Episode 1 Helicopter Heroes

If you're critically ill or seriously injured in a place like this

there's only one thing that can save you, and that's speed.

It doesn't matter where you are, this helicopter with its highly trained team of pilots and

paramedics will fly to your rescue at two and a half miles a minute.

These are Yorkshire's Helicopter Heroes.

When the people of England's biggest county dial 999 there's a good chance help will come from the skies.

The Yorkshire air ambulance is ready to scramble 365 days a year

and each one brings a new life-or-death emergency.

Today on Helicopter Heroes, this runner isn't breathing.

His heart has stopped beating.

He fell straight in front of me.

This electric shock is his only hope.

Stand clear. And shocking...

A high-powered sports car is crashed and the driver's new girlfriend is badly hurt.

-Where's your pain, then?

-In my left leg.

Pain in your left leg.

Helimed 99 faces an unusual hazard as the team try and reach an injured walker.

Apparently there are some roving llamas about.

Paramedic Lee finds out the chopper has some unlikely competition when it comes to speed.

Keeping fit is one of the best ways of ensuring a long and healthy life,

but too much physical exercise can be a bad thing and if your sport involves taking you out

into the open countryside these guys are about the only ones who can help.

It's the biggest day of the year for runners in the North.

Thousands of athletes, from Sunday afternoon joggers to serious sub one hour men

are pounding the route of the Great North Run.

At Helimed headquarters, pilot Ian Mousette has more reasons than most to be glued to the box.

Yesterday my son, Sam,

completed the Junior Great North Run in 34 minutes.

Today my wife is about to compete in her eighth Great North Run.

-You've got a job.

-But just 10 miles from base

a runner in a less glamorous race is fighting for his life.

Harewood Ten Mile Run, which actually goes round Eccup Reservoir,

one of the runners has collapsed and, according to the notes, there's a nurse doing CPR on the scene.

Everybody happy? That looks good in the box that way. We can just go straight out, yeah?

Now Ian has a race on his hands, to find a dying man in time.

-..to 089.

-OK, thank you.

Paramedics Sammy Wills and Pat Greaken know that only speed can save their patient's life.

We have reports of a nurse doing CPR.

We're not sure which part of the edge of the reservoir, but it's near a ploughed field.

Roger.

On the ground, emergency services are struggling to reach the scene.

-Well, he's stuck in the mud, so he's not going anywhere.

-He's not going anywhere, is he?

-No.

Tony Fell was fit for his age and a keen runner.

His heart has stopped beating.

He's not been breathing for a quarter of an hour.

Now, by most people's reckoning, he's dead.

-OK, visual. Visual. I've got him.

-Where he's pointing.

-Yeah, I've got it.

But, by sheer luck, the runners immediately behind Tony when he collapsed were a nurse and doctor.

They've given him the only hope of survival, CPR or cardiac massage.

We're trying to clear his airway.

The treatment paramedics Sammy and Pat give over the next five minutes

will dictate whether Tony lives or dies.

These pads will deliver a massive electric shock to his heart.

-That's OK. He just went down.

-Yeah, just went down.

-How far have you already... That's fine.

-This is eight miles.

This is the eight mile point. How long ago is it since he collapsed?

At least 15 minutes. At least 15 minutes we've been...

I mean, he's had CPR the whole way through and he's definitely...

He just fell. Literally, just fell straight in front of me.

It just looked like exhaustion.

-What are you seeing?

-Nothing.

Nothing? OK, do you mind continuing on chest compressions, is that OK?

The Helimed team know CPR isn't as successful as many people think.

Only six in 100 heart attack victims respond to cardiac massage

and many of them will suffer serious brain damage.

-Right... Do you we shock him or shall we keep...

-Just keep going for a minute.

Tony's life is on a knife edge.

Pat and Sammy know their only hope is to shock his heart back into a normal rhythm.

Charging the pads...

They'll use a charge of 10,000 volts.

Stand clear. And shocking.

But it's kill or cure.

This machine will either restore Tony's heart beat or stop it forever.

OK, charging.

Would you stand clear and watch your hands? Stand further back.

-Thank you.

-I shocked twice.

-Adrenaline.

-Yeah.

-Confirm. First one going in at...

The drugs they're giving him will bombard his brain with chemical messages to increase his heart rate.

