Episode 18 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 four and a half 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,

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.

I'm just going to turn your car into a convertible for you.

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

He was unconscious when I got to him.

And a dare-devil day-tripper needs hospital treatment after a mishap captured on video.

If you complain about your garage bill, spare a thought for the charity

that keeps this thing in the air.

Even a second-hand Explorer helicopter will set you back

over £3 million, and an annual service

will cost well into six figures.

But for the patients, this machine is priceless.

It's early evening at air ambulance headquarters,

and paramedics Lee Gray and Tony Wilkes are nearing

the end of a 12-hour shift responding to emergencies.

But their last case tonight will test their life-saving

skills to the limit.

13-year-old Calum Parkinson

has been hit by a car and is fighting for his life.

Just to let you know, we've been looking at this knock-down

you're going on. I wonder if you could just give us an update,

see whether he might need to go to LGI.

The crew of Helimed 99 are watching details coming in from the scene.

Accidents don't come more serious than this.

-He's sporadically fitting.

-Yeah, suspicion of a head injury,

-so I think we'll just dispatch there.

-All right.

Already pilot Pete Barnes is talking to air traffic control.

..2,000 feet, one zero one zero.

If Calum has been hit by the car, even at 30 miles an hour,

there's a 50% chance he'll die.

Dr Simon Ward and paramedic Lee Gray can only hope

that they'll get there in time.

If the parents are on scene, there'll be some grave concerns,

especially if they've witnessed the child actually being knocked down,

but obviously it's just a good consolation

that they've got a doctor en route and obviously a helicopter

to fly him direct to a treatment centre that is best suited to him.

If it's a serious head injury, then he might require a general

anaesthetic to help prevent any further damage to the brain.

Right, there's a nice little patch just at the top where that big tree is.

That looks fairly ideal for me.

Dr Simon Ward and paramedic Tony know they don't have time

to wait for pilot Pete Barnes to shut down the helicopter.

Obviously, the incident's just round this bend, so there's potentially

been a high speed knock-down... this particular stretch of road.

Hiya, you all right?

One of Calum's neighbours, Tony Sidcar, is an ambulance technician.

He provided first aid and has been supporting Calum's head

since the accident happened.

The fluid seeping from Calum's nose and ears is the vital liquid that protects his brain.

It's a big clue that the base of Calum's skull is fractured, and that's a life-threatening injury.

This is a bad sign. Calum's having a seizure. The pace of treatment must now speed up.

If Calum is to survive, he needs to be in hospital as soon as possible.

..Yeah.

Good man.

The accident has happened outside Calum's house.

In the crowd of people, his mum watches on, willing her son to keep breathing.

Right, Calum, that's one new shirt I owe you.

Dr Simon should be on a day off.

Instead, he chooses to take his life-saving skills out of hospital

in his spare time.

This could make all the difference for Calum, as Simon is about

to carry out a procedure that could save his young patient's life.

I'm going to give him a general anaesthetic.

He's got a head injury that's going to require him

to be sedated for the flight, so I'm just getting that ready now.

If Calum's head is as badly injured as Dr Simon fears,

the damage to his brain will eventually stop him breathing.

If the team don't intervene now and put Calum to sleep, he may not even

survive the journey to hospital.

Coming up, intensive care comes

to Calum as another doctor arrives to help anaesthetise him in the street.

He's fitting - that indicates a very significant injury

going on inside his head.

A playground accident could be much more serious than it appears.

Keep your eyes open for me.

And the team join the search for a swimmer feared drowned.

She went in about 20 minutes ago. A little bit longer.

Wearing a uniform for a living means you never have to put up

with routine, but I can tell you that being a member of the emergency

services also involves being put in some pretty risky situations.

Four-wheel drives are made for going off-road,

but one driver's unplanned detour

off the motorway isn't exactly what the designers had in mind.

Harjit Singh has crashed 100 yards through signs,

fences and trees.

Helimed 99 is on its way.

We've got reports of a four-by- four that has left the motorway

and rolled over into a field.

