Episode 4 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.

A helicopter like this can be one of the most beautiful sights in the world.

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 cities of Leeds and Sheffield, patients in the UK's biggest county

are never more than ten minutes from a hospital,

thanks to this 150 mile an hour 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...

there's chaos on the M1 as the team fight to free two trapped drivers.

He's trapped by his legs and his feet.

A golfer is struck down on the fairway by a heart attack.

-The pain started on the 7th.

-Yes, on the 7th.

The team race to a rush-hour accident.

He's in a great deal of pain. It's affected his whole body.

And pilot Matt faces a tense emergency landing.

If the transmission fails, then we'll be going downwards rather rapidly.

We're covering the ground at over two miles a minute,

so it's no wonder this helicopter is often first at the scene,

but when two paramedics and a pilot touch down at a motorway pile-up,

they're often on their own.

In South Yorkshire, there's been a huge pile-up on one of the country's busiest motorways.

There's one lad trapped in the van, there's another lorry driver trapped, two vehicles back,

and an injury to a person who was changing a wheel on the hard shoulder,

and we're treating it as quite a major incident.

Helimed 98 is scrambled straightaway.

The trapped truckers need their help, and at 150 miles an hour, the crew will soon be there.

We've got reports of an RTC with more than three lorries.

Our flying time from the airport is about two minutes to get there.

100 tons of twisted metal is blocking one side of the M1.

The trapped drivers have survived the huge impact,

but with other emergency services battling through the traffic, they need the helicopter, fast.

There's not normally as many casualties with lorries -

there's normally just one driver rather than a car with

three or four passengers in, so there could be slow impact or there could

be quite high impact, but hopefully not, hopefully it will be a slow one.

One has got the steering wheel right into his abdomen.

Paramedics Paul Bradbury and Simon Kavanagh are first on the scene,

and must now split up to quickly assess each driver.

Even though both patients are awake and talking,

they could both have serious internal injuries.

-All right.

-BLEEP, BLEEP.

-All right.

Paramedic Paul immediately spots the driver of the white van is in trouble.

Matthew Marsh is in severe pain and showing all the signs of internal bleeding.

Right, we've got three casualties here.

This is by far the worst casualty.

He's run into the back of the container vehicle.

He's trapped by his legs and his feet.

Matthew needs fluids to prevent him going into shock,

but his blood vessels are contracting as a reaction to the crash,

and finding a vein for a life-saving drip isn't easy.

He's got the steering wheel stuck onto his abdomen, which we can't move,

and he's got the foot pedals of the van itself stuck onto his feet, which we can't move.

We'll try and stabilise him. Then the Fire Service will hopefully

pull it off him and then we can try and get him out.

This is a race against time.

Just metres from where Paul is treating his patient,

inflammable fuel is gushing out of the wreckage.

With traffic still driving past,

this is a very dangerous place to be.

Meanwhile, paramedic Simon has got problems of his own.

Nigel Exton is pinned into his seat by the steering wheel.

He's got a broken leg, we think.

No other injuries, nothing life-threatening at the minute, OK?

Simon needs to treat the broken leg and rule out internal injuries,

but first he needs to find a way to free Nigel.

The Fire Brigade have the answer, and they call them,

"The jaws of life".

There's little these hugely powerful cutters can't slice through.

Come on, he's clear now, I've got it.

One slip here and Simon could have a serious injury to deal with.

Finally, the pressure on Nigel's stomach is relieved,

but he's still stuck in the crushed cab.

The crew now need to find a way to get Nigel out

so Simon can treat his broken leg.

In the white van, driver Matthew is still trapped.

The fire crews are desperately trying to release him,

and paramedic Paul is still stabilising his condition,

but Matthew also needs pilot Tim Taylor's help.

The plan will be we're going to close the opposite carriageway

and reposition the Air Ambulance just to the front of the vehicles here

so we can lay the patient up and then take him to hospital.

Ex-Army pilot Tim has landed choppers whilst dodging enemy fire

in Iraq, but this manoeuvre is also fraught with danger.