OK. He's making some form of respiratory effort.

-Atropine in at 12.20.

-12.20.

-Is that the adrenaline kicking in?

-Yeah.

The only way to find out if they're winning the battle is to wire Tony up to an ECG heart monitor.

We've got a pulse.

Incredibly, it's worked.

We've got a pulse.

-Come on, fella!

-Come on, Tony!

Come on, Tony, stay with us.

Tony's heart is beating once more and he's even taking shallow breaths.

-Have you felt... Felt ventilating?

-Yeah.

-Good peripherals...

-Great.

This gentleman's been running and arrested for whatever reason,

but because of the medics and the first aiders

he is now breathing of his own accord.

-When you're doing CPR from the offset...

-Yeah.

-I think we stand a good chance, yeah.

But the team know he's not out of the woods yet.

Surviving a heart attack doesn't mean recovering.

Tony's critically ill.

At Harrogate District Hospital a crash team is standing by,

but the odds of Tony surviving the flight to reach them aren't good.

OK, Tony.

Coming up, Tony has already beaten the odds,

but few patients in his condition live to leave hospital. Can he?

We've handed him over, and the team are still fighting for his life.

A dog walker is in agony thanks to his clumsy pet.

He's put his weight on his right leg at the same time as his dog's hit him in the back of the knee.

And on the narrow streets of historic York,

pedal power comes to the rescue of a young cyclist.

-Have you any pain down your back?

-No.

-No?

Now, this beast can do 150 miles an hour but, believe it or not, there are cars that can go even faster.

The trouble is, when a supercar runs out of road it's usually bad news for the passenger.

On a busy bypass in North Yorkshire, a 200-mile-an-hour sports car has crashed.

This TVR Cerbera can go from a standstill to 100 in 10 seconds, but not any more.

We've got reports of somebody there that's in this vehicle.

They've got some type of head injury and they are conscious to a degree

and complaining of paralysis.

It's veered off the slip road and hit three parked vehicles.

Initial reports from the caller is that the patient is bleeding

from the ear, which, if they've sustained a head injury

could be quite a significant sign,

so this patient could need the specialist care

of a trauma centre such as LGI.

We're a helicopter from Leeds to Tadcaster, just come to the A1 to the south of Wetherby.

Chief pilot Steve Cobb needs to land the helicopter as close as possible

to their patient, and today that means landing on the carriageway.

Have we got a road blocked off down there, Steve?

On this bit of a slip road, is it?

Yeah, it looks it, doesn't it?

SPEECH MUFFLED

Sarah Wise is trapped and unable to move in the passenger seat of the sports car she was travelling in.

Right, love, how you doing? You've been better.

-I'm in very bad pain.

-Where is your pain, then?

-In my left leg.

-Pain in your left leg.

-Yeah.

-OK. This pain, if 10 is the worst pain that you've ever had...

-10!

-It's 10 out of 10.

The TVR's seat is so low, Sarah's almost lying down.

Getting her out is going to be tricky.

We think she may have been unconscious.

We're not... We don't know. She wasn't when we arrived.

-She was having a fit when we crashed.

-Having a fit when you crashed.

-Is that why you crashed?

-No, not when we crashed, after.

-After.

Looking at the vehicle, there's been quite an intense impact there,

so there's a huge potential for injuries.

We'll get her comfortable first and then we'll be able to do a better assessment.

We're going to give you something for this pain.

When we've given you that we'll get you out of this vehicle, all right?

The driver also needs treatment.

He and Sarah are on their second date and he doesn't want to leave her.

If you've got back pain you need to be looked at.

Let's get you out as well, all right? Are you listening to me?

We'll look after her, but we need to look after you as well

and you're no good if you're hurt and all. Let us help you.

He appeared a bit confused, whether that's from the accident,

and not very cooperative to the crews as they were trying to deal with him.

That could well be because he's had a bang on the head.

Everything we'll do to her is precautionary, all right?

But we need to help you, as well. Just take it nice and easy, mate.

Don't worry, we'll look after you.

Sarah is given a hefty dose of morphine to help knock out the pain.

Still 10 out of 10? You're not in any pain down here in your legs, are you?

So, if we put a board in here and lift her across and slide her out that way.

-You reckon that's the...

-That's going to be the way, yeah.

The cramped cabin and sports seats of the TVR are working against Darren.

