Episode 8 Helicopter Heroes

When you're with someone critically ill or seriously injured, every minute can feel like an hour,

so a helicopter like this can be a beautiful sight. 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 Leeds and Sheffield, patients are never more than 10 minutes from hospital

thanks to this 150-mile-an-hour lifesaver. Every day brings a new life or death emergency.

Two helicopters, four paramedics, five million patients.

Today on Helicopter Heroes,

paramedic Darren commandeers a car as fog shrouds a major accident.

The fog is over the incident and we can't get in.

A bird man falls to Earth with painful consequences.

As a doctor, I knew we had a spinal injury.

There's a serious accident on one of the UK's most dangerous roads.

Combined speeds of 140 miles an hour.

And the team mount a tricky rescue after a man falls down a rock face.

Yorkshire's flying paramedics rarely have to walk far,

but sometimes they have to go to extraordinary lengths to save lives.

It's a foggy morning and on the outskirts of York a car and lorry have left the road

-and collided with a house.

-Can you get the winches out?

The lorry driver's escaped with only minor injuries, but the driver of the silver car is trapped.

Amazingly, her two-year-old daughter has survived unhurt.

Stamford Bridge. North of York.

In Sheffield, where the sun's still shining, the crew of Heli Med 98 have been scrambled.

They know the weather could make this a difficult mission.

We're en route to East Yorkshire.

Apparently up there the fog's not lifted yet, so the weather is quite bad there.

We'll see what we find when we get closer.

This might look like they're cruising at 35,000 feet, but they're only 500 feet above ground.

INDISTINCT

The blanket of fog looks pretty, but it could seriously hamper the helicopter's progress.

If you think of the region we cover, half might be covered in sunshine and the other half in thick fog.

If we can't see the ground to land, we're no good to anyone.

Back at the scene, it's increasingly apparent that the driver needs Heli Med 98's help.

She's still trapped.

As the crew approach the scene, it's clear the fog hasn't lifted.

Lights are off. We can't get down under this fog.

Yeah, right.

Despite the risks involved, pilot Tim attempts a descent to get a better view.

Can't see much, mate.

But it's too dense and Tim aborts the manoeuvre. It's now a desperate search for the incident.

We've still got it there, mate.

There's lights off to the right.

-No, we can't get through there.

-Much to pilot Tim's frustration, the fog is right over the incident

-and he's forced to land a mile up the road.

-Looking good.

You look all around here

and there's clear blue skies, but behind us is a wall of fog.

The incident's a mile inside that. It would be crazy to try to land.

-We'd become a bigger emergency than the one we're attending.

-With no updates on the patient,

Tim and Darren decide to take matters into their own hands.

-Is it full?

-Two passing motorists are about to become a makeshift taxi service.

My feet are not so good! I've just come out of a field.

For the two hijacked commuters, a quiet journey into work has been transformed into a race

to get a flying paramedic to the aid of a badly injured motorist.

The people who are in this incident are trapped inside their vehicles.

We've never seen it where the fog is smack over the incident and we can't get in.

But as they approach the incident, there's yet another obstacle.

I'll have to get out and walk. Thank you very much.

A long queue of traffic has formed behind the crash scene and Darren has to walk for a half a mile.

It's taken him a long time to get there. Will Darren be too late to help the injured motorist?

Coming up on Helicopter Heroes: the driver's daughter is unhurt,

but her trapped mum badly needs Darren's lifesaving skills.

One of the UK's most dangerous roads claims another victim.

You stop with your seatbelt, but your internal organs don't.

And a cyclist is seriously injured after a fall down a rock face.

We'll stick this collar round your neck, mate, now.

I can't understand it myself, but some people aren't happy taking in a view from the top of a hill.

They must throw themselves off it.

It's a beautiful day for flying over the Yorkshire Dales, but not everyone stayed in the air.

A paraglider has smashed into a hillside and Heli Med 98 is rushing to the scene.

Paramedics Pat and Sammy know the biggest risk is that he might have broken his back,

a common injury in extreme sports that could lead to paralysis.