We've had persons reported at the

location, but we don't know at this time whether or not they're trapped.

Looks like it's down there, doesn't it? Through those trees.

-Yeah. And that field looks about as good as owt I've ever seen.

-Absolutely, yes, perfect.

Put her down quickly.

-Top corner of the field looks flattish to me, mate.

-Yeah, it does, yeah.

An ambulance crew has already come to Harjit's aid.

You're all clear left.

-Hiya, lads, how are you going?

-He's bleeding but conscious.

-Yeah.

-I'm just going to get collars. I think it's just a case of getting him out and...

-Fab.

But before he gets to work, Darren spots a child's seat and toys that have been thrown from the car.

-Has a child been thrown with them?

-That is a kid's seat up there.

-You haven't had a young 'un in the car have you, mate?

-No.

With that worry over, Darren can now concentrate on Mr Singh.

Is it Archie, did you say?

Harjit.

Harjit. All right, mate, let's just have a look at your face, matey.

All right, just put that back on.

Have you got a big size four or five dressing?

Well, at the moment, the fire service are trying to clear

the area so they can get access to him and extricate him from the vehicle.

Harjit has a 35cm cut

that runs across his head and down onto his face.

He's lost a lot of blood.

It's just oxygen that,

all right? Just to help you clear your head a little bit.

-Can you remember everything that's happened to you? No?

-No.

-Have you got any pain anywhere else other than your head?

-My shoulder, mate.

-Your shoulder's hurting. What about your legs?

-I'm fine...

-Right. No pain in your back?

-No, no.

-No pain in your shins at all?

-No.

-Are you sure?

I think if he's been in a normal family car, he'd be probably dead

you know. So far he's got a head injury,

he's still conscious and talking to us,

he seems to have a shoulder injury and possibly some issues with his breathing.

Right, that's coming off. I need to readjust myself a bit.

As a former miner, Darren's used to working in tight spaces,

but he's a big lad and getting around a crushed car to treat a patient isn't easy.

At least fellow paramedic Al is nearby to lend his support.

He's wrapped up in there. He's doing very well, actually.

This pain you've got, matey, on a scale of one to ten, what is it?

-If ten's the worst...?

-Seven.

About a seven. It's your shoulder that's hurting you?

-I've got some morphine in my pocket.

-Now, then...

Right, what we've got, because we need to start...

-taking your roof off and stuff...

-Yeah.

-There's going to be a big shake.

-OK.

We're going to put that over you to cover you basically.

-There's a window in it so you can see what's going on.

-OK, mate.

There's be somebody talking to you all the time to let you know exactly what's happening.

The man who's going to do the talking is Darren,

who has decided to stay with Harjit.

Right, Harjit, what we're going to do now, mate, is we're going to take this roof off, right?

I'm going to stay with you all the time.

One of us will be with you and we won't leave you.

All right? And we'll get you out of here then.

Dazza's just at the moment just holding his head, making sure

if he's got any possibility of a neck injury,

he's keeping everything nice and stable and just keeping talking to him,

because it can be quite frightening - you're under there under a sheet, and your car's

being ripped to pieces around you by the fire brigade.

You know, you can hear creaking and smashing and metal being cut

and all sorts of noises.

When you're already a bit disorientated from having been

in a crash, it can be quite a frightening experience.

Make sure you don't hit owt squishy, firefighter, won't you?

Because it will be me.

Coming up, Darren and his patient take cover

as firefighters start cutting.

I think you need a new car, buddy.

A teenager's chances of survival

are slim, but two doctors are determined to beat the odds.

He has sustained a very serious injury to his head

and he's deeply unconscious.

And a man in danger of dying of cold on a summer's day.

Everyone takes safety pretty seriously these days.

Never mind steel toe-capped boots or high-vis vests - some firms

even insist on a risk assessment just to use a desk.

But no matter what you do, nothing can be made entirely safe.

It's summer in Yorkshire and it's playtime for the county's

half a million youngsters, but in a village near Barnsley, a mischievous

11-year-old has taken a tumble from the top of this playhouse.