He can't examine her properly, but moving her is going to hurt.

SHE GROANS IN PAIN

Keep still, then. Keep still. All right.

Sarah's still in too much pain to be moved, so she's given more morphine.

-Stop!

-I'm not touching you.

A passing doctor has arrived to offer help.

-She's complaining of pain in her left side.

-Yeah.

-Down here.

So it could be dislocated. It doesn't look right to me. It looks twisted that way.

With Sarah still in excruciating pain, Darren is left with no alternative.

The TVR is about to become a convertible.

We'll have the roof off, eh?

-Yeah...

-You happy with that, yeah?

The Fire Brigade's cutting gear can take thick steel apart,

so the fibreglass roof of the supercar should be easy, but they need to get going -

Darren thinks Sarah's pelvis is broken.

Her wounds mean she's already lost a lot of blood,

but the worry is a bleed they can't see

and that could lead to organ failure.

Sarah needs to be out of this car and in hospital fast.

Coming up, the passenger's released, but her injuries are very serious.

Wrap her pelvis up just in case because we're not sure.

The runner who collapsed and died, only to be revived,

finally reaches hospital.

OK, we'll just push the stent through the previous stents.

And the bike medics making one of the UK's

most beautiful cities a safer place.

If you can afford it, this is the only way to travel.

No jams, no cancelled trains, no airport security.

But if things go wrong in the air,

your life's in the hands of the guy at the controls

and how he reacts could mean the difference between life and death.

But today pilot Andy Figg is going to face something new and challenging.

He's flying paramedics, Lee Davison and Tony Wilkes,

on their way to treat a walker with a dislocated leg.

We don't know too many details about injuries,

but apparently there's some roving llamas about,

so that should be quite interesting when we get there.

Well, I've not landed at a job with a llama yet,

so there's a new one for today, probably.

Llamas are not the most common animal on Yorkshire's farms.

Right, we'll go on the right hand side of the field where the llamas were up at the hedgerow.

Air ambulance pilots like Andy understand animals better than most.

Sheep run, horses panic and cows wander off

before returning to chew parts of the helicopter.

Now everyone's about to find out how llamas react to something very loud

and very yellow dropping into their field.

OK, got llamas visual. Keep an eye on them, OK?

OK, a tree to the right. Be careful of the branches.

-And llamas are moving away to the left.

-OK, man. And we're going into the field now

-as that's no problem.

-OK.

The llamas don't seem too impressed by the new arrival in their field,

but Helimed 99's patient will be pleased to see them.

Right, this kid has been hit from behind by a dog.

The dog went into the back of his knee and knocked his kneecap right round.

Ben Grane was out for a walk when he was hit from behind by his dog.

Unbelievably, the impact has dislocated his knee.

We've just been able to cut his trousers and his welly off,

it was just too painful to even... Even the weight of his trousers.

Ben's a long way off the beaten track, which is why

ground paramedics have called up for help from above.

Ben's in agony.

The plan is, Ben, right, with our colleagues here,

is we'll get you dosed up a bit more on Entenox, right,

try and get your leg splinted, put you on a board just so we can carry you to the helicopter, all right?

The human knee is meant to bend only one way.

Any pressure in the wrong direction and the kneecap can pop out of joint.

We've just come out walking dogs

and as we've come up track he's put his weight on his right leg

at the same time as his dog hit him in back of knee

and he's just collapsed on floor and started screaming out.

And I just saw his kneecap stuck out of the side of his leg.

Basically, he's got a dislocated patella.

Basically a dislocated knee.

Sometimes when we try to straighten the leg

they pop back in by themselves,

but we'll have to see once we get it splinted.

Which hopefully will help his pain a bit and keep it nice and immobile.

But it is painful, dislocations are quite painful more often than not.

-Keep going.

-Do what you need to do.

Ben's leg must be straightened and that's going to hurt.

Try and relax, try and relax. I know it's easy for us to say.

Try and relax and let everything go floppy. Let them do the work for you, OK?

They're fitting Ben's leg into a splint.

The tendons and muscles in his knee joint are under terrible strain.

The anaesthetic is helping him cope, but not for long.

-Argh!

-BLEEP!

Don't bend it! You'll make it worse by moving.

The paramedics have all seen this before

and they know that in preparing Ben for a flight to hospital

there's a chance his dislocation will cure itself.

-You've done it.

-Ben, you've done it.

-You've done it.

-It's back in.

-You've done it.

It wasn't a pleasant surprise for Ben,

but it's given him instant relief

and that goes for his family at home, too.

It's popped back in,

so I think they're just going to take him to hospital now and make him feel a bit better.

Ben's leg now looks as good as new, but just to be sure he needs a hospital checkup.

All we're going to do now

is roll you back onto your back so that you're on this board so we can get you on the helicopter,

all right, mate? It shouldn't be as painful because it's popped back in.

So you just relax and I'll just pop you back over onto the board.

That's it. That's it.

Ben is unlikely to need any more medical treatment but recovery from dislocation can be lengthy.

He may need physio, too, but for the paramedics it's satisfying to see any injury cure itself.

I think it was just that sudden movement

when we were moving him. When we were doing it he was resisting,

and I think because of the sheer pain

he flicked his leg out and that kicked it back in.

Normally, Ben's injury would not qualify him for a flight to hospital

but he's fallen in an area which makes it difficult to transport him any other way.

We're parked a long way down that track and it's all muddy.

We couldn't have carried him. It would have been too dangerous.

We've had to come across into the field where it's a more solid

to walk up on this side. We couldn't have got him down.

A dog may be man's best friend, but Ben is likely to be more careful around his pet in future.

-I feel fine now.

-You don't feel sick at all?

-No, I feel fine, mate.

No, it still hurts, but what I'm meaning

is when I was laid on that floor it were hurting me,

and then now I'm...

I think it's also because I feel I'm all right now.

Helimed 99's caseload is usually more complicated than this,

but at least the crew have learnt something new today -

llamas are pretty unimpressed by helicopters.

Coming up, a couple in a supercar have survived an impact that could have killed them,

but the 19-year-old passenger needs urgent treatment.

She's got a pain

around the pelvis which has been splinted.

And in the ancient streets of York,

there's a race to reach an office worker who's collapsed at her desk.

Heart disease is the UK's biggest killer.

Very few people who suffer cardiac arrest live to tell the tale.

Near Harrogate, the Helimed team are determined today's patient will beat those odds.

In the corner of a ploughed field, the Helimed team have just won a desperate battle

to save a runner who's collapsed and died on a 10 mile

cross country race.

We've got a pulse.

Tony Fell's heart stopped beating and he wasn't breathing for 15 minutes.

Ground paramedics couldn't get near him, but Helimed 99 pilot Ian Mousette

swooped to the rescue.

He just fell. Literally, just fell straight in front of me.

By chance the runners following Tony included a doctor, two nurses,

a Fire Brigade medic and a policeman.

Their immediate first aid

allowed paramedics Pat and Sammy to shock his heart

back into rhythm.

Stand clear. And shocking.

Now he's airborne for the waiting crash team at Harrogate Hospital.

Pilot Ian, a stranger to the area, will have to navigate himself.

OK, I'm good to Harrogate, but I haven't got a clue from there.

OK, I'm happy with this guy.

Just get the right one, the one with the bandstand in the corner.

Roger. Stand by for corrections!

Harrogate's easy enough to find, but the hospital is hidden by trees.

Luckily the crash team's wearing yellow,

but it's still touch and go.

Most patients who have been dead

for more than a quarter of an hour do not live to leave hospital and, if they do survive,

the brain is likely to have been damaged. The Helimed team

and off-duty medics in the race have done their bit.

Now it's up to Tony's battered heart and the skills of the cardiologists in the hospital.

OK, Tony.

This is why paramedics do their jobs, because for all the heart attack patients they see who don't survive,

there are lives like Tony's they save.

Great satisfaction.

Pat was the man. A jugular cannulation, they're quite rare in themselves,

so that was a good success. And the medics are really pleased as well.

He's still breathing for himself

and he's got a lovely pulse at the moment.

They started CPR straight away. That's really rare. Even ambulances try and get to a casualty

within eight minutes.

Your heart, it's supposed to feed your brain with oxygen and your brain starts getting starved

at, like, four minutes, so the fact that they were there immediately gave us a fighting chance.

At the end of the day, it was massive teamwork.

All of us pitched in and we've handed him over

and the team are still carrying on fighting for his life.

Tony's survival astonished his doctors, too,

and within a week he's awake and apparently unaffected by his brush with death.

Overtaking a doctor probably saved his life.

Perhaps I just opened my stride up a bit and perhaps got ahead of them.

Fortunately for me!

That would have been the... I think it was the seventh run

on successive Sundays, so,

you know, up to the time I fell over, I was doing quite well.

Tony's only symptom is not being able to remember the two weeks

leading up to his final race, never mind the day itself.

His fitness saved him.

In the ICU, when they did a scan

in the early hours of Monday morning,

the doctor on duty was amazed that there was no damage,

or apparently no damage, to my heart whatsoever.

And he put it down to my fitness pulling me through.

Within a month, Tony's back on his feet with a plan.

Unbelievably, he's determined to run again.

Well, I'm never going to win a race,

but I'll try and get... Well, beat the person in front.

And I'll manage that a few times.

But if that's to happen, Tony must have surgery on his heart.

Doctors say the arteries feeding it with oxygen need opening out.

He's had stents put in about 10 years back.

He's got narrowing inside the stent and just off the end of the stent.

This is not without risk.

One in 500 people undergoing this procedure die,

but if it allows him to run again Tony feels it's worth it.

OK, we've just pushed the stent through the previous stents.

And test that.

You just might get some discomfort in your chest, Mr Fell.

Thankfully, it's a success.

Just before we started there was a tight narrowing on the right artery, just here.

After we put the stent in, now I've got good flow down the artery

and it's wide open so it looks very nice.

His arteries are now bigger and better able to supply his heart.

But will he ever be able to pull on his running shoes again?

Coming up, Tony hits the treadmill, but will his heart hold out?

We're just being dispatched to a detail at the Norwich Union.

Let's see if I can get through there.

And paramedic Lee is losing the race to reach a patient to a man on a bike.

As my old police driving instructor would tell me,

any fool can drive fast, it's the stopping that takes the skill.

And up on a main road in North Yorkshire,

the teenage passenger in a supercar found that out the hard way.

The 200mph supercar is wrecked.

The passenger, Sarah Wise, is trapped and in great pain.

-This pain's still strong?

-Yeah.

-Still 10?

If I just feel at your leg here...

No, I'm not touching you. If I just feel, does that hurt?

-Yeah.

-It really, really hurts?

-Still 10 out of 10.

-12.

-12?

12 out of 10.

Sarah is very badly hurt and Darren thinks she has a broken pelvis and may be bleeding heavily internally.

That can lead to organ failure.

Sarah needs to be out of this car and away.

Darren decides to give moving Sarah one more go before the cutters come out.

Two, three and up.

Yeah, that's it. That's good.

That's good. That's good. Hold it. Hold it.

You got her head?

She is obviously in great pain, but getting her out quickly and on to hospital is the priority.

Despite all the morphine she's had it's a painful process.

SARAH GROANS

Darren can now get Sarah ready to fly to hospital, and first he must splint her pelvis and that requires

his ex-miner's tailoring skills.

Get the pelvis splinted. I'll carry on cutting. Strap her pelvis up just in case because we're not sure.

Obvious injuries at the moment, she's got pain round the pelvis

which has been splinted. Tapes on left leg.

Numerous abrasions.

The flight to hospital will take just 10 minutes.

OK, we'll just try and go as straight up as we can here.

-Yeah.

-Stand and go back, obviously, and then just turn the nose into the wind as we get above the trees.

Darren keeps a close eye on her blood pressure during the flight, worried about the extent

of Sarah's internal bleeding.

Obviously that was a fibreglass car so it was everywhere,

the vehicle had shattered and it was difficult to extricate her

because she was in so much pain with her legs.

We gave her some pain relief at the scene and something to stop her feeling sick,

which assisted us in getting her out of the vehicle,

but it was just a case of getting, you know, the manpower together,

putting the equipment in place that we needed and just get her out.

As they come into Leeds, the trauma team are ready for Sarah.

What started out as a day's shopping trip to York with her boyfriend

has unexpectedly ended in intensive care at the Leeds General Infirmary.

Sarah loved fast cars and has a passion for skydiving.

But three weeks later, and with her pelvis held together with bolts of metal,

she's just thankful to be alive.

I do feel lucky, in a way.

I'm a bit of a mess, but I do think to myself it could have...

It could have been worse.

She looks very well, but underneath the smile is an extensive list of injuries.

Shattered my pelvis. Split my spleen.

Broke my ribs,

skull, cheekbone, jaw... Broke my jaw.

Sarah doesn't remember anything about the accident or what happened, but after Darren's handiwork

she did notice the state of her jeans when she got to hospital.

I were more bothered about my clothes! I'd my favourite outfit on

and my most expensive pair of jeans and my top from Ibiza

and all my wrist bands, they had to cut all them off. So I was, like, more concerned about them!

But after getting out of this, Sarah is just happy to be alive

and she knows who to thank.

Just thank you to the air ambulance

and the staff here that have, literally, saved my life.

Coming up, thanks for saving my life.

Tony meets the paramedics who restarted his heart.

When we put you into the aircraft your heart had started again.

-Yes.

-But you weren't breathing very well.

Up there nothing can touch the Helimed team for speed,

but down here on the narrow streets of ancient York

they've got some serious competition and it's not from horsepower.

BIKE SIREN WAILS

Every year, nearly four million tourists come here to visit

and, not surprisingly, cars are banned from most streets

so there's nothing like good old-fashioned pedal power for getting around.

With its Gothic Minister and mediaeval walls,

York's a great place to live and visit but leave your car at home.

In the centre of the city the traffic is awful.

We're going to spend the day with Craig Barley, one of York's team of paramedics on a pushbike.

-How you doing?

-Craig. Nice to meet you.

-Hi. Not the normal mode of transport for a paramedic!

-Well, no.

But very effective around York.

So, what sort of jobs then would you respond to you on this?

Anything that anyone would call 999 for.

Our normal run of the mill jobs are people tripping over the paving and the cobbles down...

-Because there's a lot of the cobbles stones, isn't there?

-Yeah. In an ancient city like this

it's part of the character of the city and it's fabulous for the visitors,

-but unfortunately it does trip people up.

-So, obviously on this, you're not going to be able to move

as fast as a land ambulance or, certainly, a helicopter

so are you still meeting the 999 targets? Are you getting there quick enough?

-100%. We...

-Really?

Absolutely. We can hit anywhere within the city...

No more than four minutes it should take us

to get anywhere within the city within the Bar walls.

Well, today we're going to put Craig here to the test against another paramedic

in another form of transport.

The air ambulance's Lee Davison grew up in York.

He's used to dropping into emergencies in the fastest piece of kit the Ambulance Service has.

But today, Lee faces a speed challenge of a different kind.

SIREN WAILS

OK, we've just been dispatched to a detail at the Norwich Union.

Let's see if I can get through there.

I don't know if this crew's going to the same job or not.

York is such a busy place the bike can be a lot, lot quicker

and probably will be on the scene I would think about the time when we get there.

And Lee's right. Craig has gone through the pedestrianised centre and down a one-way street the wrong way,

across the River Ouse and into the office complex before Lee arrives.

One of the office staff has collapsed and is fitting.

Hello. My name is Craig, with the ambulance. What's your name?

-Helena.

-Helena.

Craig's already treating the patient as the road crew arrive

-and negotiate the lift to the fifth floor.

-She was sat on a chair and then all of a sudden she went...

And then fell off a chair. So she's been unconscious... Well, she was when I came down for you guys.

Just relax.

Sometimes when you've had a fit it takes a while just to come round.

-She just fell.

-It's OK. It's all right.

-Turn right.

All right. OK.

Would it be OK if I gave you a little bit of oxygen just to help you clear your head a little bit?

When Lee and the ambulance crew arrive, Craig is able to brief them.

Right, just... Just relax. Just relax.

The lady has had a fit of about seven minutes, an epileptic fit.

She's a little bit unpredictable at the moment, so we're not quite sure, you know, what's going on.

We're just going to give her a little bit of oxygen just to see if it can bring her around a bit.

Helena has had a prolonged epileptic fit.

The oxygen is helping but she will need to go to hospital.

It can be embarrassing for the patient being treated medically when they're in

such a big open place with a lot of people watching,

so the crew I think are going to remove her down to the ambulance.

Craig getting there so quickly means Helena is on her way to hospital sooner.

When she give me the call she said that,

you know, the ambulance might beat me,

but we like a challenge like that so...