More help is at hand. Dr Bob Mark is on board.

If the paraglider is badly hurt, he'll have the fullest possible medical support team.

Is that an emergency vehicle?

OK, we've got it.

The Yorkshire Dales are beautiful, but spotting accident victims from the air can be incredibly difficult.

Luckily, the colourful parachute canopy acted like a marker beacon.

Paramedic Sammy moves quickly to support injured paraglider Richard Carter's head and neck.

If he has injured his back, one wrong move could paralyse him.

-I hit the hill with my backside.

-Yeah.

-And then I was still in the air and I flew off.

So you hit up at the top there and came down?

It's still...really, really severe pain, with an ache in my middle.

-I can feel it going down. I can feel my coccyx as well.

-Right, OK.

Richard has suffered the same fate as many extreme sports enthusiasts.

Paragliding is all about split second thinking and decision making.

Even experienced flyers have accidents. Sometimes you don't know it's gone wrong until it's too late.

We took off and he swung a 360 round towards the hill.

And obviously the wind pushed him towards the hill

and he didn't make the full 360 and he hit his backside on the hill.

Despite the impact and pain, Richard kept his wits about him.

I sort of bounced off the hill and I was airborne,

-so I thought I'd get as far towards the road as I can.

-Bless you!

It's an incredible piece of clear thinking. Knowing he was injured, and would probably go to hospital,

Richard kept flying and landed near a road to make life easier for an ambulance crew,

but he didn't know Heli Med 98 would come to his rescue.

If 10 is the worst pain, can you score it out of 10?

Five. Maximum of five.

5 out of 10 might not seem high, but he could be in shock and not fully aware of his injuries.

-I'm going to feel your back.

-The paramedics still have to treat him incredibly carefully.

His fellow paragliders are here.

Luckily, one of them's a doctor and he's made sure Richard isn't moved and is kept warm.

I knew that when he hit his back we could have a spinal injury.

I radioed him and said, "Do not move! Stay still! I will come and get you."

We came as quick as we could, getting him warm and then just waiting for the ambulance to come.

Steady - roll back.

The team have worked incredibly quickly, but there's a problem.

No signal! Have you got a signal on the phone?

No, there's no comms.

I'm going to have to use the sat phone.

But Tim can't get a signal on the satellite phone either. They can't tell the hospital they're coming.

It's a logistical nightmare.

If the hospital can't be warned that they're coming, they won't be ready to treat Richard.

While Pat continues to battle for a signal,

Tim makes a desperate dash to higher ground with his mobile.

Coming up: more bad news for the bird man who fell to Earth.

We treat all neck or back pain seriously.

-Ohhh...!

-Reinforcements arrive in the battle to free a trapped mum from her badly damaged car.

And a man who cycled off a clifftop is rescued by Heli Med 99.

We don't know what's inside his head. He may have a fractured skull.

In London, you are only three minutes away from an ambulance,

but in the country it's a frighteningly different situation.

Rural road accidents are killers.

Speeds are often high and trees and walls can devastate the strongest car.

And the A59 between Harrogate and the Dales has a lethal reputation.

I've been to multiple serious road traffic accidents

on the A59 in North Yorkshire.

It seems to be a road that is very undulating,

but there's also some long straights. People take a lot of chances.

We get serious accidents involving tractor trailers to motorbikes to cars.

They're usually high impact, serious

and sometimes fatal injuries as well.

In the police, we say there's no such thing as a dangerous road, just dangerous driving,

but the A59 is about as close as it comes and was named in the Top 10 of the UK's most hazardous routes.

Today the early morning traffic west of Harrogate is backing up as far as you can see.

A high-impact head-on smash has brought everything to a standstill.

A two-vehicle RTA on the A59 on a steep hill.

There's two vehicles with four patients.

A high-performance convertible and a hatchback are just twisted metal - with people trapped in them.

Heli Med 99 has been called in.

The rescue services are already at the scene. The driver of the hatchback is of most concern.

He's critically injured, but they can't just drag him out.