Vehicles and debris is littered across the carriageway,

and the motorway is lined by crash barriers and road signs.

Both drivers have now been trapped for over half an hour,

and both Paul and Simon want their patients out.

It's now up to the fire crews to find a way to release Matthew and Nigel.

But can they do it before their conditions deteriorate?

Coming up, the Fire Brigade start to take apart Matthew's van.

At the moment, he's absolutely trapped solid with his abdomen.

Paramedics Daz and Pete race to the rescue of a badly injured motorist.

He's in a great deal of pain. It's affected his whole body.

And a businessman gets cardiac care at his desk.

-It's just on the peak there, isn't it.

-Yeah.

A heart attack can strike at any time,

and it can take the emergency services vital minutes to reach you,

especially when you're halfway through a round of golf.

When the sun shines, the greens of Yorkshire fill up with the regulars.

They are mainly middle-aged, some are pensioners.

In fact, exactly the age range most at risk of heart disease.

And on a golf course less than a mile away from Air Ambulance HQ,

a golfer has collapsed.

It's a crew that are on the scene with a lady who's having a heart attack

at Horsforth Golf Club.

Golfer Anne Tye's round has come to an abrupt end, on the tenth fairway.

She is having a heart attack and is fighting for her life.

Her pain started on the seventh.

-She didn't say anything...

-And this is the tenth.

Anne's in a critical condition and needs specialist hospital care fast.

Helimed 99 is immediately despatched.

-On course.

-Roger.

-In that position.

-Got harnesses.

-Locked and

-tight. Locked and tight in the rear.

On the nose. Looking good.

It's one of their shortest ever flights.

They're on the ground in just two minutes!

This is Anne Tye.

-She's 71.

-Hello, Anne.

Normally hypertensive,

on medication for that. She's no known other cardiac history

and not ischemic heart disease.

She was playing golf and approximately an hour ago

she started with some central chest pains, radiating to her neck and her back.

Anne's golf partners knew she was feeling unwell, but are still in shock.

We stopped on the ninth cos it's like, you have to wait, you know, because people are queuing up.

She said she felt a bit better after that, but then to come back on...

And then the colour drained from her face just then.

Paramedics Pat and Sammy must work fast.

Ground paramedics have stabilised Anne,

but they're all acutely aware she could go into cardiac arrest at any time.

I'm gonna move your arm down, OK? Pop your head down.

That's it. Pop your head down, Anne.

The crew also know that one of the country's leading cardiac centres,

Leeds General Infirmary, is only ten minutes away.

In this case, because it's a possible heart attack,

an MI, so the sooner we can get to angioplasty the better.

The quickest way for her, this lady is taken by helicopter.

Pick up here, straight down to the LGI,

we'll be there in two or three minutes, and then straight into surgery, if necessary.

Mind all your fingers.

-Fingers out.

-It's cruel.

You feel a bit uncomfortable?

What, in the centre of your chest? OK, Anne.

Helimed 9 Alpha is ready.

As Steve starts up, there's a problem.

The golf course is so close to Leeds Bradford Airport

that before they can take off, pilot Steve must wait for clearance from Air Traffic Control.

The traffic is clear down to the south.

Helimed 9 Alpha.

Helimed 9 Alpha just standing traffic at one and a half miles now, leaving very shortly.

Roger.

Air traffic control always gives Helimed 99 priority,

but a plane full of holidaymakers is about to land.

-OK, we're holding in case we have to go around.

-OK.

Vital seconds are being lost.

Finally, the plane lands and Steve gets clearance to take off.

It's now a race against time to get Anne to hospital in case her condition deteriorates.

We're going to be a couple of minutes onto the LGI helipad, OK, my love.

30 minutes ago, Anne was teeing off on the tenth hole.

Now she's landing on top of a major hospital, preparing for a diagnosis

that could change her life forever.

The team of cardiologists are waiting inside to assess Anne.

Sammy and Pat have done all they can, but Anne's heart could be badly damaged,

and it will be an agonising wait to find out whether she'll make a full recovery.

Right, you'll just feel yourself going down a bit of a slope, but are you are safe, all right.

The next day, and Anne is still being carefully monitored.

She's undergone numerous tests, scans and examinations

in what has been a traumatic 24 hours for her and her family.

For about an hour or so, I'd not really been feeling that well

but then suddenly I just felt worse.

The next thing I knew was that there was a paramedic car coming across the golf course!

But Anne's ordeal is not over - in fact, it's barely begun.

The scans have revealed that four arteries

leading in and out of her heart are blocked and could cause heart failure at any moment.

Anne's lucky to have survived yesterday's heart attack,

but now she faces the prospect of a risky triple bypass.

Well, it's open heart surgery,

so the heart is cooled and they're taking veins from my legs

and replacing the arteries that are blocked.

I'm not too sure yet how many they're doing.

I think there's at least two, possibly three, so I shan't know that until afterwards,

so it really is a major operation.

Anne's family are all at her bedside to support her.

For daughter, Sue, seeing her mum like this has come as a surprise.

I'm still in shock.

I always thought she was actually fitter than I was, you know.

There's no history, she's got a good diet,

she does everything right, you know, everything.

It was just... We still just can't believe

that she's got something like that wrong with her.

I don't like to dwell on it too much, really. I just think well,

it's going to be a big help to me, afterwards,

rather than just medication or something,

hopefully I can get back to playing golf again.

Coming up on Helicopter Heroes...

Paramedic Pat takes up golf, but will his patient be able to join him on the fairway?

On the M1, fuel is leaking from a wrecked lorry,

but the Fire Brigade must start cutting.

His right foot's trapped, so we're trying to release that.

It's definitely central, in the middle of your chest?

And a patient gets first aid on the phone, from paramedic Lee.

It's bad enough being stuck in a jam any day,

but sometimes traffic congestion can mean the difference between life and death,

which is where an air ambulance comes into its own.

It's going to be a long drive home in the rain tonight.

There's a road traffic collision on Otley Bypass. It's not too far away and LGI's the nearest.

Paul, we've got it on the bypass.

I don't know if you heard that conversation with the cops.

We've got a high speed impact and he believes someone's trapped.

The crew of Helimed 99 are on the way to a busy route

from Leeds to the commuter towns of the Wharfe Valley.

Paramedic Darren Axe and flying doctor Andy Poutney know their skills are urgently needed.

Motorist John Dickinson was giving his daughter, Sally,

a lift home from hospital when the accident happened.

She's not badly hurt but John is trapped in the wreckage of his car, with multiple injuries.

He's in a great deal of pain and he looks to have

a multi-system trauma really.

It's affecting his whole body,

so he needs to go to hospital as soon as possible.

We've given him pain relief but he's still got significant levels of pain so we need to get him off

as soon as possible and get him stabilised properly.

The paramedics' jobs have been made easier.

By sheer chance, two GPs were passing the scene,

one on his bike, and started treatment immediately.

We're just gonna give you something for the pain.

It's important that the doctors, first aiders on the scene don't make

the problem worse by interfering before the experts arrive,

and that's what we were waiting for,

the ambulance and the air ambulance.

For the Fire Brigade, this is a difficult rescue.

John is trapped by his legs, but his condition is serious.

Speed is vital.

We're currently in the process of taking the roof off of that vehicle.

Once we've got the roof off the vehicle we can put a long board into the vehicle,

down the back of his seat, between the seat and himself.

We can then slide him up the long board and extricate him from the vehicle and have him away.

Pilot Paul Curtis is used to being asked to fetch and carry medical equipment.

It's the one that looks like a weightlifter's belt.

If you could just get it out and have it handy, that's all.

Sally has a serious heart condition and was on her way home from an examination when the crash happened.

Now, she's on her way back to hospital for a check-up

but her father is very ill.

The paramedics have serious concerns for John.

He needs intensive care, now.

His breathing is not good. He's probably got a left flail segment.

He's not got a pneumothorax as such, but certainly a lot of crepitus on the left side.

He's got a fairly rigid belly and very tender pelvis.

He's had just ten of morphine and I think 35 of ketamine,

which has allowed us to get him out. That's about it.

We'll be taking off in about five minutes, I would have thought.

The Intensive Care Unit at Leeds General Infirmary is just ten miles away,

but even at 150 miles an hour, it will seem a long flight for the medical team.

Tests show that John has broken almost every bone in his body.

Over the next two weeks, doctors called his family to his bedside three times

because he wasn't expected to last the night,

but sometimes miracles do happen.

Christmas, four months after the crash,

and John is out, delivering his cards.

He may not be mobile yet, but this is good enough for his wife.

I was taken in twice by the doctor and told that things weren't going

as well as they should and that there was a great possibility that he wouldn't survive.

It takes you a long time to realise that this is actually

happening to you and isn't a dream that you're going to wake up from.

I don't remember the accident or the immediate follow-up to the accident.

I then remember a fireman

pushing out my window so he could cut the roof off

and I remember taking off in the air ambulance,

but apart from that, I just don't have memories of that day.

-Where are we?

-You're in the helicopter, mate.

-Good!

-I bet you're glad!

Somebody told me I had 16 broken ribs, both hips were broken,

my pelvis was broken,

I had several breaks down my legs, to both legs,

and a broken left wrist.

Well, the air ambulance was an absolutely godsend on the day.

Obviously I was very badly hurt

and I needed to be got into the specialist unit as quickly as possible,

and at half past four in the evening, getting into Leeds could have been a real problem.

Something like the air ambulance

is absolutely wonderful!

And with John home in time for Christmas,

his neighbours have pushed the boat out on the festive lights to celebrate,

and raise some money to say thanks.

It looks absolutely superb.

Incredibly tacky, that's what we go for, there's nothing subtle.

The money raised will help the air ambulance.

I know it's small beer in the total amount that they need each year to keep running,

but every little helps.

Coming up, paramedic Lee takes a life-saving phone call from a patient taken ill at the roadside.

It's definitely in the middle of your chest?

And Pat takes a trip to find out how one of his former patients is

getting on after a sudden heart attack at the golf club.

Now, let's catch up on the rescue operation to free two drivers

trapped in their cabs on the M1 near Sheffield.

On the M1 in South Yorkshire, there's traffic chaos as the crew

of Helimed 98 fight to free two drivers trapped in their cabs.

-All right.

-BLEEP. BLEEP.

This is by far the worst casualty.

He's run into the back of the container vehicle,

trapped by his legs and his feet.

It's been half an hour, and they're still pinned in their seats.

All right, Nigel. We're going to move you out, now. How's your pain?

Right. Is everybody ready?

Trucker Nigel was listening to Radio 2 when he crashed, and it

has provided a bizarre soundtrack to the rescue operation so far.

KEN BRUCE: Cerrone, Supernature.

JINGLE: BBC Radio 2.

But now, Nigel is about to get a mention.

'A couple of lanes are closed if you're on the M1.'

'I believe the air ambulance has now landed, which means they will close the road in both directions.'

The steering wheel that was trapping Nigel has been cut away by firefighters.

Now they face the delicate task of moving him without causing further damage to his badly broken leg.

-We're nearly there.

-Straighten this one out. This one's fine.

Right, on three. One, two, three.

And he's out...but Nigel won't be flying today.

The chopper is reserved for the van driver, whose injuries are more serious.

No, he's not on any medication as far as he can remember.

He's not been knocked out.

With an empty motorway ahead of them, the ambulance crew will soon have Nigel in hospital.

But van driver Matthew is still a long way from the medical treatment he desperately needs.

He's reasonably pain-free at the moment,

so we've dosed him up on morphine.

All his obs are fine, so we're going to try and get him out this way,

and if that doesn't work, we'll try plan C.

The twisted wreckage of Matthew's van is wrapped around his broken leg.

The cab is half the length it was before the pile-up.

The Fire Brigade can't reach him from the front, so half a ton of

kitchen surfaces will have to go, so they can try from another angle.

The Fire Service now are going to relieve the pressure on his abdomen

by lifting the steering wheel with a chain and a ram.

Hopefully, that will be enough so we can get him out.

We've already taken the back out of the van, so we can try and slide him back.

At the moment he's trapped solid with his abdomen.

Half an hour ago, Matthew was on his way to another delivery

and looking forward to moving house tomorrow. Now, he's seriously injured.

I can't see behind him. Can he come back about two or three inches from where he is now?

Not until we get through this thing.

Right, Matthew, if you can listen to me, we're going to start cutting through. It's going to vibrate.

If it hurts, tell me, and I'll get them to stop, all right?

His condition is stable but his rescuers know that that could change at any minute.

-You might hear a bit of a bang.

-Make sure that when that seat goes that somebody's got the seat.

I've got it, I've got it.

-Can you saw through that now?

-Hold up.

Oooh! Sorry about that, Matthew. That thud was it.

While the Fire Brigade work on, paramedic Paul Bradbury can only use

his sense of humour to keep Matthew's spirits up.

-Can you feel that?

-That's my feet.

-Your feet?

-You should buy some bigger shoes!

-I know!

The Fire Brigade are slowly taking Matthew's van apart.

The M1 has been blocked for more than an hour, and no-one is going anywhere.

Sadly, that includes Matthew.

We've released his left foot.

We're now just easing the seat back, inch by inch, and his right foot is

trapped now, so we're just trying to release that.

Helimed 98 is waiting to take off from the middle lane,

but until Matthew is free, it's just an expensive roadblock.

I've repositioned the helicopter onto the carriageway

so we can load him straightaway, as soon as he's free,

and we'll whip him off to the Northern General.

For us to land on the carriageway, the police have had to close the

other carriageway to stop the oncoming traffic.

That's purely to stop rubber-neckers causing another crash, and it makes a safer working environment for us.

The next plan is to use a saw to cut the seats out of the van,

but that will cause sparks,

and with so much fuel around, it will be a tense operation.

Coming up on Helicopter Heroes,

the length of Matthew's ordeal begins to give paramedic Paul cause for concern.

Can we come back about another three or four inches?

And the team drop into a country mansion

to treat a businessman taken ill in his office.

We've just landed at the front of the house.

When it comes to job satisfaction, saving someone's life is about as good at it gets

but it's not often Helimed 99's crew get to see the results of their work.

On a golf course next to Air Ambulance HQ,

golfer Anne Tye has collapsed on the tenth fairway.

She's having a heart attack and could go into cardiac arrest at any moment.

Luckily for her, Helimed 99 is only two minutes away,

and flies her into one of the country's leading cardiac centres, Leeds General Infirmary.

Anne undergoes numerous scans and tests which reveal all the arteries

to her heart are blocked, and she needs emergency open heart surgery.

I was fit and healthy with no problems, I thought, whatsoever,

and now it turns out I've got these blocked arteries which

are very, very dangerous.

It's six weeks since Anne underwent her quadruple bypass operation.

Back at her golf club, Anne's golfing pals have been busy

fundraising for the air ambulance and today they're expecting a very special guest.

Pat Greekin, one of the paramedics that helped rescue Anne, is on his

way to the course, but there's only one person on his mind and that's Anne.

She was still in the throes of having a heart attack so she was pale, clammy,

complaining of pain in her chest, and we managed to stabilise her

enough on the golf course with the help of the ambulance crews that were on the scene.

The big question is, though... is Anne here to meet him?

-Hello, Anne.

-Pleased to meet you!

-Hello!

-Nice to see you!

-And you! You're looking a lot better than the last time I saw you!

-I'm feeling much, much better now.

-Good, good.

Anne's eight-hour operation was completely successful,

and with the help of some veins from her legs and three weeks of complete bed-rest,

she's home, and slowly returning to full fitness.

The sooner you get to hospital with chest pains, the better you'll be.

-I'm looking forward to... back to golf again.

-Back to golf, yes.

Anne might not be able to play golf herself yet,

but it's now her turn to help Pat.

You sort of bend your knees and it needs to go out, like that.

It takes years of practice, and a great deal of patience, to perfect the game of golf.

Anne is going to try and teach Pat the basics in just five minutes.

The problem is...

Pat's never even picked up a golf club!

Anne doesn't want to go back to hospital again, so stands well back.

With a little bit of perseverance, and some enthusiastic encouragement,

Pat starts to improve, but perhaps he shouldn't give up the day job!

Oh, wonderful! Look at that!

-So, Anne, how do you think I got on?

-Well, not too badly!

Plenty of room for improvement!

Oh, yes, yes! It's not an easy thing to do!

So what does the future hold for you then?

It's our Golden Wedding anniversary in March...

-Congratulations!

-And the first great-grand-child due in June,

so I'm very grateful for everything.

Coming up - Matthew the van driver has been trapped

for more than an hour, and he's still pinned in his seat.

If we'd laid him flat, we're just moving the parts to get him back.

Now if something goes wrong in the air, you can't just call in a breakdown truck.

Yorkshire's flying paramedics rely on the skill of their pilots and engineers

to keep their choppers in the air,

but if there is an emergency, it's often followed by a very large repair bill.

-Air Ambulance. Bear with me a minute, love.

-Tim's just phoned with the update.

Can you just tell me what's happening?

It's a busy morning at Air Ambulance Headquarters, and the 999 calls are coming in fast.

If you had to score the pain in your chest out of ten...

Paramedic Lee Davison is trying to find out which case needs the one helicopter most.

You would score it a ten at the moment? OK.

And it's definitely central, in the middle of your chest?

He's on the line to a man who sounds like he's having a heart attack.

I'll give you a ring back in a second.

I'll discuss it with my colleagues.

In a lay-by, 20 miles away,

van driver David Watson is experiencing agonising chest pains.

It's that bad it's made him pull over.

He's got no previous cardiac history, and I'm happy to go to that.

The patient is lucky. Not only is Yorkshire's fastest ambulance

on its way, it's carrying Dr Ben Wyatt and paramedic Tony Wilks,

he's a former cardiac nurse.

The time is the key here.

We can obviously take him to a specialist unit at Leeds

if his signs say that he is having a heart attack to us.

There's a lay-by coming in on your right, Tony,

and he's in a white Iveco van, and I reckon that that's a white Iveco van

-in between the blue sided lorry.

-Yes, it does.

He said he was sat at the side, yeah.

An ordinary ambulance arrives at the same time as Helimed 99.

OK. They're not moving as yet.

Oh, he's a big guy, this lad.

Fast response to heart attacks is a top NHS priority.

It's less than 15 minutes since the driver called 999.

So what we'll do is we'll let you sort him out.

If it turns out to be an MI, we can come straightaway.

The driver was delivering food to schools when he was taken ill.

An ECG machine will confirm whether he is indeed having a heart attack.

What time did it start, David?

20 minutes, half an hour ago.

Tony's there with him, and the crew are in there as well,

so we don't want to get too many people in there,

so we're just waiting for some information to come out and then

we'll contact Chris on the Air Desk and see what results we've got, and we'll go from there.

But this is a false alarm. The paramedics don't mind.

With something as lethal as a heart attack,

they know it's better to be safe than sorry.

You'll be going with the ambulance crew here, all right?

The land ambulance will take the patient for a check-up,

but as pilot Matt Niven takes off for the return to base, no-one knows

the crew of Helimed 99 are about to suffer an emergency that will put a strain on their own tickers.

Captain to crew, we have CHIPS caption.

Main transmission CHIPS again.

And again.

-Want to get the MRCs out.

-Will do.

-Check the display.

-Temperatures and pressures appear normal so far.

-OK.

Increasing speed below 100 knots.

The warning light means the helicopter's vital gearbox could be cracking up.

Safety means doing it by the book, and Lee helps Matt check for other

symptoms that the chopper is in trouble.

The primary concern at the moment is are we still OK to fly.

Well, I'm monitoring the temperatures and pressures, and if the temperature

is increasing rapidly, then that would be indicative of something more sinister happening

to the gearbox and I would be tempted to put the aircraft down in a field.

As it is, there's nothing there to make me suspicious,

so I'm happy to continue back to the airfield.

There's no sign of major failure, but Matt has to be sure.

The gearbox takes the drive from both engines

and combines them to power the head which keeps us airborne.

If the transmission fails,

then we'll be going downwards rather rapidly.

It's time for an emergency landing back at Leeds Bradford Airport.

You can see how it's slamming about.

I'll stick it down quickly. It's not...

..it's not forcing against its normal direction, so...

There's relief all round.

OK, to clear your exit now, if you wish.

When Matt opens the bonnet of Helimed 99's million pound engine, there's bad news.

We've got little pieces of metal. You can probably just about see,

I've attached them to a piece of Sellotape there,

and these have turned out to be part of the bearing components

inside the gearbox and that's quite critical.

If the crew had stayed in the air, there's a possibility

there could have been a catastrophic failure.

For the charity that runs the Air Ambulance Service, this is a disaster.

New gearboxes aren't something

you can just pull off a shelf.

They have to come directly from the manufacturers.

Unfortunately, they only manufacture one gearbox per month worldwide,

so we're having a great deal of difficulty in tracking one down.

A new gearbox will cost £50,000, even if they can find one.

When we signed the £3.6 million loans for the aircraft, we obviously built

in a maintenance reserve, so each month we put money to one side

in case something does go wrong.

In this instance with the gearbox, it's £50,000

and that's a huge chunk of our maintenance reserve in one go.

For now, £2 million worth of helicopter is going nowhere,

but a crate arrives from the USA, and in it,

a £50,000 second-hand, but reconditioned, gearbox.

Taking a helicopter apart and putting it back together isn't easy,

but three days later the engineers have done a top job,

and Helimed 99 is back in action, which is good news for someone.

At his farmhouse home in the Yorkshire Wolds,

John Weatherill seems to be having his third heart attack.

Got to see if our new gearbox works!

Helimed 99 has just undergone the biggest repair possible.

Now John's life could depend on the new gearbox doing its job properly.

If pilot Paul Curtis is nervous, it doesn't show.

The chopper's £50,000 spare part seems to be working.

Take-off is good and solid.

It's everybody's lucky day.

How's the pain now, John? You're saying it was easing?

John's feeling a bit better, but with a patient who has already had a triple heart bypass,

the ground paramedics are glad to see Helimed 99 arriving.

Check left.

Just going to leave you slightly closer to the house.

This gentleman in the garden appears to be waiting for us.

-What was his 12 lead like?

-Just have a look.

Think there's a bit of elevation on...

An ECG trace shows that John HAS had another heart attack.

It's just on the peak there, isn't it?

This office is where John keeps track of the profits and losses of his booming business.

Now the only stats that matter are on the print-out tracking the rhythm of his ailing heart.

The Coronary Care Unit of Leeds General Infirmary is where he stands the best chance of recovery.

We're just going to take him to the aircraft

-and we'll find out if Leeds will accept him... if not, we'll be going down to Hull.

-OK.

-Are you pain-free at the moment?

-Yes.

-OK. Right.

We need to constantly monitor while we're in the aircraft,

doing his blood pressure, re-doing a 12 lead ECG

to see if there is any growing signs that anything else is happening.

John's heart is not working well, but Helimed 99's new gearbox is performing flawlessly,

which is just as well, because pilot Paul is about to fly through the tower blocks

of Leeds city centre.

There's the university building.

OK, and landing.

John is taken straight down to the waiting heart specialists.

From his office in the Yorkshire Wolds to one of Europe's top cardiac centres, in just 15 minutes.

A couple of weeks later and John is back at home.

So he's back out, is he?

The businessman's heart is now jump-started by a pacemaker,

and he has nothing but praise and admiration for the helicopter team that sorted him out.

They were very, very quick. Very, very efficient,

and I thought at the time that

I'm really pleased and I felt safe that I was in this helicopter

and if anything is gonna go wrong,

I'm in the right place and I'm gonna get there at the best place in the quickest time.

So both John and the helicopter have had a major overhaul, and thankfully both are now working well.

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

There's a ten-mile tail-back on the M1 in South Yorkshire,

as firemen fight to free the driver of a van crushed in a multiple pile-up.

Two drivers are already on their way to hospital, but paramedic, Paul Bradbury,

can't treat his patient until the twisted wreckage of his vehicle

can be prised apart.

If you can get this board in at an angle, we could move him up that way.

Is that from... Where you are, do you think it's possible, or...?

It's just, as I say, where he is now where his legs are, if we'd have laid him flat

we could probably have just moved them apart to get him back.

-Taking him that way...

-We can try it now.

-I'll give it a whirl.

Every move is risky. Matthew has been trapped for more than an hour.

He has a broken leg, but he could also have serious internal injuries.

All right, guys. Can we come back about another three or four inches?

The seat's there, so just bear with us, all right.

-Come back as far as you can then. On Simon's count again.

-Ready? 1, 2, 3, move.

They're trying to lift him free, whilst still sitting in his seat.

Get a board behind him, mate. 1, 2, 3, move.

-OK.

-Whoa, whoa, whoah! Hold on.

-His foot!

-It's been caught under.

-It's all right, I've got it.

-Lower the board, lower the board.

-Slowly.

It's been a long time and taken the efforts of

20 firemen and four paramedics, but now, at last, Matthew is free,

but before the ride to hospital, he must be strapped

to a rigid board in case his spine was injured by the impact.

Considering what he's been put through, he's in quite good shape.

The good thing is he can feel both his feet, he's moving it,

his stomach isn't distended or what we call "guarding"

which is really rigid and it's quite soft which, to me, is good news for him.

Everything at the moment looks OK. His blood pressure is fine.

He's more or less pain-free, so all being well, he should be all right.

Very lucky.

Within five minutes, Matthew will be given the hospital treatment he has waited so long to receive,

but it looks like being some time before he's back on the M1.

And he certainly won't be in his old white van!

Paul has a consoling thought.

-Look on the bright side, mate, you're still here!

-I know.

Matthew missed out on his house move. He was in hospital.

But within a few days, he's at home in his new house

with partner, Karen, and little Katie.

His leg is in plaster, but considering the impact, he knows he's a lucky man.

It doesn't happen to you, does it? It's always someone else,

And as the van was being pushed forward more and more,

the steering wheel was coming into my belly and I just thought,

loads of thoughts but the two main ones,

the first one was like, it's gonna chop me in two any more of this,

and the other one was like I was just praying that I'd get home to see my girls again.

I was in the sandwich... the jam in the middle of the sandwich.

It was a bit of a nightmare.

I knew I was stuck and I couldn't get out, so I just had to tell myself you're stuck,

just try and deal with it.

It took them two hours, I think,

to get me out. It seemed like about three weeks.

It will be a while before Matthew drives again,

and he needs to get his confidence back.

I've had a lot of flashbacks and what have you

from the crash. It's not really the crash itself,

it's what could have happened, you know.

It puts your life into perspective, like.

-Can you saw through that now?

-Hold up.

Oh, sorry about that, Matthew. That's the one we said.

And despite the fact that they tore his van to bits to get him out,

he has nothing but thanks for the emergency services who came to his aid.

Paul was there most of the time.

He was brilliant, funny as well!

Kept cracking a few gags, even though I was in agony and I wasn't that bothered about him!

-Can you feel that?

-No, that's my feet.

-That's your feet?

-You should buy some bigger shoes!

-I know.

I couldn't believe the teamwork to be honest, it was amazing!

Just brilliant, it really was!

What would I have done without them?

That's all from Helicopter Heroes, but when we come back -

An injured walker needs help.

There was an awful crack.

But the team are struggling to land on a rocky hilltop.

You've got a big rock here, Steve.

A deadly menace brings tragedy to the picturesque Yorkshire Dales.

It's high speed, impact, it's head on. Somebody's not moving in the car.

What happens when bikers take on gravity... and lose!

Breathe in, deep breaths, deep breaths.

And Helimed 99 flies to the rescue of a teenager injured in the snow.

I was sledging down the hill like an idiot.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

E-mail: [email protected]