It could be that a child perhaps took a bang on the head

and had a moment's loss of consciousness.

Helimed 98 is on the way.

Five miles out. 3,000 feet.

Houses to our left.

The town to our right. And it should be on the nose.

Paramedics Pete Vallance and James Vine know Keal Dimmock has fallen

on his head, and that's serious, especially for a child.

Hello, how are you today?

Keal's mum Michelle is frantic.

She saw it happen.

He were just on top there, I come past in the car, and he were on top of what they call the birdcage.

And I pulled up, peeped at him to get his attention, to tell him

to get down and as he saw me, knew he shouldn't have been up there,

and he tried to slide down and he just slid, he collapsed on...he fell and hit his...

I think it were the left-hand side of his head and his arm, and his friend just shouted,

"He's not breathing, he's not breathing."

He was unconscious when I got to him. Just unconscious.

Keal's condition seems stable and most of the friends who saw him fall

think his injuries are minor, but Pete and James know better.

-Can you lift this left arm for me, Keal?

-Can you lift your left arm?

-I want to go to sleep!

-Good lad.

-You want to go to sleep?

-Ah...

-Tell me what hurt then.

What hurt then, darling?

As well as having medical skills, medics must be good actors.

The Helimed team knows Keal's symptoms are potentially

life-threatening, but they can't let him or his mum know that.

How old is he, Mum?

-He's 11.

-He's 11.

Yeah, Lee, he's an 11-year-old male,

fallen approximately ten foot off a bandstand onto his head.

LOC approximately five minutes, witnessed by Mum.

-You'll come with us?

-Oh, yeah.

What's his name again?

It's Keal. It's all right, darling.

All right, mate, open your eyes.

Doctors at Sheffield's Children's Hospital are on standby.

Keal will be flown direct to their emergency unit.

-Where's it hurting, Keal, is it that brace?

-Yeah...

Yeah. Is it very, very bad?

HE CRIES

Keal... ..Well, put it this way, when he broke his arm, he never cried. In two places.

Tough lad, is he?

Unlike adults, children can deteriorate very quickly with few symptoms.

Keal's sleepiness is worrying.

It can be the sign of a major brain injury.

Stick your tongue out for me again, Keal.

Pop your tongue out.

The arrival of Helimed 98 has caused a stir in the village.

Hear that helicopter come in to land?

Did you hear it?

Keal?

-No.

-You didn't hear it?

-No.

-I did.

-I think everybody else did as well!

The village has come to have a look at it.

Michelle will be travelling to hospital with her son.

The presence of Mum can help calm younger patients,

but Keal seems unaware of what's going on.

Keal, are you all right, pal?

Keep your eyes open for me.

That's a good lad.

It's a six-minute flight to the Children's Hospital,

but longer than Pete and James would like.

As the team prepare to land, Keal suffers a seizure and lapses into unconsciousness.

-Just going to land opposite the hospital, and the doctors come out and meet us.

-Oh, right.

We'll get him on a trolley and get him into Accident and Emergency.

-Now we're going to go into the area where they assess them straightaway.

-Yeah.

-There's going to be an awful lot of doctors and nurses.

-Yeah.

It's nothing to worry about.

This has become a race to save their patient.

Keal. Keal.

-Hiya, chaps, how are we doing?

-Hiya.

'He dropped his conscious level and then had a large vomit

'and then what we're thinking is probably a seizure,

'which is sometimes normal with children with head injuries,'

but obviously it tends to suggest that there might be

a problem inside his head and that's what they're all looking

for at the moment. His scans... he's been scanned down at hospital.

But Keal had a surprise for his friends in the village

of South Hiendley.

After a week in hospital, he improved enough to come home,

despite a head injury that could have been much more serious.

I have actually been up there before, but I just jumped,

but that time I just dangled and then fell.

I weren't really thinking.

He's not been allowed to play out, because obviously the neurosurgeon said it's going to take some healing,

so he's obviously had a few weeks off school.

