Episode 6 Helicopter Heroes

When you're with someone seriously injured, every minute you wait for medical aid can feel like an hour,

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

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 hospital, thanks to this 150mph life-saver.

Every day brings a new emergency for its flying paramedics.

Two helicopters, four paramedics, five million patients.

Today, on Helicopter Heroes, there's a freak accident

and two ramblers are trapped under an overturned van.

One of them can't feel his legs at the minute.

The team is scrambled to a workman who has fallen 30 feet from a roof.

Get him somewhere warm and dry.

A biker is thrown down a ravine.

Are you OK? Can you feel me touching you?

And paramedic Daz comes to the rescue of an elderly couple trapped in their upturned car.

Yorkshire's flying paramedics are trained to deal with some of the worst injuries

and often tackle in the open air cases that would challenge the staff of a fully equipped Casualty unit.

We've been tasked to a job up North Yorkshire.

We've got reports of a road accident involving a van and a pedestrian.

It sounds like the pedestrian has been run over and may be trapped under the van.

On a remote country lane, there's been a terrible accident.

We've got two persons trapped under a hedge the other side of this van.

We've applied two winches to the front and back of this van to hold it from tipping any further that way.

Even at two-and-a-half miles a minute, the crew of Helimed 99 sometimes wish they could fly faster

and today is one of those days.

Helimed 99 - do you have any further updates? Over.

'Helimed 99, a van lost control on a corner and knocked two people down.'

But first, they must find the crash scene on the North York moors.

-What's that over there?

-That's it. Good spot.

This could be nasty, couldn't it?

-Clear of the wires behind.

-Rising down my side...

Paramedics Pete Vallance and Darren Axe know the casualties' chances are not good.

Being crushed by a three-ton van is about as serious as accidents get.

We had a coffee morning for you.

Rambler Simon Cooper has just been to a coffee morning to raise funds for the Air Ambulance,

but didn't expect to be needing the helicopter paramedics.

Simon is trapped between a spiky hawthorn hedge and the jagged metal of the van which could slip,

despite the fire brigade's precautions.

Paramedic Pete is more concerned about Simon's rambling partner Tom.

-Is somebody else under there?

-Yeah, two in there.

-It's Tom down here?

-Yeah.

-Can you hear me?

-Yeah.

-Are you in pain anywhere, sir?

-From my legs downwards.

-Can you feel your legs there?

-No.

Hiya, Dave, it's Daz. Both conscious at the minute.

Both look to be in maybe late 50s, early 60s, and one can't feel his legs very well at the minute.

-Tom...

-Yeah.

-The fire brigade are on hand sorting this vehicle out.

As soon as the vehicle is secure, we'll get in and get you out. Your colleague will have to come as well.

Tom's still trapped under the vehicle with his legs. They're pinning him to the ground.

He's got pain in his legs. He's talking to us. The only pain he's got is in his legs.

Tom, if it hurts any more, squeeze my hand and tell me straight away.

Hopefully, once the fire brigade have shored the vehicle up a bit more, we can pull him out.

To free the ramblers, the fire brigade must cut away the hawthorn hedgerow propping up the van.

And for Tom, any movement could be fatal. It's going to be a difficult, dangerous rescue.

Coming up on Helicopter Heroes, the delicate operation to free Simon and Tom begins.

Try not to push on the van, Simon.

The team rush to rescue a biker who has plunged down a ravine.

Got any pain in your legs anywhere?

And on a motorway, a passenger is trapped in a badly damaged car.

The police are happy to close the motorway.

Gravity can do an awful lot of damage.

You don't have to fall very far to be very badly hurt.

In a wet and windy North Yorkshire village, Keith Ryder is in agony after falling from this church.

On board Helimed 99, paramedics Lee Davison and Simon Cavanagh know it could be serious.

It sounds like a serious injury, suggesting it's a significant drop.

If he's fallen on his head or injured his back, it's a concern.

The wet weather is hampering visibility from the air

and the crew are looking for clues to spot the accident scene.

-Response car just going in at two o'clock. Can you see it?

-Yeah.

You see the tall building which looks like it used to be a church?

There's a guy to the side of that on the ground.

As they come in to land, the weather gets even worse.

Driving rain and bitter wind.

Their patient is freezing cold and in terrible pain.

From the landing site, it's a quick walk to where Keith landed after falling from the top of the church.

We think he fell off this church.

Simon's just going to have a chat with him to see what's happened.

His right leg is knackered, he says. He's got no back or spinal pain, he says.

The high wind played its part in this accident.

As 46-year-old Keith was boarding up the high windows,

he was blown off and fell on the concrete path below.

One of his knees took most of the impact.

We'll get him somewhere warm and dry before we give him pain relief.

He's having gas and air just now to take the edge off the pain.

Before Helimed 99 arrived, Keith was cared for by a villager who heard his screams and came running.

She's been by his side for more than 20 minutes, but now the medical team need to get him to hospital.

-SCREAMS OF PAIN

-Mate, don't stretch out for me.

The patient looks like he's got a right lower leg fracture, so we'll give him some morphine.

It's quite deformed. So it'll just help him...

Just twist the top for us. It'll help him with his pain.

It's important that we get him pain relief, then we take it from there.

We'll fly him down to Harrogate.

Before Keith can fly to hospital, he needs to be made more comfortable.

OK, here it goes...

For a patient in this much pain, morphine is the answer.

Once he's dosed up, the crew can safely move him for the short flight to Harrogate.

For someone whose job is up a ladder, this accident is bad news.

And paramedic Simon thinks an X-ray could reveal yet more problems for Keith.

He's quite stable. Although he fell 15 feet, he's landed on his feet

and the force of the impact has transmitted into his knee.

He seems to have broken both bones in his lower leg.

The medical team are waiting for Keith. He's going to need surgery.

If it is as bad as the crew think,

today's fall off a ladder could be more costly than Keith could ever imagine.

Coming up, will Keith ever climb a ladder again?

I thought I'd land on both legs and do a roll, like you see on telly, but I didn't.

The battle to free two ramblers trapped in a freak accident enters a critical stage.

Don't lean too far into it.

And Sammy finds out what it's like to be trapped in a car crash.

-Are you trashing my car?

-No, we're just trying to get you out.

It's easy to get away from it all in Yorkshire's national parks.

The dales and moors are famous, but if you dial 999, you could be in for a long wait.

Just finding the scene of your accident can be a problem.

At the Air Ambulance HQ, Dave Gardiner is scrambling Helimed 98 to an emergency on a road so remote,

it's barely on the map.

If you go from Stocks Reservoir, go directly north,

then there's Bowland Knotts and then Clapham Common, but that's just a little track.

We're currently en route to Clapham Common,

for a motorcyclist who has left the road

and gone down an embankment.

It depends on what speed they're doing when they come off,

what protective clothing they have,

but more than anything, whether they hit anything once they've come off.

For paramedics Sammy Wills and Tony Wilkes, this incident is horribly reminiscent of a rescue last year.

Then they risked their own lives to save a biker who had come off in identical circumstances.

It was a traumatic battle they lost.

They remember an emotional meeting with biker Graham Chaplin's family.

-Hiya, Denise.

-Thank you very much for all you did for him.

Now it looks like it's happening all over again.

No wonder Sammy has strong views about bikes.

I've been to too many accidents and too many people don't go home.

Is that some people at one o'clock?

Roger.

Sammy and Tony are relieved to find this roadside ravine isn't lined with trees,

lethal obstacles for bikers,

but the rider is lying on a very steep slope. It doesn't look good.

He is down a ravine. Tony is going down to him and he'll get back to me if it's going to be winch job.

-Did anybody witness this happening?

-I think Dave there saw her.

-What was the speed, Dave?

-We came round at probably about 50 miles an hour.

-About 50.

You can see the mud puddle that was on the edge there. She went wide, so it was a clean bit of road.

Next thing I saw was just the bike coming down the side and she was going over the side of the hill.

The biker's horrified friends stopped to help her.

Tsitsi Muchayingeyi, or Melody as she's known to her mates, is lucky to be alive.

SHE GROANS OK, sweetheart, it's Air Ambulance. We've come to have a quick look.

Melody's friends knew not to move her or take her helmet off.

She may look uncomfortable, but being left as she fell could have saved her from further injury.

-You're OK down to your waist. Have you got any pain in your legs anywhere?

-No.

-No.

OK, so that feels OK.

-Are you OK down there?

-Yeah.

-What about this leg? No pain at all?

-No.

-Can you feel me touching you?

-No.

-OK...

Tony and Sammy fear Melody may have broken her neck.

If so, one move could paralyse her for life.

-Do you feel like you're sliding or are you OK where you are?

-I'm OK.

-Melody's apologetic.

-I've caused too much bother.

-Too much bother? Give over! There I was, doing nowt!

The ravine is treacherous. Some long grass brought Melody to a halt

before she plunged down to a moorland stream.

Melody's in safe hands, but the paramedics and helpers know she is not out of danger yet.

Everybody OK down there? You've got an awkward lift, so get somebody else in between you.

Melody is one of a small band of women bikers who love the thrill of two wheels.

Now she's experiencing the painful down side to biking.

Nice and steady. There you go. Does that feel a bit flatter for you?

'If this lady's momentum hadn't stopped where she was,

'she would have continued on to the bottom and been severely injured.

'And as a regular Air Ambulance, we couldn't have got her out.

'We hold a patient's head in line. We try and immobilise the spine.

'It's the back we're concerned about.'

She's been a model patient, but it turns out that isn't surprising.

I was unaware that Melody was a midwife. Often medical knowledge makes us the worst patients!

'I think she's been quite lucky actually.

'The whole operation's been within normal limits. She's got tenderness to her neck which is not surprising.'

Bit of pain down one of her arms, but essentially, she seems OK.

Tony's right. Hospital tests confirm that she's escaped with nothing more serious than a few bruises.

A few days later and biker Melody is back at work in Leeds as Tsitsi the midwife.

INAUDIBLE

I think he's hungry. You might want to feed him again.

Hospital colleagues have been giving her a hard time about her split personality -

leather-clad biker and deliverer of babies.

Most of my colleagues think I'm absolutely mad.

I think they feel that I, of all people,

should realise the dangers of biking.

But like anything else in life, everything has risks

and it's a risk I'm willing to take.

And amazingly, her accident hasn't dampened her enthusiasm for two wheels.

Whenever she can, Tsitsi leaves the babies behind and heads off into the Yorkshire Dales.

It's just such a sense of freedom.

It's just you and your bike and nobody can get to you.

There's no mobile phone. It's just you and the bike.

You're out in the country and it's just beautiful roads, beautiful scenery. What more can you ask for?

A midwife with two very different passions in her life -

delivering babies and riding motorbikes.

When I'm at work, I get on with it, I'm quite passionate about my work.

But on my days off when I'm out on my bike, that's what I'm passionate about.

Coming up on Helicopter Heroes, a workman has been lucky to survive a terrifying fall.

But will he work again?

It's not just a couple of bits. It's shattered.

When an elderly lady is trapped in an upturned car, the paramedics have to join her.

You're glad you put your lippy on!

Speed is the edge Helimed 99 gives its paramedics,

but sometimes they have to wait before treating their patients.

That's what happened one day on a country lane near York.

Rambler Simon Cooper has been trapped by a van that crashed and overturned on the verge,

but paramedics Pete and Darren are more concerned about his friend Tom.

He's pinned under the van by his legs.

Freeing him will mean cutting away the bushes that may be preventing his legs being crushed.

The saving grace is the thickness of the hedge and the posts. Otherwise, there'd have been more injuries.

If we take more weight off this van's side, it might lift out.

-Tom, can you hear me?

-Yeah.

Once Simon's out, it's gonna give you a bit more leeway and we can get you out then.

It's time for the fire brigade to start cutting.

-Can I take this off now?

-Do you want to, Simon?

-I think so.

Are you OK with my arm on your shoulder? I just want to support you so you're not leaning too far in.

Just one minute. Just bring your arm up for me.

This branch is going through my gloves.

Simon is trapped in a tangle of sharp thorns.

Freeing him will be painful for patient and paramedics.

Try not to push on the van, Simon.

The fire crew are more used to freeing people from the wreckage of cars than hedges

and the hawthorn is fighting back.

-Is that hurting you?

-No.

-Once Simon's out, it'll give you a bit more leeway and we can get you out.

Simon is entangled by hedgerow and branches. It's a struggle, but they are making progress.

At last, after a 20-minute battle, Simon is free.

We started at the Moors Centre at the top of Sutton Bank

and walked down past the White Horse at Kilburn,

then we were just walking along here for half a mile,

then we would turn left and back up to the top.

And, uh... And never got there.

I'm very relieved to be in one piece, but I'm worried about Tom.

I couldn't raise him immediately after the accident and I was quite relieved when he started talking.

Have we got a spare helmet?

Tom's head is bleeding. He needs protection.

Paramedics Pete and Darren are worried. Tom has been trapped for nearly half an hour.

If the weight of the van is cutting off the blood supply to his legs, severe complications could set in.

He'll be thinking, "Why aren't they getting us out?" But you've got to risk-assess the whole situation.

-Are your legs stuck?

-I don't know.

-Is it OK if we try and ease you out?

Simon appears to have had a miraculous escape.

I just hope Tom's all right.

I thought he was dead.

-On your call.

-Yeah. Two, three, pull!

No, his legs are trapped. You'll have to lift it some more.

It's hopeless. The fire brigade will have to move the van and that's a risky proposition.

Tom's leg, perhaps his life, are in the balance.

Coming up - Simon's free, but can they reach Tom in time?

Keep your head still. We'll pop a collar on to protect your neck.

There's a tricky landing on an urban motorway after a rush-hour crash.

Put your arms across you, Rita.

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

Keith Ryder is in agony after his fall. His leg is broken.

He was boarding up these windows on a disused church when the wind caught him and he fell.

He landed on his legs, but the impact on the concrete was immense.

The paramedics take him to hospital as quickly as possible.

Simon Cavanagh thinks his leg break is only part of the problem.

The force of the impact has transmitted into his knee.

Only an X-ray will reveal whether Simon is right.

A week later and Keith is still in hospital and the news isn't good.

At Harrogate, the broken bones in his leg were bolted together,

but the force of the impact as he landed has shattered his knee. It's in little pieces.

I thought I'd land on both legs and do a roll, like you see on telly.

But I landed on one leg. That all took the weight, so I was in agony.

He is in the hands of surgeon Toby Branfoot at Leeds General Infirmary.

Yeah, it looks bad, doesn't it?

It's not just the odd couple of bits. It's shattered.

Today, Toby is going to try and put this shattered knee back together.

We'll get you something that bends and you can stand up and walk on.

We'll get you out of hospital as soon as we can.

A floor below and the operating team are getting ready.

A mind-boggling array of metalwork awaits. Bolts, drills, wrenches and other tools you find in a workshop

are on hand to rebuild this knee.

For Keith, it's vital Toby gets this right.

He sounds confident and I'm confident in him as well, so...

From what he said and everything, it should be OK.

But it's my own business, so I'll just have to play it by ear.

We'll see what happens after this operation.

The operation is under way.

An X-ray machine is placed next to Keith's knee, giving the surgeon a clear picture of what's going on.

And his first assessment isn't promising.

At the front, there's a lot of fragments that are floating up high

and I'm trying to get some of them down, but it's seriously damaged.

Surgeon Toby has said this operation will be like putting a shattered biscuit back together.

But things are beginning to take shape.

It looks like a knee. It's broken and it's mush at the front,

but some of those X-rays are starting to look like a knee held together tenuously.

With bits of knee now in the right place,

Toby must fix it all together with what looks like a giant Meccano set.

I'm hoping that in a month or two, he'll be walking around using crutches a bit,

but this'll allow him to bend his knee and take weight through it.

He's pleased with the way it's gone,

but has some doubts about Keith getting back on a ladder any time soon.

We'll give him the best knee we can and he's clearly determined and motivated,

which is probably what matters as much as anything with patients -

their motivation and the way they're setting out.

He's got his own business, so he'll push himself as hard as he can,

but long-term, the chance of him spending all day on ladders for the next 20 years is gonna be difficult.

Try and keep it as straight as you can. Straighten out.

Two weeks later, Keith's back home.

-Apart from pulling your toes up, you're doing really well.

-Good.

Luckily for Keith, his niece is a physiotherapist, so he's getting lots of extra help

and this patient is very determined.

I'm glad to be home. Each day, I presume it'll get better and better.

I can walk round in the house OK, but it'll take a bit longer

before I can start going outside for a walk to the shop.

Keith is doing better than everyone expected.

He hasn't put the accident behind him yet and there's one person in particular he wants to thank.

I've had accidents before and you never get flashbacks, but for some reason with this one, it comes back.

I can picture myself falling off the ladder with the wind.

And, uh...everything happening.

I'd like to say thank you to Rachel who was the lady who actually phoned up the Air Ambulance

because our mobiles wouldn't work and I was in agony. She held my hand and everything. She was brilliant.

-Bend your knee down.

-Down?

-Yeah.

He's improving fast, but what about getting up a ladder again?

I don't think people want to even get in a car with me, to be honest!

I don't think anybody wants me to get up a ladder. No...

I suppose that's something I'll have to face.

Which is probably a wise decision, given Keith's track record.

I've had loads of bad accidents in my life.

A fractured skull, a broken arm, scalded, everything!

But at least it wasn't my head or owt like that.

I know it sounds daft, but you can get over this.

Coming up on Helicopter Heroes, the battle to free the last victim of a freak accident reaches its climax.

Tom, I'll take you off this oxygen for two minutes while we move you.

Now, when your car is involved in a crash, it's designed to keep you safely pinned in your seat.

Airbags and seatbelt tighteners can save your life and that's great

until the emergency services need to get you out.

This is probably the most terrifying place you could ever find yourself.

Hiya, sweetheart. Leeds Ambulance Service. Are you OK?

Trapped inside a wrecked vehicle, frightened, disorientated and badly injured.

Paramedic Sammy Wells has been called out to hundreds of accidents.

But today she's come to Rotherham Fire Station to find out just how terrifying it is

to be wedged inside a car and what it's like to be cut out.

-John...

-How are you?

-Very well, thank you.

-Good.

-I'm here to be your crash test dummy.

-We'll do a basic scenario.

We've got a two-car collision. You'll be in this car on the left.

South Yorkshire's Extrication Team are among the best in the business and Sammy's volunteered

to play the part of the victim in one of their training exercises.

Despite Sammy's experience, these are still a tense few moments.

It's a situation the Air Ambulance paramedics have to deal with all the time in real life.

In North Yorkshire, Helimed 99 is circling above an accident scene

and this isn't a training exercise.

Paramedics Lee Davison and Pat Greaken are told

that four men are trapped in a car that's rolled off the A1.

It's quite tricky. Obviously, it's a multi-agency operation.

The fire service are here.

With it being on this embankment, it's making it quite tricky.

As the firefighters get ready to cut into the car, Pat can try and pull one more man from the vehicle.

Brilliant. Well done.

He's out, but getting to the driver won't be as easy.

Can we get the boot open? Get rid of this tree.

Extrication has to be precise, but it isn't a fine art.

Sometimes it's as simple as pulling a car apart piece by piece.

And paramedic Lee is first through the car's new back door.

At more than six feet tall, he's not the ideal candidate.

I'm just gonna tie this off, then we should be there. I just want that head rest out.

I reckon he'll come out this way.

They will slide the driver out through the boot,

but he could have a serious head injury, so he must be kept stable. Pat squeezes inside the wreck.

On your count then, Pat. Ready?

-Have we all got a bit?

-Yeah.

-Ready, one, two, three, move!

The driver has a shoulder injury causing him incredible pain,

but the important thing is he's out just 24 minutes after the Air Ambulance arrived at the scene.

Back in South Yorkshire, paramedic Sammy Wills is lucky. She hasn't been in a real car crash.

Helping firefighters on a training exercise will give her a taste of what her patients go through.

I knew there'd be noise, bangs, pops, cuts, glass.

But it all felt very close.

When I work round a patient, I'm not aware of how confined it might feel.

When it comes to getting the victim out fast, the firefighters can't show any concern for the vehicle.

-Are they trashing my car?

-No, we're just trying to get you out of this vehicle in a safe manner.

The team know which parts of the car need to be cut and they use a well-planned and rehearsed system,

a system that saves lives every day.

And extrication doesn't always involve industrial power tools.

In fact, as paramedics Simon Cavanagh and Darren Axe are about to find out,

sometimes you don't need to cut anything at all.

Helimed 98 is responding to a report of a car on its side in a remote part of Yorkshire.

Simon and Darren know that help could be miles away. They might have to deal with it on their own.

-Anybody still in there?

-Yes, a lady.

Alf Mead and his wife Win were out for a country drive when they clipped a dry-stone wall.

-Hello there, sir. Are you OK?

-Yeah. It's my elbow.

-Bit of a cut. Any pain in your neck or your head?

-No.

-Give us a shout if anything comes up.

Alf has escaped with a cut to his arm, but Win is still inside.

Hello.

Without any firemen on the scene, paramedic Simon steps forward to the rescue.

-What's your name?

-Winifred Mead.

It's a huge relief. Win is just tangled up in her seatbelt, but Simon still has to work carefully.

The car is unstable and could tip over at any minute.

-This is Darren. How are we going on?

-All right.

-You've been better, haven't you?

-A bit out of breath.

Right, listen, trust me. Just lean back to me, to the back of that seat. Are you all right?

I won't drop you.

What's your first name?

Winifred. Thanks a lot.

What could have been a terrible accident has turned out to be an easy extrication.

Darren lightens the mood.

You're glad you put your lippy on! Did you do a course in stunt driving?

At the fire station, the Extrication Team have almost made all the cuts they need to paramedic Sammy's car.

There's just one last one - the windscreen.

This last cut is potentially the most dangerous. The saw is just inches from where Sammy is sitting.

Ready, steady, go.

-Now I have a cabriolet!

-You have a new cabriolet, yes.

But as paramedics know all too well, when a roof comes off a wrecked car,

the hardest part, treating the victim, is about to begin.

And that's exactly what's happening on the M621 in West Yorkshire.

Two women are trapped in a car that's collided with a lorry

and the back seat passenger, 65-year-old Rita Cook, has taken the full force of the impact.

She's had the worst impact, looking at the damage to the car.

Air Ambulance paramedic Pete Vallance is on the ground after being dropped off nearby.

Pilot Steve Cobb and Darren Axe are circling above waiting for instructions.

The police are happy to close the motorway.

As soon as you get overhead, I'll get them to do that. Over.

Dr Andy Pountney has arrived at the scene by road.

His experience in the air means he can direct Steve and Darren into a very tight parking space.

Put your arms across you, Rita.

Paramedic Pete is carefully coordinating the final stage of Rita's extrication.

He has to be incredibly careful.

The extent of her injuries won't be clear until she gets to hospital.

Until then, one wrong move could cause untold damage.

It's a motorway, a fast road, big lorry involved and quite a small car.

Yeah, it could have been fatal.

Hospital tests showed that Rita had dislocated her hip and broken two ribs.

If she hadn't been extricated with such care, her injuries could have been far worse.

At the fire station, Sammy is almost out of the car.

At a real accident, this would be the stage in an extrication where she'd be taking the lead herself.

-But today, she's experiencing it all from the victim's point of view.

-OK, nice and easy.

It was a really weird sensation to be sat there one minute and laid on a long board the next.

Just moving, without moving, I was being moved, was a weird sensation.

-Ready, steady...

-I'll take it from here.

-Tilt the board.