The emergency crews must wait for medical help.

He may have serious spinal injuries.

At the airport, Heli Med 99 gets priority over holiday traffic and it's on its way.

Even though the smash is in the Dales, they're over the scene in minutes.

I have a visual out of my window.

And it's not looking good.

Apart from the dry stone walls to avoid, there's plenty of field to safely land in.

50-year-old Asif Khan is in a bad way.

The impact of a smash like this on the human body is immense.

Paramedic Sammy Wills takes charge of the rescue

and comes up with a plan to get her patient on the way.

Right, Plan A.

Roof out round the back, longboard.

Have we got the trolley ready?

Her first plan is to get Asif out by getting the fire brigade to cut the car to pieces.

But Sammy's plan might need changing if her patient stops breathing.

If we lose his resps, Plan B.

Straight out.

The fire brigade get the roof off quickly and it's clear Asif is badly injured.

Sammy manages to speak to him and isn't happy.

-Got any pain in your legs at all?

-No...

-No. Can you wiggle your toes?

-No, OK.

-He hasn't moved his legs.

-Thank you.

This is the worst news possible.

Asif may have a spinal injury and now the crew have to twist him to get him out of the car.

It's a risky procedure.

Does he look actually trapped?

Though Asif is barely conscious, Sammy explains she has to slide a specialist neck and body brace,

called a KED, behind him before they risk moving him.

'The KED is like half a spinal board. It comes down the back, cocoons your ribcage.'

You're strapped, your head is strapped to keep your body in line.

And it just gives us extra hand holds for lifting him out.

Though the patient is barely conscious, Sammy still talks and reassures him.

Asif, we're just going to lift you. Everybody ready?

Ready, steady, lift.

-And brace.

-At last they get Asif out, on his way to the helicopter and hospital.

'The A59 is a particularly fast road, just two lanes of traffic with a few passing places.

'Unfortunately, the crashes we attend are head-on. Combined speeds of 60-70mph.'

Combined, 140 miles an hour. Your body, in that scenario...

It isn't good. Cars are fantastic - airbags, seatbelts, you name it,

but even though you stop, your internal organs have to stop within you.

And a lot of damage and all sorts happens inside.

It's been a tricky one and no one's more grateful than Asif.

After a spell in hospital, he's well on the mend.

That's great news. It was a full team effort, everybody working hard.

And that's really good news.

It was a supreme effort to get him out of such a wrecked car,

but it won't be the last time Heli Med 99 attends such a crash between the Dales and the Lakes.

We apologise for blocking off the roads, but you never know when it might be you who needs it.

-Coming up: a medical mistake leaves a paraglider pilot in danger.

-It's a wake up call to slow me down.

Can you pull him down here?

And there's a tricky rescue for a cyclist who pedalled off a cliff.

Let's catch up on that rescue on a country road in East Yorkshire.

On a busy commuter route into York, a lorry and a car have collided in thick fog.

The lorry driver and the car's two passengers have only minor injuries,

but the car's driver is seriously injured and still trapped inside.

-Heli Med 98 were unable to land because of the fog.

-Too dangerous.

I'll have to get out and walk. Thank you very much.

Darren had to hitchhike his way to the incident.

I'm not used to walking it!

-What do we call you, love?

-Louise.

-Louise. What's your pain like?

-On a scale of 1 to 10? 10?

-8.

-8, you think? Right.

Louise Quinn had just set off for a day out with her husband and two-year-old daughter Isobel.

Amazingly, Isobel appears to have escaped without a scratch.

Louise's husband was taken to hospital with minor injuries.

The owner of the house is in a state of shock.

I saw the child seat and I got quite emotional about that.

And, em...I couldn't believe that anyone got out of there alive.

But the driver's side of the car has taken the brunt of the impact and Louise's legs are trapped.

As Darren rushes to treat Louise, firefighters secure the car.

It's balanced precariously on the metal gate and could fall at any moment.

-I'll give you some pain relief.

-Louise has a nasty leg injury,

but the huge impact could have also caused serious internal injuries.