He went back, but he's not allowed to play out,

he's not allowed, he's supposed to be resting, basically.

Can only have a few hours of PS3 a day, can't ya?

Which he's not happy about! Took him for a CT scan,

and it showed up a brain injury, but he survived, so we had loads

of luck that day, definitely.

Coming up, the fight to free a motorist trapped in his four-by-four reaches its climax.

It's a good job you were in summat this big, else you would have been toast.

And the man rescued from a whirlpool who now needs heat to stay alive.

Now let's get back to the case of 13-year-old Calum, the teenager

who's fighting for his life

after a road accident near his home in West Yorkshire.

It's a warm summer evening, but no-one on this street

in Huddersfield in West Yorkshire is enjoying the weather.

13-year-old Calum Parkinson has collided with a car as he crossed

the road outside his house.

Flying medics from Helimed 99 have arrived quickly,

but Calum's head has hit the road so hard

the team think he's fractured the base of his skull.

This young boy has sustained quite a substantial head injury.

Simon's just preparing now just to pop him to sleep and pop a tube

in to control his breathing and keep his airway nice and clear.

I'm just trying to organise now, just transportation to LGI,

cos we'll need an ambulance at that end just to get us down to Casualty as well.

Calum's a popular young man. A keen sportsman, he's in the local rugby team and loves going scuba diving.

The street is packed with friends and family who've come out

to see if they can help. Amongst them are Calum's mum and dad.

Calum, you've got to relax, son. Come on.

Calum, Calum, calm down, just relax, come on.

But this man could be vital in the battle to save Calum's life.

Dr Jez Pinnell is a consultant anaesthetist

who flies with the Helimed team.

He also happens to live nearby and has come to protect Calum's

brain from the damage that often follows a road accident like this.

-Normally he's a rugby player, healthy young lad.

-Yeah.

Runs, cycles, everything.

One of the healthiest young lads you could ever hope to meet.

Dr Jez is just in time.

There's a high risk that Calum will stop breathing at any moment.

Jez specialises in anaesthetics and will now take over putting Calum

to sleep outside his own front door.

There's a crew already at secondary, and I've spoken to LGI itself.

This is the critical moment.

A chemistry set of drugs will stop Calum's breathing.

Dr Jez then just has a few seconds to open his airway and insert a tube,

which allows the team to breathe for him.

He's a 12-year-old and he's being intubated by the doctor on scene at present.

He's a road traffic knock-down, obviously GCS3.

I'll ring through to LGI and let them know we're coming there -

if you can just organise a crew, like I said, for 30 minutes.

Jez would not perform this sort of high-risk intervention at the roadside unless it was vital.

Now hooked up to the monitoring equipment,

it's clear the procedure's been a success. By squeezing the bag,

Jez is performing the same action as Calum's lungs.

Yeah. Simon's going to give 'em an ETA for us going in of about 30.

We'll be 10 getting him settled and then 15 in, won't we?

Road accidents are the biggest cause of death in children under 15.

Last year nearly 4,000 children were killed or seriously injured,

but many of those youngsters will not have received such expert treatment.

I think his chances at the moment probably are not very good.

I think he's unlikely to survive and if he does,

he could well survive with significant disabilities.

Yeah, you're all clear here.

All clear, Pete.

Neurosurgeons at the Leeds General Infirmary are waiting for Helimed 99's arrival.

As the team leave Calum's familiar surroundings behind,

no-one knows whether he'll see them again.

Coming up, Calum survives to reach hospital, but how will his head injury affect him?

The signs at the scene now are not very good.

And a rope swing lands a day-tripper in a lot of pain.

HE GROANS

Now, putting three tons of helicopter down in an urban area

is never going to be easy, but the Helimed team's pilots

usually find somewhere to land.

Today Helimed 99 pilot Steve Cobb has managed to find a landing pad

right next to one of the busiest urban motorways in West Yorkshire,

and it's just as well for the team's badly injured patient.

He's come off the motorway,

through this field, somersaulted over this fence and hit that tree

and he's now trapped in the vehicle.

Harjit Singh's been lucky to survive a high-speed crash on the M62 motorway.

He's trapped in the wreckage of his four-wheel-drive car with serious injuries.

I'm just going to pop this glass on the side - are you, OK?

All right.

There's going to be a loud bang, mate.

Thank you.

Now Harjit and flying paramedic Darren Axe must wait as firefighters

cut his car apart to free him.

WHIRRING

Darren and his patient are covered by a safety blanket

and can't see much, but they can hear what's going on.

Darren's a former miner,

well-used to confined spaces, and he knows this is a risky situation.

Falling trees, debris from cutting equipment and fire

are all potential hazards, but keeping Harjit cheerful is part of his job.

Just relax, mate, it's nowt to worry about.

We're just going to turn your car into a convertible for you(!) Did you want a convertible?

Yeah, why not?!

Darren's a car nut with a high-powered Nissan sports car on his drive. He feels for Harjit.

I think you need a new car, buddy.

It's a good job you were in summat this big, else you would have been toast.

Harjit has a bad head wound, his shoulder hurts and he could

have a serious back injury, but his car's in worse shape.

Firefighters are slowly taking apart Harjit's Toyota Land Cruiser.

Its strength probably saved his life,

but now its steel construction is making hard work for his rescuers.

Sound job, mate, sound.

At last they're ready to move their patient.

-Are you ready then, lads?

-Yeah, I'm ready.

As he comes up, we're going to have to angle it a bit more. OK.

-Ready?

-Yes.

-Your call.

Ready, steady...

OK.

Keep your arm in, Harjit.

We've had to create a path up to the field at the back where the helicopter is,

so once we're out, then it's just a case of carrying him

up onto the helicopter and then away to a hospital.

Harjit's not a small man and he takes a lot of lifting,

but the fire service know how to make light work of jobs like this.

Bring him feet first and keep him nice and high until he's right here.

Once their patient's inside the chopper, the team have all their

medical kit at arm's reach.

But for Darren there's another reason for relief this job's nearly over.

It were a bit awkward, but sometimes you've just

got to be prepared to put yourself in that position, and I'm sure anyone

of us that were there would have done exactly the same,

so you've got to do what's right for the patient at end of the day.

Sometimes it's not always textbook,

but you've got a casualty to retrieve and you need to get on with it.

A trauma team are already waiting at Leeds General Infirmary.

It's less than 15 minutes since Harjit was freed from his car -

now he's about to get the medical treatment he desperately needs.

Hello.

He's got quite a nasty head injury, it's quite a big open

wound to his head, and head injuries are always a concern,

especially when you've been unconscious, and this gentleman was knocked out initially.

So that's always a cause of concern.

He's also got some injuries to his right side.

His shoulder looks to be quite badly

damaged and also possibly some right-side chest injuries.

As Al feared, Harjit had broken his shoulder.

He also has a back injury that will require steel pins. By the time

he's released from hospital, he'll have had three separate operations.

Coming up,

13-year-old Calum's family wait for news on their son's condition.

I could straightaway see that it was serious, cos I saw the blood from his nose,

blood from his ears, he was frothing at the mouth.

You're never far from water in Yorkshire and if, like me, you love

canoeing, then the river is a great place to get out and enjoy yourself.

But for an unlucky few, a lack of experience

and a bit of sheer bad luck poses a lethal combination.

Water created the Yorkshire Dales.

Over millions of years, it carved these valleys out of solid limestone.

It's a landscape big enough to lose a town in, never mind a helicopter,

but sometimes visitors forget the power of nature.

Today near Ingleton, a party has got into trouble canyoning,

riding white water with little protection other than a lifejacket

and helmet.

It's not a hobby for paramedic Darren Axe.

He prefers swimming in a heated pool.

It's an unusual one, this one. We've been called out to

Beezley Falls, just north of Ingleton.

There's reports of a child in the water there who's unable

to make it back to the bank.