Yes, a minute before the ambulance

and obviously that minute equates to a little bit longer

when you've got to get up in the lift as well, so...

Especially with somebody fitting, the sooner you get to them the quicker the better, really.

One thing Craig can't do on the bike, though, is take Helena to the Accident and Emergency department.

-How are we doing, Helena?

-OK.

-Feeling a bit better?

Good stuff. The healing hands of these two, you see.

-Yeah.

-That's what it is. I'm going to leave you with them.

-I hope you're OK.

-Thank you.

-All right? Thanks, guys.

It may not have rotor blades and go 150, but nevertheless Lee is impressed.

The bike's more agile, isn't it, when you look at it?

-Absolutely.

-And the people we're having, you know?

-We know that you've been there so quick, she hasn't had a fit for long...

-Absolutely.

-..has she?

If she had still been fitting we have drugs to help her stop fitting.

Obviously it's not a good condition to be in.

-No.

-The longer it goes on the worse it can be, so, yeah...

But thankfully she wasn't fitting at the time. We didn't need to give her any drugs.

As their patient heads back through the traffic and on to hospital, another emergency call comes in.

OK, cheers. A 14-year-old has fallen off a pushbike outside the Mount School.

-All right.

-So, I'll see you up there.

-All right. OK.

-All right.

We're off to a road traffic accident,

somebody that's been knocked from a pedal cycle.

The Life Cycle is on its way, as well.

It is a little bit of a distance just outside of the city walls

so the Life Cycle's in front of us now

so we're just going to end up beating him there, probably.

On this occasion, horsepower is able to beat pedal power.

On blue lights and through red lights,

Lee gets there first.

-What's happened?

-I fell off my bike

and I hurt my elbow and my knee.

30 seconds later, Craig arrives.

-Oh, so it wobbled a bit?

-Yeah.

-Yeah?

-I fell, but the bike took most of it.

-Right, OK.

-Did you fall on to the road and have you moved from where you are?

-No.

So tell me at the moment whereabouts you're hurting.

My elbow and my right knee.

And your right knee. OK.

Let me have a feel of your chest.

Take a deep breath.

-Does that hurt?

-No.

-No?

-Any pain down your back?

-No.

-No?

-Your tummy feel OK?

-Yeah.

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

Just let me have a feel of your hips.

-Is that all right?

-Yeah.

-Yeah, OK.

You've had a bit of a scuff there, haven't you, eh?

-How do you feel?

-I feel fine.

-Do you?

-It just shock.

-Just feel a bit shaken up by it all?

14-year-old Tom is battered and bruised and about to get some top advice.

So, Tom, do you think you're going to buy yourself a helmet now, eh?

-Probably.

-I think you need to get yourself a helmet, don't you? One like Craig's.

Tom's lucky he hasn't got any serious injuries,

but he does need a bit of patching up and some TLC.

You could get 10,000 bikes for the cost of an air ambulance but after his day in York,

Lee thinks that the Life Cycle works brilliantly in the city centre.

We'd be having difficulty I think landing

anywhere within the city walls apart from around the Minister area

where there's a bit of open land.

Even with the speed of the helicopter,

unless the job is very, very close

it doesn't get us there within one or two minutes. Craig was on that job this morning

within a minute, a minute and a half. I mean that's very quick to a scene. Credit to Craig,

he's so passionate for it and he knows everybody. We've spoke to all the traffic wardens,

police officers. He knows everybody, local traders and stuff. It has been really good.

Flying paramedic Lee there finding out speed isn't all about horsepower.

Now, can a runner who stopped breathing for 15 minutes,

after suffering a massive heart attack, but came back from the dead make a return to fitness?

Athlete Tony Fell is about to find out.

Today is a big day for keen runner Tony.

He's back at Harrogate Hospital hoping for some good news.

Just three months ago, he collapsed eight miles into a race.

His heart stopped beating, but thanks to the quick actions

of the Helimed team and a group of medics, who by chance

were running behind Tony in the race, he's made a full recovery.

You might think that after going through an ordeal like that,

he's ready to take things easy but Tony wants to do the exact opposite.

He wants to start running again.

We go hill walking occasionally, getting out and doing that,

and the next 12 months will be more of the same, hopefully.

His wife, Jan, knows only too well how important exercise is to him.

It's everything. It's his life.

