ready to answer some questions from me.

I split my kneecap in half

and had a pop for six weeks and now in physio to bend it.

Broke my rib which punctured by lung.

Broke my collarbone. That's it.

That's it, oh, right.

They're all all right now.

Just my back and I got really bad whiplash and my teeth.

-I broke a bone in my back.

-In your back?

-Yes.

Well, you're doing pretty well now.

It got worse for a few months, but apart from that it's all right.

Do they think you'll be making a full recovery from that?

They don't know because it's a touchy thing your back, but hopefully, yeah.

No wonder they couldn't sit their A-levels, but Charlotte,

who wants to be a teacher, has had some good news from her chosen university.

Yes, I'd applied to go to Sheffield Hallam and I had to ring them and put it all in writing as well,

and they're going to go by my predicted grades.

I got a letter back saying even if my grades weren't what they were going to be,

they'd take everything into consideration and I should still be able to go to university.

Coming up - a teenager has been shot by his own father,

but even by air, he's still 20 minutes from hospital.

Everyone wants to protect themselves from identity theft these days,

so destroying confidential paperwork is a good idea.

But doing it on a bonfire is more dangerous than you think.

At Air Ambulance HQ an emergency call has come in from a pub in the Peak District.

At the Dog And Partridge near Penistone there's been an explosion and a woman has been badly burnt.

Heli 99 is setting off to you.

The crew are quickly in the air and racing towards the scene.

Incidents like this are quite rare,

but paramedic Lee Davidson knows patients who have been badly burnt

will be in immense pain and need medical help as soon as possible.

We need to get fluid replacement.

Pain relief. One of the biggest things is pain

with the exposure of burns to the air.

So we're carrying the burns dressings so we just need to get

the patient stabilised and covered with burns dressings

just to prevent further infection if the skin is broken

and then get some pain relief

and some fluid on board and as quickly as possible to hospital.

The helicopter will get the crew to the remote pub in 15 minutes,

but that might not be its only mission today.

One of the big advantages of us going, really, is we could take the

patient straight to the regional burns unit in Wakefield.

And they've got all the specialist care.

The crew are quickly over the grid reference they've been given

and paramedic Lee jumps out, ready to find his patient.

But there's an unexpected sight over the stone wall.

The way you've give us the grid is the Flouch Hotel.

Yeah, there's no emergency vehicles, is there?

There's no sign of the injured woman or a fire

and it quickly becomes clear they've landed at the wrong pub.

Lee knows the woman needs their help,

so the crew quickly take off again in search of The Dog And Partridge.

OK, we have a new grid reference and it's

due west of here, apparently.

Just two miles down the road they find the right pub.

I've got a 70-year-old female.

She's gone down to the fire to burn some rubbish.

She's dropped an aerosol can on to it and it's exploded into her.

She's got single-thickness burns.

-I'm just going to uncover your face for a second.

-Yeah.

Elaine Marsh has managed to make it back to the pub

and a ground paramedic is soothing her burns with cold towels.

-The explosion was so powerful it actually set her clothes on fire.

-Oh, gosh, yes.

She'd glasses on and her glasses have completely disintegrated.

-What about pain? Are you in any pain at the moment?

-No.

No. There's no pain?

Normally a patient without much pain is a relief for paramedic Lee,

but with burns patients this is a bad sign.

Elaine's burns are so severe the nerve endings in her skin could be badly damaged.

Something has flashed back out of the fire which has burnt

her forearms and all of her face here and parts of her hair.

I'm just going to get a line into you and then we'll dress these forearms.

Elaine's fingers are also starting to swell up.

She's not taken her wedding off for nearly 50 years,

but it must come off now or she could lose her finger.

The best thing is for her to get to a specialist unit.

So we're just going to re-dress these burns with some cooling gel.

The cooling gel and cling film helps sooth the burns and prevent infection,

but with the helicopter parked across the pub's car park,

paramedic Lee turns fashion designer to save Elaine's blushes.

I'm just going to make you a sarong, all right?

-Can you stand up for me, sweetheart?

-I'm all right.

I know you are, but I don't want you walking through t' car park like this, you'll be frightening people!

They'll be thinking there's a streaker!

The plan is now we take this lady to Pinderfields,

which, for us, is about a seven minute flight.

It's quite a long way for a land ambulance.

When it's burns, the quicker they get treated the better.

To go by road, you're probably looking at half an hour,

so seven minutes for us, that's the option to take.

Come in and I'll see to you a second.

Just lay your head back for me a second.

It'll cool and soothe it.

Thanks to the crew, Elaine's soon on her way to hospital.

It's been a traumatic experience.

But Lee has his own way of reassuring his patients.

-You don't look like Kate Moss today with your burns dressing on.

-I don't, no.

We've managed to get them covered which can cause quite a bit of pain if we don't.

She says she's pain free.

The eyewitnesses at the scene said that she was actually on fire.