It's taken less than 20 minutes to get her out. If this was real,

she'd be on her way to life-saving treatment, thanks to practice, teamwork and quick thinking.

Top bananas! It was really cool being cut out of a car, especially at this stage in my career.

We get to play at doing stuff when you first start, but now having experienced it,

and comparing it to other patients I've been involved with, the firefighters were superb.

It's made me look at how I will treat and talk with my patient.

It was a good insight, a great insight.

Sammy Wills on the wrong end of a rescue. Let's catch up on the operation to free a trapped rambler.

On a remote road on the edge of the North York Moors,

rambler Tom Jackson is trapped under an overturned van after a freak accident.

I'll take you off this oxygen while we move you.

His friend Simon Cooper had a lucky escape.

The fire brigade start the delicate task of moving three tons of vehicle to free Tom's legs.

Keep your head still. We'll pop a collar on just to protect your neck.

-My neck's OK.

-I know. We want to make doubly sure.

-One, two, three.

-Oh.

-Great stuff, Tom.

-At last, Tom's on the move.

-You're out, Tom.

-Well done.

The tension there was unbelievable.

Considering the position they wound up in, when you've got a vehicle in that position, you must secure it.

The last thing you want to do is work under unsupported wreckage.

Simon's relieved.

Tom won't be walking for a while, thanks to a badly broken leg, but at least he's alive.

-890 pounds.

-Agreed. Engine control switches.

-Flight confirmed.

-Flight confirmed.

Tom's nearly an hour from a trauma unit by road,

just ten minutes by air.

Tom's in the right place now. The surgeons are waiting.

Helimed 99 and the paramedics have done their job. It's time to reflect on what could have been.

I've come across so many situations where you arrive at a job and think,

"There's nobody getting out of that."

You look into the wreckage and the next thing, somebody taps you on the shoulder and says, "It's me."

I'm always amazed. You go to other ones and the accident looks like nothing and people have passed away.

You can never, ever predict what you're gonna find.

It's six weeks after the accident and Simon is back out in the Yorkshire countryside,

but he's walking on his own.

Up until the last moment, I hoped it was going to miss.

But it didn't. A screech of brakes and lots of white smoke.

We had virtually no time to get out of the way.

The following day, my wife and I were out walking.

It's just amazing how I came through almost unscathed.

So for Simon, a miraculous escape, but Tom, remember, was wedged under three tons of van.

You can't just get hold of this guy and yank him out,

especially when his limbs are trapped under unforgiving, unmerciful metal.

I asked the fire service if we could ease the van a bit higher,

with just manpower alone. We only needed two or three inches.

That's what we did. The fire service guys gave it a bit of a push

and it just freed him up enough, so we could move his legs and bring him out towards us.

He had sustained some quite nasty lower leg injuries, but, you know, he was alive.

Six weeks later, Tom is still in hospital and missing the hills.

I'm OK. I just want to get out of here.

His leg is badly broken. His pelvis is in eight pieces and held together with metal,

but for this man, walking again is top priority.

I don't know what I'd do if I wasn't out walking.

If I couldn't walk, I don't know what I'd do.

Steady now, Tom. That's lovely.

'They could have both been dead quite easily. It was so unusual, the job. I'm really pleased that they're OK.'

I hope they carry on walking as they've done for a lot of years.

-How bad is the pain at the moment?

-About one or two.

-That's fantastic.

Just before all this had happened, Tom and Simon had been doing a bit of fundraising. Guess who for?

These guys had just come from a coffee morning raising funds for the Air Ambulance.

So we gave them a bit of a refund really!

When Helicopter Heroes comes back, a workman's leg is crushed by a mobile crane.

We've given him a bit of pain relief.

But bad weather could ground his flight to hospital.

There's a race to save a biker in a crash that killed his friend.

Were you wearing a helmet...? Yeah.

A patient comes back to thank his rescuers - all of them!

It was very, very, very emotional.

And a flying doctor comes down to earth for a night shift on the streets of Leeds.

Subtitles by Subtext for Red Bee Media Ltd 2008

Email [email protected]