Right, this will start to ease that pain a little bit.

Louise has been trapped for nearly an hour and it's freezing cold.

She needs to be in hospital, but Darren knows he can't move her until he's relieved her pain.

Has the pain gone? is it still there?

-Is it less than an 8 now?

-Yeah.

-It's less than 8?

-5.

-I like 5. I'd like 2 better.

With Louise's pain under control, Darren can now concentrate on getting her out.

At this stage, every second counts.

If we put a board in here, support it, cut the seat, she's going to come flat

and come back out flat.

'The car didn't lend itself to easy extrication.'

Whichever angle we decided to place the spine board, it was always going to be down to brute strength

as to the way she came out.

Ohhhh...!

After being trapped for over an hour, Louise is finally ready to be pulled out of the car.

Right, take 10 good breaths for me. Don't blow it on me, though.

That's it.

Lovely, that's brilliant!

Keep her moving! Take it back!

Try to ease her out.

It's taken two teams of firemen to prise Louise from her crushed car.

Safely on the stretcher, Darren can now assess the full extent of her injuries.

Time is of the essence for all patients who are traumatically injured.

And the injuries she sustained were quite significant and major injuries.

The sooner that patients are transferred to hospital care the better the prognosis.

We'll be there as quick as we can.

-Two miles up that road.

-Louise to be in hospital fast.

The only problem now is that the fastest form of transport is still two miles down the road.

She has quite a nasty fractured femur. I'm going to transfer her up the road into the helicopter

and it looks like we'll be going to LGI. This weather is blocking all the other landing sites off.

We need to do what's best for this patient.

Keep breathing that, Louise.

To get Louise to her lifesaving flight means a short journey in a road ambulance first.

We're on our way to you now.

Louise, this is oxygen. It'll make you feel a bit better. ..Don't spare the horses.

People who are trapped for long periods can deteriorate quickly.

Flying Louise to the specialist trauma unit at Leeds General Infirmary might take longer,

but it can deliver expert care.

We had a frustrating wait waiting for Daz.

The fog is just lingering on the ground. It's about 50-100 feet deep,

then it's clear blue skies all the way to Leeds.

Less than two hours ago, Louise was preparing for a family day out.

Now she lies seriously injured in the back of a helicopter.

As the crew head towards West Yorkshire, Tim's prediction is right - Leeds is bathed in sunshine.

-Ohhh...

-We'll look after you. You're fine.

Darren's done all he can. A team of doctors are waiting to assess Louise's injuries.

But after suffering such a massive impact, it could be a long wait to see if she makes a full recovery.

Coming up: the owners of the house count the cost of living here.

I couldn't believe the devastation. Like a war zone or a plane crash.

And there's a rescue on a cliff face in South Yorkshire.

We'll stick this collar on, mate.

You can guarantee that hitting a hillside hard is going to hurt.

Up in North Yorkshire, the team of flying paramedics treat a man who can tell you how much.

Paramedics Pat and Sammy are in a remote part of the Yorkshire Dales

treating injured paraglider Richard Carter. He's hurt his back after crashing into the hillside.

Richard says he's not in much pain, but they can't take any risks. He could have a spinal injury.

I must admit, I feel if I had to get up and walk, I...

Richard's ready to fly, but there's a problem.

Pilot Tim Taylor has tried to find a mobile phone signal, but the area is too remote.

The helicopter's satellite phone isn't working either. With all their communications cut off,

they can't let the hospital know they're coming.

Airedale Hospital is the closest, but it doesn't have a helicopter landing pad.

The air ambulance drops patients at a playing field close to it.

If they can't get word through, there will be nobody to meet them.

Tim, I'll see if I can get a signal at the top there.

-Are we not better off just going?

-Yeah, OK.

Tim's right. They have to take off and hope for a signal in the air.

Relax, mate. You've done the hard work. Just come for a ride.

With no other options, Pat tries a stab in the dark - a text message.

I've managed to get a message sent. "Airedale - 12.15."

And Pat's text does the trick. His message did get through.

-Good afternoon.

-Someone's explained the situation. He's a retired paraglider!

Once his wife finds out!

Richard's back home now. He insisted he wasn't badly hurt and doctors could find nothing wrong with him,

but three days later he was still in pain and when he went back to be x-rayed,

there was a shocking discovery. Two of the vertebrae in his spine had been crushed and fractured.

I really wasn't sure if I was even injured or not, to be honest.

They asked me the pain out of 10 and I said it was 5 at the most.

I felt I could walk if I had to.

But I was just unsure about my condition at all.

It seemed strange, looking back now.

Richard is incredibly lucky that Sammy and Pat went by the book.

Despite insisting that he wasn't in much pain, they still took every precaution.

'He told us his pain wasn't so bad, but we don't have x-ray vision.'

That's why we treat all neck and back pain seriously.

We put a collar on, put them on a longboard,

and until proven otherwise that's how we will treat people.

It's a wake up call to slow me down a bit

and make me take a few steps back and think, "Be a bit more sensible and enjoy it for what it is."

Coming up: imagine coming home to this. The owners of a roadside bungalow count the cost.

It was unbelievable to see, really. Quite frightening.

The flying paramedics can fly up to 12 missions a day, but some cases stay in the memory forever,

often for the wrong reasons.

It's heading 158...

At air ambulance HQ, dispatcher Chris has spotted an emergency call that needs Heli Med 98's help.

In a field near Barnsley, a man has fallen off his bike and 20 feet down a rock face,

landing headfirst on the rocks below. He's in a bad way.

He's unconscious and has serious head injuries.

Luckily for him, Heli Med 98 are already on the way to the scene

and they can cover the 20 miles in just 10 minutes.

With such serious injuries, getting medical treatment fast may be the difference between life and death.

We've got some more staff for you now, mate. We'll get you checked out.

Any pain down here? Is there any pain? Is there any pain as I do that?

There is pain there?

Eddie McNally was on a bike ride with his son when he fell.

A normally harmless tumble has ended in disaster.

We were on bikes and his girlfriend came up, on t'bike, and we saw him here.

Going to stick this collar on.

Eddie's head has taken nearly all the impact of the huge fall.

I'll support your head, Eddie. Relax. I've got it, mate.

But paramedic Darren is worried Eddie might have a serious spinal injury as well.

With Eddie's spine and neck supported, Mick begins to clear the debris scattered around the scene

while Darren's attention turns to Eddie's severe head injury.

'It looked serious and very spectacular due to the amount of blood he'd lost.'

It throws up complications for us because you have a patient who could deteriorate rapidly.

He's also bleeding quite badly. You don't know what's happened, inside his head.

He may have a fractured skull. He may have sustained concussion or compression to his brain

because of the impact.

What about just lifting him bodily, trousers, belts and boots, and sliding it underneath.

The team must work fast. Eddie's been lying on the cold, hard ground for over 20 minutes

-and needs to be in hospital.

-Feel his chest here.

Don't feel right. Let's get this strapped on and get him out of here.

-Which way are we going?

-That way. That way.

But the path back to the helicopter is steep and very slippy.

The team know they need to be quick, but can't risk becoming casualties themselves.

We'll get his stats in the aircraft, before we get him in. It's easier.

-Up, up, up.

-Mick's preparations pay dividends

and Darren can slide Eddie onto the chopper straight away.

Heli Med 98 is the best way to get him into hospital before his condition gets any worse.

He's doing OK. His vital signs seem fairly stable.

A lot of cuts and abrasions and things.

His chest sounds clear, but it was a matter of concern when we first picked him up.

But he's doing fine at the moment. we just need to get him in quickly to have a good look at him.

As Heli Med 98 comes in to land at the Northern General Hospital in Sheffield,

it's clear there's another problem.

Few hospitals have a heli pad outside A&E.

At the Northern General, patients need a land ambulance to transfer them into the hospital.

Eddie, just give me your arm again.

Ambulance Control normally despatch an ambulance immediately, but there's no ambulance to meet them.

Although Eddie is relatively stable, Mick and Darren know every minute counts. He could still deteriorate.

Finally, the ambulance arrives. and just in time as Darren's worst fears are realised.

Eddie has a massive seizure.

Hang on, he's... Get him on that board, quick! He's going!

'It wasn't unexpected, but it was a bit of a surprise the speed at which it occurred.'

He's lost a substantial amount of blood, a lot of it around his face.

It may occlude his airway, so we need to continue and maintain an open airway and his oxygenation

'and get him into the department as quickly as we can.'

The pressure on Eddie's brain is increasing rapidly and it's causing his whole body to shut down.

He needs to be anaesthetised to control his breathing.

Watch your fingers, folks.

Get some suction when we get in.

Clear his face and clear his nose.

Eddie's condition is deteriorating all the time. He's unconscious and his jaw has clamped shut.

Eddie's survival depends on how fast they can get him into A&E.

Can't get it in? He's clamped. 'We're not dealing with definites in anything that we do here.

'We're dealing with the potential for disaster and that guy degenerated so quickly,

'from speaking and being able to orientate to being totally unconscious and then fitting.'

Eddie! 'Initially, we estimated it at 20 feet, but it was more like 40-50,

'from the point where he left the top of the cliff to hitting the rocks.'

He's obviously taken the whole impact onto his face and head

and once you do that the amount of damage you can do from that height could be fatal.

As soon as Eddie arrives, he's rushed to A&E, where doctors work tirelessly to save his life.

It's a tense wait. Few people survive after suffering such a massive head injury.

But against all the odds, Eddie pulls through

and 24 hours later he's made remarkable progress.

His body is battered and bruised, and he's still in a lot of pain, but he's alive.

Should was out and got put back in.

Stitches in my forehead, and I've got a breakage there and a breakage there.

And my teeth are broken as well. My jaw's broken.

Can't remember going on the bikes, can't remember anything at all.

I'm still in pain, with my teeth and my jaw.

And my face. Yeah. I don't know how lucky I am.

The news that Eddie is on the road to recovery comes as quite a surprise to one of his lifesavers.

I've seen people that have fallen less and they're dead.

To say that he's recovered and has all his faculties about him, that's just great for us.

Let's catch up on that story we brought you earlier.

On a busy commuter route into York, there's been a dramatic crash.

A car and a lorry hit a bungalow

and although the occupants of both vehicles survived, the car driver, Louise Quinn,

sustained several serious injuries.

Heli Med 98 has fought through thick fog to get there and pilot Tim had to land miles from the scene.

Darren Axe hitches a lift and helps get Louise out of the wreckage.

That's it! Lovely! Brilliant!

He gets her safely back to the helicopter, but has he got his patient to hospital in time?

The weather we've been flying in is a first for me.

Flying above areas where there is so much fog is something I'd not experienced.

Safety's got to be everyone's paramount thought.

We were looking to see the floor to land.

If not, there could be hazards - wires, trees - so that makes it unacceptable for us to land.

There's no doubt who has been the real hero of this rescue.

There's a catch here on the left.

Without Tim Taylor's determination to get to Louise, despite the fog,

she may never have made it to hospital.

Today he's invited me to join him up front in the cockpit of Heli Med 98.

So, as the pilot, do you have to make a decision sometimes as to weighing up the risks

as to the weather, the risk to your own crew and the patient's safety?

You do have to be disciplined with the safety side.

We're going out to somebody that is in trouble. Do we want to make ourselves a bigger emergency?

The problem we keep getting with the weather is it's not black and white.

Good weather slowly merges into the bad weather.

Nine times out of 10 we're in the border between good and bad.

-It is frustrating, especially setting off with good weather to an incident that's just...

-Yeah.

..in worse conditions.

So you're here flying an air ambulance. What background have you got that you ended up doing that?

I was quite lucky, really. I joined the army as a bricklayer.

-So you went from an army brickie to a pilot?!

-Yeah.

-Probably the most diverse career!

You'd be surprised. I've met a few shocks that are pilots now.

'Like me, Tim's a former soldier. No wonder he's not fazed by bad weather.

'He used to risk of being shot at flying combat missions in Iraq.'

Every household is legally allowed to own two weapons.

-Firearms?

-Yeah. And when you've got a foreign helicopter, you can't blame them for having a pop.

So it's a complete contrast from one minute flying around as a target in Iraq

-to flying as an air ambulance.

-It's a complete adrenaline rush.

You know somebody needs your help, you've got the tools and equipment to go and help.

It really is a great feeling to be part of the team that can and does help.

Back at the village of Skirpenbeck, the other victims of the accident have been all but forgotten.

I think they'd be surprised to find a 30-ton truck in their driveway

where the roof used to be!

I'm glad it wasn't MY house! Fortunately, the damage isn't bad.

Richard and Susan returned home to this.

Driving home, all I could think was, "What am I coming home to?"

The news had said there was a wagon and a car had gone into my house.

My first thoughts were, "It's demolished!"

-And then you think, "God! Is everybody OK?"

-I couldn't believe the devastation.

It's like a war zone or plane crash.

There were that many fire engines and ambulances and everything else,

you couldn't believe there had been such a tragic accident on our doorstep, really.

It was terrifying.

Richard and Susan don't mind living by the roadside. After all, he's an AA man,

but 30-odd tons of wrecked vehicle came within inches of ploughing through their kitchen window.

-Now they face a substantial repair bill.

-We need to get in touch with the builder.

We'll have to strip the roof off to replace that main joist

that goes from that corner to the centre of the roof.

Their newly-built roof is badly damaged. The wreckage smashed the rafters.

They know how lucky they've been, but that's nothing to how lucky Louise Quinn has been.

It's four weeks since the accident and back home in Cheshire Louise is recovering

with husband James and Isobel, who is none the worse for her experience.

-The family had been on holiday in Yorkshire.

-We'd rented a lovely cottage and arrived on Monday.

Tuesday morning we went out, blanket fog, and then it happened. Awful. Just dreadful.

Louise was very badly injured, but still has clear memories of the hour she spent pinned in her car,

especially wondering what had happened to her daughter.

'I shouted "Isobel! Isobel!" It was just...'

We were both so worried about her. Weren't we, sweetie pie?

'A wonderful fireman had her.'

Louise is convinced that Isobel escaped unhurt because of her top-of-the-range car seat.

It's one purchase Louise has no regrets about.

She was more worried about the others than she was about herself.

As a patient, she was very calm. She was still in substantial pain.

The pain relief that we gave her did reduce that to a large degree,

but she was a cracking patient, really.

I remember a paramedic trying to get a line into me.

You've got lovely skin, but the worst veins I've ever come across in my life!

'I remember somebody saying, "Lovely skin, but awful veins!"'

And Louise is so grateful to the crew of Heli Med 98,

she's set up a website to raise cash for the charity that keeps the air ambulance in the air.

I owe my life to them and my family's life. They got me there in 16 minutes or something.

You know, I was straight in to A&E.

And it just was essential. An essential part of my recovery.

I'm so grateful. I don't know how I'd ever repay.

The Heli Med team deal with more motorists than any other accident victims.

They know Louise's recovery won't be entirely physical.

One day, she must drive again.

Some people are able to drive again as soon as their injuries permit.

Other people will be psychologically damaged, I suppose, by it.

They'll play it over and over in their mind and lose confidence.

You never know how people are going to deal with it.

She seemed to be dealing with it pretty well while she was with us.

Louise is now back behind the wheel, but yet to drive again in fog.

That's all, but when we come back:

there's a major road crash and the team are forced to scramble two helicopters.

Three patients. It's a bad entrapment.

On the grass moors of North Yorkshire, there's a race to save a trapped gamekeeper's foot.

If we try to put traction on this, it's going to hurt.

Daz meets a patient who is apparently a stranger to pain.

And there's a miracle escape for a trucker thrown through his windscreen without a scratch.

Subtitles by Subtext for Red Bee Media Ltd - 2008

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