Her hair and trousers were on fire so we need to get her there

as quickly as possible and that's what the helicopter allows.

A team of burns specialists are waiting at Pinderfields Hospital

and just five minutes later, Helimed 99 arrives in Wakefield.

Anybody who has burns like that needs to be seen by a specialist centre

and the burns unit here at Wakefield, at Pinderfields,

can give her that speciality and their team was waiting for us when we went in

and she was given the immediate care that she needed.

To the eye it doesn't look too bad, but burns like that can be very, very painful.

You can get quite a lot of fluid loss if the skin becomes broken and there's a risk of infection.

It's a worrying time for Elaine and her family.

Recovering from burn injuries can be very traumatic as patients wait

to find out how significant the scarring will be.

But just 24 hours later, Elaine seems to be coping well.

I probably took two hours to start blistering and then they

snipped away at the blisters that had started to form and then they

put some dressings on and I have to keep these on for, I think, two to three days.

I don't think mine is a serious one when you see people in here,

but I didn't realise it was as bad as what it is.

Elaine still remembers the incident clearly and, like many burns patients,

couldn't believe how quickly the fire spread.

It sounded as though it was something exploding.

Either a lighter or a can. Something.

I just bent down to pick some twigs up and as I bent down that's when

my face must have caught the worst and I stood up and I was all on fire.

And literally my trousers were melting and my jacket, in front of me.

It's going to take a long time for Elaine's burnt skin to heal

and it means a complete change of lifestyle.

All my skin will peel off and it'll be very tight

for probably 12 or 18 months and I shall have to take great care.

Well moisturised and keep out of the sun.

But that's no price to pay for your life, is it?

Now, do you remember the teenager accidentally shot by his own dad?

The team think that against the odds he may have escaped with only minor injuries,

but until they've got him to hospital they can't be sure.

15-year-old Matthew Barnes has been badly injured after a gun backfired.

His dad was out shooting in the Dales and Matthew was standing behind him when he was hit.

Part of the gun's exploded and blown back and hit him.

He just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Paramedics, Paul Bradbury and Simon Cavanagh treated Matthew's wounds

as best they could in the field, but he needs to get to hospital quickly.

It's a journey that will take 40 minutes by road.

In this helicopter, with a tail wind, it's going to take just ten.

-All secure in the back and OK.

-Clear left and clear right.

Simon now has to ensure that Matthew's condition doesn't deteriorate during the flight.

It looks like there's an entrance wound just below his rib cage.

He's complaining of pain in his chest although

it looks as if part of the breech has tracked down towards his abdomen.

He's got what feels like a bit of metal just above his tummy button.

So there's something embedded in there. We don't know how many bits it's broken into.

It's come with quite a force.

He's being very brave about it all, to be honest.

They'll have to do an X-ray first to be sure there's only one bit.

Then when they've decided how many bits there are then they'll work out

the best way of removing it without damaging or without

making a huge cut and damaging too many structures.

That's a decision for a surgeon, really.

The point of the ambulance service is to get people to hospital quickly

where they can have the definitive care that they need -

surgeons, doctors, X-ray machines, back-up, intensive care units.

None of those are available at the side of the road so the quicker

the patient gets to hospital the better, really.

I'm not sure I'd be that brave if I'd just been shot.

Within an hour of leaving the fells,

Matthew was undergoing surgery to remove metal from his abdomen.

Gunshot wounds are rare and dangerous.

But incredibly, within a few weeks,

he's back in the Dales with his dad, his wounds healed already.

That was the entry.

That was where they cut one piece out. That was the entry

and it ended up lodged in there.

And there's another one down here.

Matthew, I used to an police officer for eight years

and I saw loads of people injured with firearms and I'm amazed to see you're up so quickly.

What can you remember about what happened that day?

Nothing much except for going to hospital about an hour afterwards.

Really? You just can't remember?

-No.

-After I fired a shot there was a funny noise

and then a lot of swearing from behind me.

When I turned round,

Matt was ripping his coat open.

What do you feel about shooting now?

-I still want to go.

-You still want to?

-Yeah.

-It's not put you off?

-No.

What did Matthew's mum say when you got back?

Well, she was obviously very worried in the first place, but since then,

not a lot really. She's no objection to us carrying on.

It went down a lot better than I thought it would, to be honest!

Matthew and his dad are unlikely to be shooting this gun again,

but it'll take more than a near miss to keep them off the fells.

That's all from Helicopter Heroes. But when we come back...

A sports car takes off and hits a roadside building.

Now, two people are trapped.

She's very cold.

Three motorcyclists badly need help high in the Dales.

Several motorcyclists have gone into the wagon as they've gone round the corner.

There's an accident with a saw and a man loses his hand.

He's actually lost his thumb and taken most of his fingers off.

Can surgeons sew it back on?

And paramedic Daz saves a woman in a diabetic coma with the help of an old-fashioned remedy.

Can you get me some jam and bread?

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd