Episode 20 Helicopter Heroes

When you're with someone who'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 can be one of the most beautiful sights in the world.

It 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, two bikers are seriously injured and the team find they're dealing with an amazing coincidence.

Three people in a party and two of them are in crashes.

A walker's badly hurt after a herd of cows attack him.

The cows are scared of helicopters, apparently.

There's a lucky escape as two cars collide and one catches fire.

People were driving past when the car was on fire.

And a fall from a rope swing leaves a teenage girl needing a flight to hospital.

A lot of us know what stress at work is like.

I know I did when I wore a uniform for a living.

But when your job involves taking responsibility for someone's life,

you really find out your limits.

The market town of Helmsley is the sort of place you buy postcards of.

A cobbled market square, surrounded by old stone shops.

But it also has a powerful attraction for Yorkshire's bikers.

They ride here in their hundreds on weekends.

And 50 miles away, at Leeds Bradford Airport,

dispatcher Dave Gardener knows they're on the road.

Two 999 calls have come in within minutes of each other for bikers in trouble.

Sounds like it could be two separate jobs.

Sounds like one six miles out of Helmsley, and one actually under the car in Helmsley.

On the twisting road north from the town to Teeside, there's been a

head-on collision between a bike and a family on a caravanning holiday.

They're OK, but biker Geoff Potts is in a bad way.

I was in the passenger seat. I put my hands over my face,

and when I looked up he was going off the bonnet.

The accident was witnessed by one of his mates, who was following on another bike.

Yeah. Come round the bend and there was a...

looked like a Lexus tourer caravan.

Clipped the Lexus and ended up going into a signpost.

Typical place to put a signpost, you know?

Paramedics Tony Wilkes and Lee Davison know this road

and its reputation for fatal bike accidents.

Six miles away in Helmsley itself, another rider has come off in another nasty accident.

He has a suspected broken pelvis and he needs an air ambulance,

so Helimed 98 is scrambled from its base in Sheffield, 70 miles away.

'Helimed 98, receiving.'

The second RTA is actually in the town.

They're thinking the motorcyclist is under the car.

Helimed 99 is going to north of Helmsley.

It's Bank Holiday Monday. It's obviously the busiest day of the year and already,

Helimed 99 is en route to a job near Helmsley.

We believe this job, which is only six miles away, to be a different one,

so we're both out and about, and this is reports of a motorcyclist underneath a car.

It's unusual to have two such serious incidents within such a small area at the same time.

It's stretching the local emergency services to the limit.

This is the Stokesley to Helmsley road and it is quite notorious for accidents,

especially motorcycle accidents of a nature similar to this.

We're just landing in two minutes, can you let them know, please...?

Helimed 99's pilot, Andy Figg, has the easiest job today.

Landing in a wide open spaces on the North York Moors won't be a problem,

which is more than can be said for his colleague, Tim Taylor,

scrambled to a busy town centre, on a Bank Holiday Monday.

STATIC DISTORTS THEIR SPEECH

The team have just left a half-eaten lunch behind.

Sugary...

A sense of humour helps get paramedics

through their working day, but this case looks deadly serious.

-I think he's caught under the car.

-He doesn't look very well.

A car park's the handiest landing site.

I think we can go in that bus park down there, then.

Have you got change for the meter?

-Bring your tail round.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-How we doing out there?

STATIC DISTORTS THEIR SPEECH

-Hi.

-We have a gentleman who's been hit by the side of a vehicle.

There's a crew with me in the corner of the marketplace.

But if we could keep you coming in case we need you...

-Not a problem.

-Just down there.

-Okey-dokey.

How extensive his injuries are has not been confirmed.

-Is he still trapped underneath?

-No. He's outside of the vehicle.

-He's a large fellow, perfectly healthy normally.

-Yep.

His motorcycle collided with a car crossing his path.

He's been thrown over the bonnet and his sheer weight and rolling across the ground is what's damaged...

I'm not sure if it's femur or pelvis.

-How do, sir?

-Gareth.

-Gareth. Hello. I'm Sammy, one of the paramedics.

200 megs of tram.

-Just stay still for me.

-Can I have some painkillers, please?

Yes, sir. I want you to stay absolutely still for me.

-My head and that's all right.

-Your head and that is all right, I know.

Like many modern bike riders, Sammy's patient is in his 40s.

That means his recovery is likely to be slower than a younger patient.

Can you keep still for me? That's it.

Gareth knows he's seriously injured.

Ground paramedics have already started his treatment, but Sammy's concerned the impact he's suffered

may have caused other internal injuries.

-GARETH GROANS

-Try and stay still.

Gareth, just let Sam check you over, quickly, just to make sure.

Six miles up the road, Geoff, too, has a medical team at his side.

-Just hold your head nice and still.

-OK.

The traction splint should be in a blue bag.

It's in the rear towards the right-hand side of the grey...

Many bikers have died after accidents like his on the road from Helmsley,

but Doctor Simon Ward is determined this isn't going to be another one.

The lives of both bikers are on the line.

They've both survived being thrown from their machines but they're still a long way from hospital.

Coming up, the team discover the accidents are linked by more than the location.

Three people in a party, and two of them are in crashes.

And fears grow for one of the bikers.

Emergency services are scrambled to a blazing car, but where's the driver?

I'm just going to try and find the other driver of the Jaguar car.

And a climber falls in the Peak District, but she's not getting much sympathy.

She slipped on the grass. That's all. Nothing dramatic.

If you really want to live dangerously, become a couch potato.

Furring up your arteries is the best way to ruin your health.

But there are dangers in getting out here and keeping fit, too.

There's over two and a half million acres of farmland

spread out across Yorkshire's beautiful countryside.

And farming's always been big business in this part of the world.

Enjoying the rolling hills and lush pastures are some half a million cattle,

but cows can be unpredictable and are not always happy to share their field.

It's Sunday morning at Helimed HQ, but there's no time to finish breakfast.

A 999 call's just come in, and it sounds serious.

It's just above Bolton Abbey so I'm assuming it's going to be in that area there, somewhere.

The call's come in from the historic Bolton Abbey in the Yorkshire Dales,

one of Yorkshire's top tourist attractions.

Just a mile from the Abbey, a man's lying seriously injured in the middle of a field.

He's been trampled and kicked by a herd of cattle protecting their calves.

Helimed 98 has been scrambled. Paramedic Sammy Wells and Simon Cavanagh

know a land ambulance won't be able to get close to the injured man,

and the cows are still in the field. The helicopter could be his only hope.

We're en route at the moment to reports of two people

that have been attacked by a bull.

A bit disconcerting since we're wearing red!

We've got reports of a chest injury so it's pretty significant. Once again,

personal safety and the safety of the aircraft is always our priority

-and then the safety of the patient.

-When they work as ground paramedics, Sammy and Simon

regularly have to treat patients in hazardous situations, but they always have police back-up.

Today they're facing the prospect of landing in a field miles from the nearest road

and with a herd of cattle intent on protecting their young.

We better move the cows out the way. That's what I'm concerned about.

It's taken just ten minutes to reach Bolton Abbey.

There are people frantically waving on the ground, but there's no sign of the patient.

Got a big rope by the fence.

-Yeah.

-And there's two people also in the field below me.

Pilot Tim Taylor decides to land in a nearby field and drop Simon off to find out what's going on.

The injured man is actually in the next field, but the cows are still attacking him.

He's just over the ridge in front of us. He's lying down in the field.

The cows have attacked him a couple of times.

Tim decides there's only one thing he can do.

Wanna do a bit of herding?

STATIC DISTORTS THEIR SPEECH

I don't think there's a cow lying down at the side.

I'd send them off to the far corner but they're going to be coming back again.

-OK.

-They may not teach this at pilot training school,

but Tim skilfully manoeuvres the helicopter over the cows

and begins to herd them away from the injured man.

When we get them on this flat bit side, I'll put us down.

If you have a look at the bloke, I'll keep herding them into the corner, so get ready to run, mate.

-Then I'll pick you up again.

-Thanks, mate.

With Tim keeping an eye on the cows, Simon quickly makes his way towards his patient.

Right, sir, let's have a look at you.

This doesn't look good.

The man's been lying face down in the mud for over 15 minutes

and no-one's been able to get close enough to help.

Cows are scared of helicopters, apparently.

Your hand's moving, fingers moving. Your neck's OK.

75-year-old vicar Peter Hallum is covered in cuts and bruises, and he's struggling to breathe.

His wife Debbie managed to push the cows away, but is understandably in shock.

I'm with you, Peter.

PETER GROANS Yes. Squeeze my arm.

Simon knows Peter needs to be in hospital, but events are about to take an unexpected turn.

The cows that attacked the couple are heading back towards them.

When it's a dangerous animal, we usually get police marksmen out, and that way if they attack again...

Even a large yellow noisy helicopter isn't enough to keep the cows back.

Simon is trying to treat Peter, and he's now relying on Tim to keep the cows away from him and his patient.

Can Tim fend off the cattle and protect Simon and Peter?

Coming up, the team begin the race to get their patient to hospital,

but his medical history is against him.

Doctor Simon's worried about the condition of a biker after he discovers he's a transplant patient.

And the holiday season arrives in Yorkshire,

but one tourist's life is in danger from a sudden heart attack.

Can you just let me know what time the pain came on?

Commuting would be a dream if I had one of these to get home in.

The Helimed MP Explorer can do 150 mph,

but as we all know, driving on the roads down there reaching double figures can be a challenge,

especially after there's been a shunt.

In North Yorkshire, emergency services have been scrambled to a serious accident.

Two cars have crashed, and one has caught fire.

The first traffic cop to arrive captures the scene on video.

SIRENS WAIL

Three people are hurt. Courageous passers-by have rescued one driver from her blazing hatchback.

Accidents bring out not only the best, but also the worst, in some motorists.

Quite shocking in the way that people were driving past when the car was on fire.

Helimed 99's on the case.

Car fires, especially after an accident, are rare,

and paramedics Lee Davison and Tony Wilkes know the chemicals generated

by burning plastics can be highly toxic.

But first, they've got to reach their patients.

Hiya. I've only just arrived. This one's got an arm injury.

Nothing else obvious.

One motorist appears to have only minor injuries.

There's been this incident here behind us. I'm just going to try

and find the other driver of the Jaguar car.

Angela Walker is on oxygen after inhaling fumes from her blazing car.

Did you have your seatbelt on? Yeah? And you've just got some pain across your chest?

Oh, oh, yes.

Mark Walker was the passenger in his wife's hatchback.

He's in severe pain from an arm injury.

The Walkers were dragged dazed and choking from their burning Peugeot.

The rescuers had little time to worry about worsening their injuries.

There was literally, one car was up, smoke was coming out the bonnet.

Flames were coming out from underneath and it was just a case of

whatever the injury, we need to get them out as quick as we can.

-Do you have any pain in your chest, at all?

-No.

-So that doesn't hurt at all?

-No.

-OK.

-Paramedic Tony believes Mark has a serious arm injury,

but his patient's unwilling to let him examine it properly.

-Do you mind if I just cut this jacket to have a look?

-I don't want it cut.

OK. That's fair enough.

Will it slide up? That's the one thing he's said, "Don't let them cut my jacket"!

To be honest, to get that off without cutting, it's going to cause more pain than enough.

-OK.

-It might have to be a new jacket, mate.

The occupants of the other car involved fared much better in the impact.

I've just been in to see the patients who have been in the Jaguar car

and the driver has got no injuries that we can find out at the moment.

The passenger, who was his daughter, she's got a slight seatbelt burn

on the left-hand side of her neck, but no central neck pain.

No other injuries that we can make out, so at the moment, they're not our priority.

As if their patients weren't in enough discomfort, the heavens open.

It's the Harrogate crew that are coming to them.

They're just at North Wigton, about a mile away.

Angela's going to hospital first. It's just a precaution, but she's complaining of chest pain.

It's probably bruising from her seat belt, but accidents have been known to bring on heart attacks.

The crew are here now from Harrogate so we're just going to hand over to them.

Got the first patient loaded.

Tony decides Mark's arm injury isn't serious enough to qualify

for a flight to hospital, but he does need painkillers.

Yeah. Just to let you know, this guy that was laid on the ground, they've exposed his left arm.

Got quite a nasty skin wound. Tony's going to give him some morphine.

The use of morphine's strictly controlled, so Tony must travel to the hospital with him.

Just travelling, just in case any complications,

after morphine's been administered.

I've been to hundreds of road accidents and I've never seen a fire like this.

Cars have safety devices that should cut off the fuel supply after an impact.

Considering the heat, the smoke and the damage,

four people have been very lucky here.

And without the ordinary motorists who risked their own lives to help,

Mark and Angela might not be here.

They have been very very lucky.

I think they've got to thank the people who came to them in that first instance

and got them clear and have helped them on the road to recovery what could have been very serious.

And after three operations on Mark's arm, he's now looking at heading back to work.

And he's beginning to get vague recollections about what happened that day.

I sort of looked round and just saw a big black mass and then, that were it. I were down.

It were a deafening sound and then after that,

I were just totally blank then.

We were hit, and I just remember

going forward and backwards quickly

and the windscreen crashing... it was working...

and that's all I remember.

Very lucky. Very lucky.

Lucky that those lads actually saw it setting on fire, cos apparently,

from it setting on fire to it blowing up, it weren't too long.

No. And I'm glad the people in the other car were all right.

They were lucky they got out.

Coming up, pilot Tim takes to the air again

to drive off the dairy cows that trampled a walker.

The big grey one, it was obviously in charge of the gang.

And the summer holidays bring a big increase in the Helimed team's workload.

Now, let's catch up on that case we brought you earlier.

And it's proving more complicated than the Helimed team expected.

Two bikers have been seriously injured in separate accidents

around the town of Helmsley, on the North York Moors.

One biker has ended up underneath a parked vehicle, after a collision with a car near the town centre.

Six miles away, Geoff Potts was in a collision with a car and a caravan.

He landed on a car's bonnet and then hit a road sign.

He has serious injuries, and flying doctor Simon Ward is worried.

Geoff is still recovering from a major operation to give him a new liver.

I've just given him some morphine, a strong painkiller.

Often, morphine makes people feel nauseous, so we're going to give him

another drug, which hopefully will help him stop feeling sick.

With his leg shattered and several other serious injuries, Geoff urgently needs hospital treatment

and flying doctor, Simon Ward, wants to fly him back to Leeds General Infirmary,

the hospital where he had his transplant, in case there are complications.

He's got a dislocated left elbow.

He's got a nasty lower leg fracture, which as you can see is quite tight.

The bone's quite tight to the skin.

This road has a grim reputation for serious accidents.

And the local hotelier is used to helping pick up the pieces.

There's normally flowers on that next corner,

50 yards down there where there was a chap killed about two years ago.

She's taken in some of the shocked survivors of the crash.

One more thing to take in is the extraordinary coincidence they've just been part of.

The two casualties are friends.

Three people in a party and two of them are in crashes.

He was saying he was glad his daughter wasn't in the back, and he's just had a liver transplant.

It turns out Geoff and his fellow patient, Gareth Williams,

were riding together when the first accident happened.

Geoff didn't realise Gareth had disappeared from the group.

He's still unaware he's not alone in needing hospital treatment this afternoon.

Back in the town centre...

GARETH GROANS AND SCREAMS IN PAIN

..Geoff's friend Gareth is struggling to cope with the pain caused by his injured hip.

Paramedic Sammy Wills needs to move him onto a rigid board,

but her patient is in too much pain, and she's already given him the maximum dose of morphine.

He seems to have sustained quite a nasty injury

to probably his femur, possibly his pelvis.

We're going to take him to St James' Hospital, which is about 12 minutes away.

Another of Geoff and Gareth's friends, Wayne Moor, saw Gareth's accident.

He's struggling to cope with the fact that two of his friends have been seriously injured.

He just come along, straight in the side of him,

threw him over here and underneath the van.

Further up the road, he's come off and smashed his leg up, my friend's just been on the phone to me there.

The accidents have brought chaos to the narrow lanes of the North York Moors.

Police accident investigators are already on the case.

For the crew of Helimed 99, it's only a short walk to move Geoff into the waiting helicopter.

Back in the centre of Helmsley, getting Gareth into Helimed 98 is proving more difficult.

We're just bringing our patient into the vehicle, we are just in the car park.

It's only a couple of hundred metres away. It's clearly a fractured pelvis.

And...he's quite a large gentleman,

so we're trying to assess the swelling and deformity.

He's in a lot of pain!

Finally, Geoff and Gareth are ready for their vital flights to hospital.

Is it still the arm that's sore, or is it the leg?

But before Helimed 98 can leave the centre of Helmsley,

pilot Tim has to deal with a large crowd of onlookers watching the dramatic event.

It's not an ideal landing site.

It's full of tourists that are obviously quite keen

to see what's happening, and are unresponsive to being asked to move.

The group of bikers had planned to be enjoying themselves at the seaside by now.

We were just on our way to Whitby, up the Helmsley road,

stop at Helmsley. Chat to other bikers and head off

into Whitby for the day, you know?

Fish and chips by the sea, as it were.

Instead, Geoff and Gareth will soon be on their way to hospital.

One will fly south to Leeds in Helimed 99,

and the other north to Middlesbrough in Helimed 98.

They have both sustained serious and potentially life-changing injuries.

And they still don't know that the other has been injured.

But will they ever be able to go out biking together again?

Coming up, Geoff's body has barely recovered from his transplant,

but can doctors treat his injuries as well as saving his new liver?

And a few minutes ago, he was enjoying a holiday.

Now he's fighting for his life.

A tourist has a heart attack.

Getting around in a landscape like this can be tiring, especially if you're on foot.

But walking in the Dales has other dangers, as one rambler has found out in the hills near Bolton Abbey.

Paramedic Simon Cavanagh is helping retired vicar, the Reverend Peter Hallam,

who's been seriously injured after being attacked by a herd of cattle.

Pilot Tim Taylor has managed to coral the cows into the corner of a field,

but even the helicopter hasn't deterred them,

and they're heading back towards Simon and his patient.

Tim once more lifts off to scare the cows back into the corner of the field.

It's a tense few moments, but to everyone's relief, Tim's plan works and the cows finally head off.

Paramedic Sammy Wills is now free to help Simon move Peter away from danger.

As far as we can tell, he's got a wound to the head which I haven't had time to look at yet. Abdominal pain.

All limbs seem to be OK. Neck and back's clear.

Many cows weigh over half a ton, and Peter's taken some heavy blows.

Simon's worried he could be bleeding internally, and that can be fatal.

I want you to put this arm down.

Down by your side. That's it, Pete. Well done.

OK, lad.

Back in the helicopter, pilot Tim is keeping a close eye on the cattle.

Sammy and Simon move Peter onto a rigid spinal board

and start to find out just how serious his internal injuries are.

Just try and slow your breathing down a little.

Sorry, Tim. They're on the move.

The cattle are still moving ominously towards Sammy and Simon.

They're working as fast as they can, but it's becoming clear

that the cows have caused some serious damage to Peter's body.

I want you to keep your head nice and still for me.

Finally, a ranger arrives. He's just in time.

Sammy and Simon are ready to load Peter on to the helicopter,

and they don't want to carry him back towards the cows.

-Sammy to Tim. Over.

-Go ahead, Sammy.

This chap is potentially time critical.

What we'd like to do is also bring his partner as a walking wounded. Is that OK? Over.

Over, I've kept an eye on the cows and they seem to have quietened down so I'll reposition next to you.

Pilot Tim's happy the cows have calmed down enough to fly closer to Sammy and Simon.

The team can now quickly load Peter and his wife Debbie, who's also been injured, on to the helicopter.

We're just using the helicopter to herd the cows into the corner of the field.

But one of them, the big grey one,

is obviously in charge of the gang, but he wasn't particularly impressed

with me or the helicopter, but we slowly managed to persuade him to move

with the rest of the flock into the corner of the field. So I've just been sat

in between the patient and the cows

for the last five, ten minutes, with the engines running,

and as the cows have been coming towards the patient,

we've just pushed them back into the corner again.

It seems to have worked quite well.

PETER GROANS Can't breathe...!

-You feel like you can't breathe?

-Can't breathe!

-OK.

We're going to see how effectively you're breathing. All right?

I think it was curled and went on my back, more than anything, I don't know.

-But it's my back, it's just...there.

-I'll go and get my steth.

Now Simon's got Peter safely on to the helicopter,

he can start to assess his injuries more closely.

It's quite a bad grazing.

He's sustained an impact to the side of his chest.

So we can't hear his breath as clear as we should be able to

at the bottom of his chest. Top of his chest sounds OK, cos the air's going in that way.

We're concerned about his breathing.

The main problems with this scene, obviously, was the danger, so we had to move quite quickly.

We've got him on oxygen.

His observations all seem to be OK at the minute.

We've got a line in, so if anything happens we can deal with it.

Without Helimed 98, Peter would still be lying face down in the field surrounded by cattle.

Now he'll be in hospital in less than ten minutes with his wife by his side.

Simon must carefully monitor Peter's condition, but he's worried.

STATIC DISTORTS THEIR SPEECH

Peter's blood pressure is dangerously low,

and he already has a weak heart after a previous bypass operation.

The stress and shock of being attacked by a herd of cattle

could prove too much for his body to handle.

We're just about to land and we'll be popping your husband onto another trolley and walking to resus.

There'll be somebody waiting to receive us.

All right? They know you're coming as well. Do you feel OK?

SHE MOUTHS

-Got visual at one o'clock?

-Yeah, got visual.

A team of doctors are waiting at Harrogate Hospital.

Only a scan will reveal just how serious Peter's condition is.

He started going downhill in the helicopter.

He's in, sort of, the initial stages of shock, really.

His pulse is starting to go up, his breathing was getting a bit more shallow and a bit quicker,

so we upped the fluid a bit until I could feel a radial pulse.

The next few hours, maybe the next few days, will be critical, I think.

They're going to scan him now and obviously do chest and pelvis x-rays.

They'll be able to figure out of something has been injured internally.

Simon could have just saved Peter's life, but this job will be memorable for another reason.

CATTLE LOW I've never come across

a gang of cows who'll knock you down and beat you up, then come back for more,

so I don't know what spooked them. It's not their usual behaviour.

-It's a very hard situation.

-It's touch and go for Peter.

He suffers a heart attack in hospital and he's rushed straight to intensive care,

but ten days later, I'm delighted to say, he's making a good recovery.

It was pretty frightening, yeah.

There came a point when you thought, "I'm not going to get out of this."

You know? "Whatever happens, I won't survive it."

There's a lovely walk from the top of the moor down to Bolton Abbey.

Unfortunately, what we didn't realise was that there was a whole herd of cattle

in the lower portions of this walk,

towards Bolton Abbey, erm, and that's where we met up.

Peter tried to fight back with a stick, but the cows were just too strong.

The more you hit them, the more they pushed you from behind,

and eventually I hit the ground, and all you can do is aim at them with the stick.

I managed to get up, I think twice, and get a bit more ground,

but by that time there were too many of them all around.

Peter and his wife Debbie love walking their dogs,

but they'll think twice before taking them through a field of cattle again.

I think, in future... It's expanded our experience, and if we come to a situation like that again,

and there's evidently, a lot of young beasts and their parents all in the one field,

and you've got a lively dog and a rather docile dog, you don't go through.

Coming up, a transplant patient is back in hospital and this time, no donor can help him recover.

It's easy to be seen when you're flying through the sky in something this colour,

but sometimes, finding someone in trouble down there can be a problem.

It's summer, and tourism's big business in Yorkshire.

12 million people visit the county every year,

from sightseers in historic York to walkers in the Dales,

to families looking for a week at the seaside.

But for an unlucky few, summer ends with an accident,

and a holiday flight nobody expected.

Today, Helimed 99 has been scrambled to woods in West Yorkshire.

-Hi, guys. Is this the best access we've got?

-Sorry?

-I love it...!

Paramedics Pat Greakin and Sammy Wills are looking for an injured child.

Hello!

Open your eyes for me.

Hello! Hiya...

12-year-old Ellen Ledyard was trying out a rope swing

when she lost her grip and fell ten feet to the ground.

She's hurt her back badly and ground paramedics fear she could have injured her spine.

-Get your head together.

-Can I have a blanket?

We've got the blanket. It's right behind you.

Sammy needs to know exactly how Ellen fell.

One of her friends saw what happened.

Can you show me how high up on that tree she fell?

She came from here, and she went like that.

-And she fell off.

-Right, OK.

She swung forward but she didn't manage to get on properly,

so her hands were grabbing onto it, then she dropped.

She let go and she slapped her head and her hands on the floor first and then her body did.

And she was unconscious for a bit.

Ellen's mum Tracy is flying to hospital with her.

The flight to Huddersfield will barely last five minutes,

but with an injury like this, paramedics don't take any chances.

I used to go on rope swings, but the inertia, unfortunately,

makes your arms weaker and you tend to fall off.

That was a big rope swing. When that girl swung it out to show me

how far she could have fallen, I was surprised.

It's not very good for the start of the holidays,

for Mum especially. You know, wondering where your daughter is.

Now she knows she may be spending a couple of days in hospital, I think.

So it's not a nice start to the school holidays for Mum and for the child, I suppose.

Ellen was x-rayed on her arrival and her injuries were not found to be serious.

She'll be more careful around rope swings next time.

It's the rugged rocks of the Pennines that bring adventurous holidaymakers to the north.

And no-one likes them better than the UK's climbers.

The Derbyshire Peak District has more than 10,000 recorded climbing routes,

but today, one climber hasn't even made it to the rock face.

How are we actually going on there? Are we going to the side?

-It feels like it's a bit fat... the ankle. But it did make a loud noise!

-Did it?

Jude Jelly was about to tackle a crag with her mates from Colchester Climbing Club

when she slipped and hurt her ankle. It could be broken.

Judith slipped on the grass, cos she was wearing climbing shoes

which were quite slippy. You know, no grip.

If you're climbing this sort of rock, soft rubber is very slippy on the grass.

I've done the same myself. The main problem's going to be how to get away from here,

because it's quite a distance from the road.

Three weeks ago, Jude was hailed a hero herself when she called in mountain rescue

after coming across a walker with an injured leg in the Lake District.

-Now, SHE needs help.

-So I can't climb today?

-Possibly not. Unless you go one-legged.

Doctor Ben Wyatt and paramedic Paul Bradbury need to take off

Jude's climbing shoe, and that's going to hurt.

-Got it.

-Is it all right, Jude?

-It's painful.

Tell us if it's too painful.

-That's fine.

-You got clean feet? SHE LAUGHS

Doctor Ben's pretty sure it's not broken, just sprained.

Anywhere else, this would be an unremarkable injury, but nothing's simple in the Peaks.

Jude's in the middle of a boulder field, and she can't walk.

Even getting her to the chopper will be a challenge.

Sam, just confirm Mountain Rescue are coming. They are.

Climbers are a tough bunch, and Jude's not getting a lot of sympathy.

She slips over on the grass. That's all. Nothing dramatic.

And she ought to know better!

But if laughs can cure pain, she's getting plenty of treatment.

RSPCA are coming as well...(!)

This is getting worse by the minute!

Finally, Mountain Rescue arrives, and they reckon they can get her off the crag themselves.

Helimed 99 can return to base to wait for a more urgent patient.

Taking on the great outdoors has its risks.

Activity holidays are big business up here in the hills of the Yorkshire Dales.

But every year, some less adventurous holidaymakers

find themselves needing the Air Ambulance.

And when the nearest hospital's 20 miles away, that can be a matter of life or death.

Today, paramedics Lee Davison and Tony Wilkes have been called to a visitor centre

where tourist David Lee is having a heart attack.

David's in pain. Local paramedics have diagnosed an MI -

medical jargon for a heart attack.

Can you just let me know what time the pain came on?

DAVID MUMBLES

About two hours ago? Yeah, Tony, it was about two hours ago.

The electrodes fastened to his chest monitoring his condition

as his damaged heart muscles struggle to keep going.

As far as the heart attack's concerned,

the common saying is that time is heart muscle,

and the longer it's left unchecked, the more heart muscle's affected in terms of a patient outcome.

So the quicker we can treat him and get him up to James Cook,

then the better outcome there's going to be for the patient.

David's in luck. He's going to be flown direct to the specialist unit

at James Cook Hospital in Middlesbrough,

where doctors can literally clean out his blocked arteries.

He's pale and interesting, but he's had some morphine, so that will help his pain.

I think he's pleased that he's going to go to the right place to get the right treatment.

This is David's second heart attack.

This isn't how he expected his trip to the Dales to end,

but thanks to a treatment known as primary angioplasty,

he was soon well enough to go home and plan his next summer holiday.

Now, let's catch up on the case of the two mates

injured in separate accidents on the North York Moors.

A Bank Holiday ride to the North Yorkshire market town of Helmsley

has come to a dramatic halt for a group of bikers.

In an extraordinary coincidence,

two members of the group have come off their bikes in separate incidents

and they both need an Air Ambulance.

Helimed's 98 crew have been treating Gareth Williams in the centre of Helmsley.

Meanwhile, six miles down the road, Helimed 99 have been helping his friend Geoff Potts.

How's the pain at the moment?

Is it as bad as what it was before the doctor gave you some pain relief?

They have both sustained some serious injuries,

and Geoff is still recovering from a liver transplant operation.

The surgeons who performed his transplant are waiting at the Leeds General Infirmary,

and thanks to Helimed 99, he'll be there in just 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, Gareth is on his way to the James Cook Hospital in Middlesbrough.

Despite falling off his bike at low speed, he's broken the largest bone in the body -

his thigh bone - and that's worrying paramedics Sammy Wills.

He's got a lot of pain

beneath the upper leg.

It's hard to say whether it's his pelvis or his thigh bone.

Either way, it can be really quite serious.

You could lose a lot of blood into that.

As Helimed 98 flies north, Helimed 99 lands at the Leeds General Infirmary.

Geoff's body is already weak after his liver transplant,

but it now has to cope with a number of broken bones and a possible spinal injury.

It's going to be an anxious wait for Geoff's friends and family to find out if he'll get better.

Transplant patients often suffer numerous complications,

but a week and another operation later, Geoff is on the way to making a full recovery.

I did hear the impact,

and I did feel in a lot of pain, but I made it, you know,

and I come through it. I hadn't just...

That was it, I didn't stop.

He may have survived the crash, but Geoff suffered some very painful and worrying injuries.

Leg's fractured completely, like,

it was sticking through, the back bones were sticking through.

The arm's dislocated, fractured.

Pelvis was broken, and a slight break on the neck.

Geoff thought he'd never see his daughter again...

..and now he's facing a long stay in hospital.

But despite everything that happened, he's still got his sense of humour.

That was a big car. I do remember it being big!

I do remember it being a big one, yeah!

-It was hard, as well.

-HE LAUGHS

It all happened that quick, I just didn't have time to think,

"How am I gonna get through this?".

It will be a long time before Geoff sees his fellow biker Gareth.

Friends are unsure how he'd take the news that Gareth had also been airlifted to hospital,

and Geoff still can't believe he was involved in such a painful coincidence.

It was later on that day that I was actually told that...

Gareth was involved in one as well.

There was four of us going out on the bike.

Two of us had an accident within five miles of each other, at the same time.

You know, it just doesn't happen.... But, it does now.

We've changed that to, "It does now"!

And what about Gareth?

He broke his leg and pelvis. And he too faces a long stay in hospital...

in traction.

And that's all from this series of the real life Helicopter Heroes of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance.

See you next time.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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