That's his main hobby.

He lives and breathes it, really.

-Ha! Not quite!

-Almost!

So, even when we're on holiday the running shoes have to come with us.

So there's no dinner till he's had his run of an evening.

It might surprise you to learn that after a heart attack doctors actually encourage patients to exercise.

It strengthens the heart and lowers blood pressure and cholesterol.

And this is the previous stent here which had a narrowing inside it.

It's up to Tony's doctor, Mark Appleby, to decide

whether his heart can cope with the extra strain that jogging will put on it.

Once we've fixed the problem,

the idea is to then get back to full capacity,

try and then stress the heart to increase what the heart does

and try and encourage more exercise. So, yes,

long-term wise the risks are less if they get back exercising.

It's good news. Tony's ready to start running again

but the risks are so great he must first try jogging under medical supervision.

Before he takes to the treadmill,

Tony wants to thank the medics that have given him a second chance.

Helimed paramedics Sammy Wills and Pat Greaken were at his side

within 10 minutes of his collapse and they provided the drugs and equipment that saved his life.

When we put you into the aircraft your heart had started again.

-Yes.

-But you weren't breathing well.

-No.

-That's why I was sat at your head end and breathing for you.

As well as Sammy and Pat, Tony owes his survival to seven fellow runners,

including a nurse, a doctor and a policeman, who started resuscitating him straight away.

-Come on, Tony!

-Come on, Tony!

This incredible story has led to the runners being affectionately dubbed the Magnificent Seven.

As we were landing, we could see the Magnificent Seven working on you

and we were able to bring the shock box, or the defib, to your side and that is what makes the difference.

And that's why we try and promote, you know, sports centres,

shopping centres, big companies to have their own defibrillator.

Because there's nothing that we can do as human beings to do what that box does do.

Back at Harrogate Hospital, Tony has been wired up

so his heart can be monitored as he gives it it's first workout since his near fatal attack.

If you get any pain at all, dizziness...

Yes.

..breathlessness, even tiredness or if you're feeling unwell at any point let us know.

Tony's on edge. The last time he went jogging his heart stopped beating.

Will it cope with the treadmill?

And will it affect his damaged heart muscles?

-Are you feeling all right in your legs?

-Yes.

The electrodes glued to his body give nurses a clear picture of how his heart's coping.

It's time to step up the pace.

And it's good news.

Despite a three month layoff his heart is dealing well with the demands of a gentle jog.

That seemed harder than my normal run!

I don't think that was bad as you had just been walking.

The results of this won't be as obvious

as the one that almost killed him. The medics have to crunch the numbers first

but Tony's out of breath and happy.

My legs feel a bit tired, my knees are feeling knackered,

but that's the most exercise for two-and-a-half months.

Well, I didn't fall over so it must be all right!

He managed to jog comfortably for 14 minutes, a time that would shame many younger runners.

Well, what we have to do now is give the results to Dr Appleby and he'll look at

how the ECG traces are relating to the exercise.

We know he's done a very good time but he will give us the final answer.

It was excellent, so we're very happy with that.

We're going to get you to the rehab sister next week

and she's going to start you on the classes and we'll plan

to gradually increase your exercise programme

-and get you back to everything you've previously been doing.

-Smashing.

But whether he'll be able to pull on his running shoes again depends on the doctor's final verdict.

You took away the still shots you gave me - the before and after.

-Oh, right, yeah. Well, we can run off some fresh prints.

-Smashing.

I couldn't ask for anything better.

He's had such terrific care, you know. Right from the start, the collapse and people helping him.

He's very, very lucky and we're lucky to have him.

But I don't think we'll keep him out of his running shoes for long!

I'm sure he'll be back running with them, hopefully maybe next year.

I'm not sure how I'll feel being at the end of a run again, though!

When Helicopter Heroes comes back,

a little girl's knocked down on the way home from school.

-Daddy!

-Daddy's here.

Look at the helicopter!

It's a big yellow one.

There's a freak accident in a garage and a mechanic needs help.

He's fallen face down and is complaining of facial and chest injuries.

This man's having a heart attack and the team face a fight for his life in midair.

OK, mate, just bear with it. A couple of minutes.

-All right?

-Yeah.

-Not too tight?

And I'm on the wrong end of a mountain rescue high in the Peak District.

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