Episode 17 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 the rescue at 2.5 miles a minute.

These are Yorkshire's Helicopter Heroes.

When the people of Britain'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:

paramedic Sammy meets a difficult patient.

-Stop it. Stop it!

-All right, darlin'.

The team fight to save a farm worker trapped in a baling machine.

..Amputation, this time at the shoulder.

It's a tight squeeze as paramedic Tony leads the operation

to rescue the victim of a bizarre accident.

Is it any better?

And a holiday on the coast ends in a serious crash.

A nasty open skull fracture...

£7,000 a day.

150 miles an hour. 8,000 missions.

Everything revolves around statistics, even in the emergency services.

But today's patient involves another important number.

And it's a big one.

70 miles. Even at 2.5 miles a minute,

today's patient is nearly half an hour away from base.

It adds up to a long wait for an injured woman,

but Helimed 98 will be there as quickly as the crew can make it.

'Helimed 98. For your information, our ETA will be 13.33.

'We are experiencing some visibility challenges at the moment, over.'

On the east coast, a woman has fallen off her horse on a cliff-top path.

OK.

Stop it.

Stop it!

Louise Baker is a nurse specialising in brain injuries.

She's usually professional and caring,

but her personality has changed after the fall.

Stop it. It won't help.

Emergency paramedics are so concerned by Louise's behaviour,

they've called in the local police helicopter.

She's dangerously close to the cliff-edge.

The team are heading for Withernsea,

a seaside resort 20 miles east of Hull.

Helimed 98, that's received.

Is it possible, if we're considering head injury and agitated,

to get a doctor? Otherwise she'd be inappropriate to be flown.

Before the crew even arrive, paramedics Sammy Wills and Al Day

are formulating a plan to help their patient.

But they're already faced with a dilemma.

We believe the information from the scene is that she's quite agitated,

and not co-ordinating with them.

She's refusing oxygen and refusing being put on to a longboard.

RADIO CHATTER

-All right there?

-This is Louise.

Bang on the head, there.

Hello! How you doing?

Open your eyes for me.

Louise fell off her horse over an hour ago.

But the ambulance crews have been unable to calm her down.

Let go, let go, let go!

Help, help, help, help.

Help. Help!

Despite wearing a helmet,

Louise is showing all the classic symptoms of a serious brain injury.

Stop it!

All right, darlin'. Relax.

Any medic will tell you that patients like this are almost impossible to treat.

Sammy knows Louise could have spine and neck injuries,

and by being so agitated, she could be making these worse.

That lady was becoming my patient.

I wanted to fly her to a hospital as soon as possible.

A head injury is particularly serious.

But my challenge was, I couldn't keep her safe.

She was fighting, she was combative,

her personality had totally changed.

Stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it!

She's quite agitated at the moment.

Unless she's sedated, we can't really safely fly her.

We're just trying to formulate a plan about how to get her to hospital.

Sedating patients can be dangerous, so only doctors are allowed to.

Hi, Doctor. It's Chris ringing from the air ambulance.

Back at Helimed HQ in Leeds, it's up to dispatcher Chris Solomons to find one.

They definitely need a doctor that can RSI on scene.

Do you know what your ETA is?

Back on the east coast, Louise is refusing to lie down

and there's no way that Sammy can keep her still,

a vital part in preventing patients from suffering further injuries.

Sit down. You're going to be sick now.

Until a doctor can be found, Louise is a risk to herself,

and to her rescuers.

Coming up, Louise's bizarre behaviour forces the team

to call in a doctor with strong sedatives.

Stay sat down. Louise...

An elderly motorist's car careers halfway down a Pennine hillside.

-Oh, my God.

-We're just gonna cut some of this steering wheel off, so we can get you out.

And on the east coast, there's a sea rescue as a canoeist fights for his life.

He's capsized, and he's swallowed quite a bit of water.

Summer brings big changes for Yorkshire's countryside.

Lanes fill with traffic, and local businesses are busy trying to make enough money

to get through the next winter.

But summer also brings big challenges for the Helimed team.

Farmers have just a few weeks to turn their fields full of crops into cash.

But for one young farmer in West Yorkshire,

this harvest could be his last.

BEEPING

The machine was running, I had to stop it.

While baling hay, farmer Michael has got his arm stuck

in this piece of machinery.

The sharp rotating blades have caused life-threatening injuries.

We're definitely required.

We're making tracks as quick as we can to get them some help.

That farm there, that farm in front.

See them on there, it's on the right of that farm.

OK, yeah. The field obviously with the combine harvester.

Michael's in the middle of the field he was harvesting,

and although local ambulances have struggled to reach him,

the Helimed team can land right next to the scene.

-How we doing?

-Partial amputation, left arm at the shoulder.

I've been ages finding a vein, I've just got one in.

Can you feel me touching you there?

You can't. Right, OK.

I believe he was working on the top of the bale and got his arm caught in the machinery.

When I came, he'd been released. I was first here.

Michael's girlfriend Amy and friend Keith

managed to pull him out of the baler

and Keith is now playing a pivotal role in his treatment.

His arm is almost severed. He's losing blood fast,

and raising his legs can help maintain blood circulation to his brain.

Have you got any pain at the moment? I know you've been asked before.

No pain at all? All right, buddy.

He's no sensation in his hand or anything like that.

But it's still attached.

The human body contains about five litres of blood.

You can lose a little, but any more than a third and you're unlikely to survive.

Looks like it's gone right round and just left it attached at the top.

Obviously very dangerous, these, they've got a lot of moving parts

and people try and free stuff and they get caught in them,

and they're unforgiving.

And so he's got the risk of losing it, I don't know yet.

We'll get him straight to Leeds, where the plastics are.

The machine has cut through arteries, tendons and bone,

and Michael has no feeling in his fingers.

BEEPING

-Any medical problems?

-No.

-Right.

Michael's losing blood out of the wound at an alarming rate.

This means his blood pressure is dropping.

He could go into cardiac arrest and stop breathing at any moment.

Right, we're just gonna put a board underneath you.

I'll lift from the shoulders...

Lift you up slightly, then we'll push the board along.

One, two, three, go.

Great stuff.

The team have stabilised Michael,

but in this environment it's almost impossible to prevent infection,

and that could jeopardise his chances of making a full recovery.

Coming up - the trauma unit's on standby for Michael,

but doctors know the chances of saving his life, never mind his arm, aren't good.

The orthopaedic surgeons are here, and the plastic surgeons, and they're taking him to theatre.

And it's holiday season in North Yorkshire,

but the team haven't got time to enjoy the scenery.

Too many holidays are ending in accidents.

She was just a dead weight, so I couldn't do anything.

The Helimed team spend their lives fighting nature.

They're always up against the weather,

and the rugged Yorkshire landscape

does its best to get in their way too.

But there's a man-made obstruction they hate more than any other.

Hundreds of miles of high-tension cables criss-cross the countryside,

and they can be lethal.

High in the Pennines near Halifax, there's been a freak accident.

A disabled driver has crashed after losing control of her car.

Now, pilot Steve must avoid power cables that surround the scene.

We've got to think about our safety as much as the patient's safety,

so we need to make sure that if there's any danger

that the electricity's all turned off

and that somebody's dealt with the power before we go near it,

otherwise we could have four more casualties.

Not even rubber boots will help in this job.

Not sure how good they'd be with 50,000 volts

running down your legs, but I wouldn't like to find out.

From the air, it's clear the car has careered

half a mile down a steep hill and hit a tree.

Pilot Steve wants to get his medics as close to the scene as possible -

power lines permitting.

CRACKLY CHATTER

-You can see, can't you?

-Gonna be a pain.

Luckily, there's just enough room to land.

The accident's left a trail of debris.

70-year-old Lorraine Kershaw has survived three big impacts

with two dry-stone walls and a tree.

Now she's trapped in the footwell of her battered hatchback

and both her legs are pinned under the dashboard.

I just heard the noise of the car come through the wall as it left the lane,

so I just come on foot to see what's gone on.

I called the emergency services and kept her company until they got here.

Just got a few details. She's a GCS 15,

she's complaining of rib pain and back pain.

I don't have an approximate age. I'll get back to you, over.

Tony can't believe how lucky his patient has been, despite her injuries.

Had the car not hit this tree, Lorraine would have plunged

a further quarter of a mile to the bottom of the hill,

and into a deep lake.

She's all right, but she's in quite a lot of pain.

So we just want to get her out as quick as we can, yeah.

It's in an awkward position, wedged against a tree.

There's severe damage to the front of the vehicle

and, er, the driver is now pinned inside the vehicle with the dashboard.

So we're having to work around that.

In again now. You'll hear a bang again in a minute.

Hopefully this will be the last one now.

Lorraine already has some medical problems and uses a wheelchair.

She was still able to drive, but it's almost impossible for Kate and Tony

to establish whether she's suffered additional injuries to her legs.

-Is your pain all in your back?

-In my back, and my ribs.

In your ribs? OK.

We're just trying to get a needle in the arm to get you some pain relief.

Lorraine was on her way to work as an RSPCA volunteer,

helping exercise unwanted animals, when she lost control on a minor road.

Tony's aware she could be bleeding internally,

and that could be fatal.

-Oh, my God.

-We're just going to cut this steering wheel so we can get you out.

How's your pain now? Are you still in a lot of pain?

I can't do it any more.

You can, come on.

Do you feel like you need some more painkiller?

-I just need to get out.

-Let's give you a bit before we move you.

Ready, steady, move.

Ouch!

All right, love.

If anybody can see if her leg's under the pedals, if possible?

The team release Lorraine, and Tony gets his first chance to examine her.

Can you feel me touching you here?

How about your neck, sweetheart, any pain?

No pain in your shoulders, or your chest?

Talking about pain in her hip.

She might have a fracture to one of her legs,

but she seems fairly stable.

Give her some morphine for the pain, obviously with moving her

we've made that a bit worse. She's done really well.

The crew don't want to hang around.

Kate and Tony often see older patients deteriorate quickly,

and they don't want that to happen in a field,

never mind in the back of a helicopter.

Take it easy...

The road Lorraine was driving on is over a quarter of a mile away,

so without Helimed 99 she'd have faced a long journey back up the hill to a land ambulance.

That's what these guys do best - getting their patients to hospital quickly.

And Lorraine's heading for one of the country's leading trauma units,

Leeds General Infirmary.

We're quite concerned that she's got some major trauma injuries,

just cos of where we found her.

It's her pelvis we're quite concerned about,

and her legs, really.

As we're coming up, she did drop her blood pressure quite quickly and severely,

which again is suggesting there's some kind of internal bleeding.

Lorraine spends three weeks in a high-dependency ward.

Her injuries are so severe her family are told to come and say their goodbyes.

But, to all the medical team's surprise, she pulls through.

And just a month later, she's well enough to sit up in bed.

I was very poorly, it was touch and go.

I was really on...

They didn't think I would pull through.

My son took his sister

and they all gathered here upstairs.

And they was all told to come and say goodbye to their mum.

It's rare for patients like Lorraine to remember what's happened

but she's been getting regular flashbacks.

The car just took straight off.

And it didn't drive, it flew.

The Helimed team often see the lethal consequences of drivers who hit trees.

But Lorraine has a different story.

There was actually after that tree a big drop.

And someone did say to my daughter if I'd have gone down there

they'd never find me.

"You were the luckiest person in this world."

Even the doctors said that to me.

Coming up...

A trapped farm worker's condition is critical

as doctors prepare to operate.

And the team are called to rescue a boy who's been lucky to survive a fall through a skylight.

Do you fancy flying in a helicopter?

Speed is the whole point of using a helicopter -

to get to your patient quickly and get them to hospital care even faster.

But sometimes a short delay on the ground to deliver vital medical treatment

is time well spent.

On a coastal path, 20 miles east of Hull,

the crew of Helimed 98 are struggling to treat an injured horse rider.

Since falling off her horse, Louise Baker has been uncooperative and aggressive -

behaviour that's completely out of character

and that's worrying paramedics Sammy Wills and Al Day.

-Stop it!

-You're all right, darling. Just relax.

They think Louise has suffered a serious head injury

but until they can calm her down,

it's not safe to fly her to hospital.

A common problem we have with people in this sort of condition,

where there's a balance between them being protected

by the spinal board and restraining them,

which is something we don't want to do,

cos that can cause damage.

Louise's riding pals can't believe how strangely their friend is behaving.

She'd be mortified if we played this back to her, absolutely,

cos she's so helpful with everybody - kids and everything.

Ironically, Louise is a nurse and specialises in neurology.

She deals with people suffering from exactly the same symptoms

on a daily basis.

I just had visions in my mind of how many times she'd turned round

and looked at me in the eye and told me, you know,

to get off.

It was a scary experience

and at the time I was almost pleading with everyone around -

"Can anybody else think of anything else we can do to help this lady."

Sammy's using all her experience to try and coax Louise into cooperating.

Just let her got on with her job. Come on, stay sat down.

But, finally, help has arrived.

Local GP, Dr Neil McDonald, carries a strong sedative

which should calm Louise down.

It's OK, I'm not very well...

They have no option but to restrain Louise so Dr McDonald can safely inject the drug.

Will you let go of me!

Stop it!

The skull protects over 10 million nerve cells in our brain

but it's only a few millimetres thick.

Louise's symptoms suggest she's injured the front of her brain

and if any arteries or veins have been damaged

her condition will quickly deteriorate.

She'll be feeling nice and relaxed now

and all of that tension she had will have disappeared.

You're hurting, you're hurting...

-We're not there to hurt you. We're here to help, OK?

Fantastic.

We are quite concerned about her.

It's very out of character.

Apparently this lady works as a nurse so to be behaving in this way would not be normal for her at all

so we're pretty certain it's the result of a head injury.

Now sedated, the team can finally start to follow the paramedic textbook

and immobilise Louise.

OK, then. We'll be lifting up. Ready, steady, lift.

And down. Nice and steady, thank you very much.

But all the medics know the damage maybe have already been done.

You don't let patients stand up and walk around

that have fallen off of a horse.

And unfortunately, on this occasion,

that's what happened.

In this condition, Sammy's happy to fly Louise to hospital.

-How long will this last for?

-I don't know.

But not even Dr McDonald knows how long the sedative will last.

And it wears off in-flight, that could cause big problems for the whole team.

Lift.

They plan to fly Louise to the hospital where she works,

the Hull Royal Infirmary.

But it's 10 minutes away by air.

Coming up...

Louise's colleagues begin to treat a helpful nurse who's suddenly become a difficult patient.

I was shocked to hear that Louise was down in A&E.

And high up the Moors, the hot summer gets the better of an exhausted rambler.

She was just a deadweight so I couldn't do anything.

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

and the paramedics have their work cut out.

At a farm near Otley in West Yorkshire,

harvesting has come to an abrupt halt.

There's been a serious accident

and a young farmer is critically injured after trapping his arm in a hay-baling machine.

It looks like it's gone right round and just left it attached at the top.

Michael Garth is only 26

but he's fighting for his life.

He's lost a lot of blood

and his body is struggling to cope.

Can you squeeze my fingers?

No, OK.

His rescuers including Helimed 99's Colin Jones and Lee Davison,

are not just there to save his life.

They're also trying to save his arm.

You're going to be OK, all right. OK?

There's nobody saying that you're going to lose it but...

All right? OK.

It'll be about 3 or 4 minutes and we'll be there, all right?

The team know that despite all their efforts

and the expertise of the waiting surgeons at the Leeds General Infirmary,

infection will almost certainly set in.

And doctors sometimes have no choice but to amputate limbs to stop infection from spreading.

RADIO CHATTER

It's estimated one person every week dies working on a farm.

And agriculture has the highest death rate of almost any industry.

But Michael's a fit young man and he'll need all his strength to overcome this ordeal.

Pins and needles. That was more than you had before.

-You said you had nothing before.

-Yeah.

Yeah, OK.

Michael's wheeled straight in to Resus,

the area where the most seriously injured patients are assessed.

Doctors and consultant plastic surgeons

as well as a team of highly-qualified nursing staff have rushed in to help.

They've got him stabilised. They've exposed the arm.

The orthopaedic surgeons are here and the plastic surgeons

and that's him going off to theatre.

We've obviously got a risk of infection

with it being wide open like that.

And obviously a high risk of bleeding

- a lot of the main arteries run down into the nerves and the arm and stuff.

The sooner that they're there, the better.

Michael undergoes emergency surgery to stem the bleeding and clean the open wound.

Doctors estimate he's lost more than 80% of the blood in his body.

Very few people survive after losing so much.

But after two weeks in intensive care,

Michael pulls through. And after surprising the doctors once,

he does it again. Just three weeks after the accident, he's back on the farm.

When I first looked at it,

I thought, "Oh, dear!"

When I lied down, I could feel it lying dead on me chest.

Cos there was just absolutely nowt there. It was crushed to...

Completely, I thought I'd lost my arm then

but they tried to save it in hospital but I knew it were gone then.

It were that mangled.

For many amputees it takes years to come to terms with losing a limb.

But not Michael.

I've always said that baler would get me one day.

I've done it thousands of times, flipped, bonded, not a problem.

But I always knew it were going to get me

and sort of physically I've built myself up to that.

And I can do most things with this to start with

but obviously, there's a lot of stuff I can't do.

They say they might be able to get a prosthetic

so maybe in about six months, I might be back up, fully fit.

Hopefully.

I've always given to t'charity and I've always said, "I'll need their number."

Absolutely, spot on.

Coming up...

Nurse Louise treats patients with head injuries.

Now her family's waiting to find out how serious hers is.

You save up all year for those precious two weeks on holiday

and you know it's going to be the shortest fortnight of the year.

But one visitor's break in Yorkshire came to an end even sooner.

Thousands of holidaymakers hit the road to explore Yorkshire each summer

Hitching up the family caravan for a week in the great outdoors.

Behind the Yorkshire Wolds, one couple's break has ended in a major accident.

Heading home from Scarborough, their caravan has been torn apart as it rolled over.

Taking their two-ton Land Rover Discovery with it.

Now both are trapped in their upturned car.

Can't understand what she's saying really.

So we've got a bit of a shimmy on to where a caravan's gone on its side

and obviously pulled the car over as well.

Helimed pilot Steve Cobb has some sympathy for the casualties.

He can handle a helicopter but found a caravan too much of a challenge.

Yeah, they're not the easiest things to drive.

It's quite easy to lose control.

I never went above 45 because I was terrified of the thing.

But it happens easily.

It looks like strong winds almost 1,000 feet up in the Wolds have caught out the driver.

Helimed 99 to air desk.

We've landed on scene and I'll give you an update ASAP, over.

Holidaymaker Rachel Copeman was towing a caravan for only the second time when the accident happened.

Her partner, Joe, has escaped with minor injuries.

But she's suffered a major wound to the head.

There's an off-duty paramedic in the car with the lady.

She's got a very nasty skull... the top of her skull is showing.

A bit of fat around... And she's complaining of an arm injury.

No other fractures.

Paramedic Tony wastes no time in getting as close to Rachel as possible.

She's now in the passenger seat of her upturned Land Rover.

What are you like pain-wise, Rachel?

I'm not bad, I'm just aching.

You're just aching, are you?

It's a slow and deliberate procedure extracting patients from cars that have flipped over.

Are you OK in there, yeah? Ready steady, move.

RACHEL GROANS

Rachel just...

But with a little careful manipulation, Rachel's out.

We've got a 30-year-old female, driver of the vehicle, with a seatbelt on.

She has quite a nasty open-skull fracture

Query, 30 centimetres.

Rachel won't forget this holiday in a hurry.

She's suffered two broken vertebrae in her back

and needed an operation to fit a frame to stabilise her injured neck.

The head injury needed stitches and the scars will be a lasting reminder of her trip to the Wiltshire coast.

8 out of 10 visitors to Yorkshire have been before.

The dales and moors don't change much and that's part of their appeal.

But sometimes tourists face something unexpected

and not very pleasant.

For energetic holidaymakers the Cleveland Way is a major attraction -

all 110 miles of it.

It starts near the market town of Helmsley and then heads up on to the North York moors

before taking in the 1,000-foot high peak of Rosebury Topping.

You need a good pair of lungs before trying to reach this place

but the views are worth it.

And the Cleveland Way is Helimed 99's destination today.

We've been mobilised to an elderly female who's suffered a collapse

on the Cleveland Way.

It's very difficult for vehicular access to get to the patient

from where she is at the moment so we're just transiting out there.

And then we'll just assess whether we need to

transport the patient or just assist the land crew back to the vehicle.

Free sightseeing is a perk of the job for the Helimed team

Today's route takes them over the ancient Rievaulx Abbey

and the steam railway that stars in the Harry Potter movies.

It's an area Tony knows well.

I've got like a holiday home in Scarborough,

so we spend quite a bit of time on the east coast, walking on the Cleveland Way.

It's really scenic, the path follows the cliff tops.

We've been in touch with the coast guard. They have local rescue teams

which can assist us.

Christine Haig collapsed after climbing a steep set of steps

near the seaside resort of Sandsend.

There's a sea breeze and the sea's still cool

but the sun's making walking hard on the hill tops.

How are you...again?

Motor cycle paramedic Jim Bryan has just arrived.

Always beat the helicopter.

Haven't long been here myself. Been out for a walk.

-Hello, sweetheart.

-She collapsed in the bushes here coming up this path.

They managed to get her up. She was lying down there,

then moved over here. Complained of pins and needles in her hand.

Christine's simply exhausted after her climb.

Her blood sugar level has unexpectedly dropped right down.

We were going to walk from Sandsend to Runswick Bay,

have a cup of tea and then walk back again.

But we got two-thirds of the way up those really steep steps

and suddenly she just sat down

and complained of feeling sickly.

And then there was just nothing there, OK?

She was just a dead weight, so we couldn't do anything.

Her symptoms may sound minor, but this is potentially serious.

When the brain is starved of sugar, you get confused

and your body can shut down.

That seems to be what's happened to Christine.

For the patient, this can be terrifying.

The symptoms mimic those of having a stroke.

What that'll do is, because of all that exercise, you've probably burnt a lot of your blood sugars...

The solution is a sugar gel straight into the patient's mouth

and instantly absorbed into the bloodstream.

It's not the best tasting, is it?

And the effect is almost instantaneous.

'Basically, the GlucoGel is absorbed quite quickly into your mucosa in your gums.'

-You're doing well.

-Days like this, when it's really warm, it does take it out of you.

Just stand.

Christine's soon on her feet and on her way to hospital.

She's missed the sights of the Cleveland Way,

but a bird's-eye view of one of the UK's most rugged coastlines will make up for it.

They look beautiful, but these waters are a dangerous playground.

And a few days later, the Helimed team are back at Sandsend

for another unlucky holidaymaker.

The onshore lifeboat's been called out to rescue a canoeist suffering from extreme cold.

By the time Helimed 99 arrives, he's back on dry land, but in trouble.

We'll have a look at him and take him to Scarborough. He obviously needs warming up.

Other than that, we're not sure, really.

One of Alan Holdsworth's kayaking buddies has got him back to shore,

-but Alan's exhausted and very cold.

-We'll put you some earphones on...

The arm's a bit cold to take out for a blood pressure, so that's 99%, 100%.

-We could stay here, it's lovely and warm!

-I know!

Another urgent trip to Scarborough Hospital is required

and the roads are blocked with holiday traffic.

By land, it could take over an hour, by helicopter, ten minutes.

Right, we'll got straight up...

This chap's on a canoe, he's capsized

and swallowed quite a bit of water on the way over.

So, er, all his obs seems fairly stable, apart from being cold.

We'll take him to Scarborough and hopefully they'll have a Bair Hugger to warm him up a bit.

The crew can see that the muscles in Alan's hands have started to spasm,

and that's a bad sign.

But his shivering helps his body warm itself up,

generating heat from the inside.

There you go, that's right.

The special thermal bag on the helicopter will finish the job

and bring Alan's body temperature back up.

It's just like, er...

Right, OK, so you're wet through from outside in, really.

After an uncomfortable night in hospital, Alan was able to go home.

He's got a lot of people to thank - his mates, the lifeboat crew,

and the Helimed team all helped in his rescue.

But his wife has told him to sell his canoe.

We all have to watch our spending these days and the recession has brought a tourism boom to Yorkshire.

Why spend four hours on a jet when you can find scenery like this in your own back yard?

And thousands of people are opting for a "staycation" these days.

The beaches of the east coast are packed.

But you can't go to the sands every day.

And on a family farm in the Vale of York,

one youngster's adventure holiday at home has ended in tears.

RADIO CHATTER

Charlie Bramley has fallen 20 feet

through a barn skylight and landed on a plough.

With any fall from height, you can have any manner of significant injuries.

The ones we're concerned about are back injuries and head injuries

that can be worrying, especially in a child.

Charlie was trying to get his rugby ball off the barn roof

when he slipped. His parents are with him.

With children, it's often difficult for them

to express what pain they've got,

whereabouts it is, so it's difficult to assess how badly they're injured.

Often, parents are really worried, sometimes unduly, but sometimes with good cause.

Charlie hasn't moved since he fell.

His neck or back could be broken.

-All clear. We've just got that machinery at the edge.

-Yeah.

-OK to bail out?

-Yeah.

His parents' farm is near the village of Sherburn-in-Elmet.

For a chopper at 150mph, it's only 10 minutes from takeoff to landing.

Right, so this is Charlie?

Hello, Charlie, buddy.

It's the ambulance here. You just lay there a second.

Have we got Mum here? ..Right. So Charlie's fallen through the roof.

He could have hit this plough, but we're not sure.

Paramedic Tony has children of his own. He knows exactly

how to communicate with a young boy who's frightened and in pain.

Charlie? Hey up, matey? Have you got any pain anywhere?

-Yes.

-Whereabouts, mate?

-On my back and on my head.

On your back and head? Can you remember anything that's happened?

The height that he's fallen, he's really lucky not to have sustained massive injuries,

like quite serious head and spinal injuries. It's quite high.

But initial findings suggest he's been quite lucky, which is good.

All right, buddy, what are we gonna do?

Charlie's very brave considering the terrible fright he's had,

losing his footing and tumbling through a skylight.

We're gonna put you on a board and pop you in our helicopter.

Fancy flying in our helicopter?

CHARLIE CRIES

Normally, the thought of a flight in a helicopter cheers an injured child up.

-You're not going on your own.

-We're not leaving you.

CHARLIE CRIES

But I don't want to!

You don't like heights?

You went on an aeroplane last week.

Fortunately, Mum and Dad are on hand to calm Charlie down

and prepare him for his flight to hospital.

-I want to go in the g...

-HE CRIES

DAD: The green car?

You'll get there a lot quicker in the helicopter, won't you?

He's come right through the ceiling up there, and we're right next to this huge plough.

We're not taking any chances. He's quite distressed.

It's difficult to assess him, so we'll move him as best we can

without trying to frighten him.

We've laid him on a board and we'll take him to hospital so they can look at him.

The soothing words from Mum and Dad have worked and Charlie is now ready

for his emergency flight.

His back and neck have been stabilised for the short journey to Pinderfields Hospital.

There's never much room for passengers in a Helimed chopper,

but to reassure Charlie, it's important that Dad Mark comes too.

< Are you OK?

-< You're OK.

-Yeah, I'm OK.

Charlie spent the night in hospital undergoing tests, scans and X-rays.

Amazingly, after his rooftop fall, he hadn't broken any bones.

With just a few bruises, the lucky Charlie was soon home enjoying the rest of his summer holidays.

I'm pleased to say all our patients are on the road to recovery.

Now, as any doctor will tell you, it's very difficult to predict how someone will recover,

especially in the first few minutes, following a critical illness or serious injury.

But sometimes, there's a surprise.

Do you mind just witnessing this?

A cliff edge on the east coast near Withernsea has been the scene of Helimed 98's latest rescue.

Louise Baker is a nurse who specialises in brain injuries,

but today she's the patient.

After falling off her horse,

Louise has sustained a serious head injury,

which has triggered a complete change of personality. She's had to be sedated to calm her down.

Hurting! You're hurting! Hurting!

We're not there to hurt you, we're here to help, OK?

As well as her head injury, paramedic Sammy Wills also thinks Louise has broken her neck.

The team are going to fly Louise to the Hull Royal Infirmary, the hospital where she works,

and where news has started to filter through that one of their colleagues has been seriously injured.

That's it, Louise. We'll get you nice and warm now.

Withernsea to Hull is a journey Louise does regularly to get to work.

It takes 45 minutes by road, but less than 10 by air.

Louise had come off her horse and had a massive head injury

and we believe that's why her personality changed so much.

But we couldn't confirm it until she was in hospital and had the CT scan.

In Hull, the doctors and nurses face a situation every medic dreads -

treating a friend and colleague.

And Louise's injuries are far more serious than anyone imagined.

She's immediately anaesthetised and admitted to Intensive Care.

It's one of the worst nightmares for any doctor to have

family, friends or colleagues come in as patients,

especially in a critical state.

I was shocked to hear that Louise was down in A&E.

It's also discovered Louise has fractured her neck.

And that can cause paralysis.

But after four days in Intensive Care, Louise wakes up, and just a few weeks later, she's back home.

My last memory is actually of sitting on the cliff top looking at the sea cos the tide was going out.

I don't remember anything after that at all.

But they've told me that I was completely uncooperative at the time.

and didn't believe anybody was trying to help me.

My friends at the stables have been ribbing me ever since.

Louise has to wear a collar for the next few weeks while her neck heals,

but that hasn't stopped her getting back to the stables,

and there's one other place Louise is desperate to visit.

Most patients are glad to see the back of hospital

after spending a few weeks laid up in bed.

But Louise has worked at Hull Royal for over ten years

and she's missed out on a lot of the nurses' gossip.

You can start changing the collar from now on then!

'I went to see her the following day, and obviously,'

this huge personality to be... ventilated and so, so poorly,

it's strange to see when somebody who you've worked with for such a long time,

who's looked after these really compromised patients,

to suddenly become one herself was just devastating to see, really.

News of Louise's swift recovery comes as a great relief to one of her rescuers.

Stop it!

And Sammy admits this was one of the most challenging jobs she's ever faced.

I believe she's making a very good recovery.

I've not met her, but reports are that she's even met up with her colleagues on the neuro ward too.

I can't imagine how embarrassing that would be.

When Helicopter Heroes comes back...

A teenage boy fights for his life after a road accident.

He's sustained a very serious injury to his head.

Only the Helimed team can save him.

Paramedic Darren's in a tight spot as he joins an injured driver trapped in his car.

Just gonna turn your car into a convertible.

A boy's badly hurt after a playground accident watched by his mum.

He was unconscious when I got to him.

And a daredevil day-tripper needs hospital treatment

after a mishap captured on video.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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