Cave rescue have been deployed to it as well, so we're going to go up there

and see what we can do to assist them. Hopefully the water's not too deep.

This is a difficult rescue.

Volunteers from the local cave rescue team

are battling to save two men who became trapped in a whirlpool.

-Down here at three o'clock, gentlemen.

-Yeah.

They've been in the water for nearly an hour, and now one is seriously ill with hypothermia.

It's quite a torrent, quite vigorous. Glad I'M not in it.

But they're still trapped out of sight on a rocky ledge inches above the water.

There's one of these lads that's in quite a bad way, so he's probably the one for us.

So that'll be the one we take.

Paramedic Al Day is used to this kind of incident.

He's a member of his local mountain rescue team,

but all he and Darren can do is wait until their patient is brought up the steep bank.

It's too dangerous to venture down to the water.

Patients with hypothermia deteriorate very quickly, so the priority is get

him up to the top, get him warmed up and get him off to hospital.

Finally the man is hauled up to the medical team.

His body temperature is dangerously low - his soaking wet

clothes and a Pennine wind are making things even worse.

His life is in real danger.

-Open your eyes, chief. Where's that oxygen we asked to be put on him?

-It's here.

It's here, mate, it's down here.

The Helimed team have an unusual treatment for extreme cold.

Yeah. Fingers. Fingers. Fingers.

It's called the pizza bag -

a thickly insulated sleeping bag that quickly warms the body...

-Can we not just pick him up and just go?

-Yes.

..and instantly turns into a stretcher.

The man's vital signs are dropping.

His core temperature has plunged to just 30 degrees.

37 is normal, and a drop of 2 degrees can do harm.

Hey up, mate, open your eyes.

He'll be warmed from the inside as well - the team are dripping warm

fluid directly into his bloodstream.

We're taking this casualty to Lancaster - it's about

seven minutes flying time, it's the closest hospital

for us, so that's best for him. He's quite hypothermic

and we need to get him warmed up and move quickly.

There's nothing more Darren and Al can do.

Temperature levels of the body are more critical than people appreciate,

and a 6-degree shift is enough

to make you unconscious, and you'll go into a coma and you may not recover.

He needs to be in a resus department

where they'll have specialist equipment to reheat him at a set speed,

and the fastest way to get there is on this aircraft.

The man was taken to hospital in Lancaster and recovered,

but for the local cave rescue team, this was a close call

and an example why rivers should be treated with greater respect.

We're all for having adventures.

What they'd neglected to find out was the local conditions

and the fact that it had rained recently and the river was higher

than they'd anticipated.

Members of the public were able to initially throw some ropes out

and improvise a rescue attempt to pull at least one of them to safety.

If they'd been in a really isolated spot, those two could have drowned, there's no doubt about it.

They couldn't get out of the current and their strength would have

run out eventually, they'd have gone underwater.

'Despite its dangers, water has an attraction few of us can resist.

'In the Yorkshire Dales, a river view can add 20% to the value of a house,

'and some of us like to do more than just look.'

Looks gorgeous, doesn't it?

But you've got to remember at the bottom of most rivers

like this are rocks, and when you hit them, it hurts.

The temperature's in the mid-80s, and the sun's beating down, so what better

than a cooling dip in a local river?

Now, that's exactly what 18-year-old Matthew Tighe

and his mates thought when this happened.

One of Matthew's friends is filming on his mobile phone.

Matthew's fallen over ten feet

and landed face down in part of the river that's only a few feet deep.

He's unconscious, and if his friends don't get him out of the river soon,

he'll drown.

Yeah, Roger, possible head injury,

banged his head on a rock in water.

The mobile phone used to film Matthew's fall is now used

to call 999 and trigger the emergency response, which includes Helimed 98.

Like thousands of day-trippers, they're heading for the Yorkshire Dales.

They'll be at Matthew's side in just ten minutes.

We're just heading out to the waterfalls,

just north of Settle, for somebody who's slipped

on the rocks and banged their head, and I'm not too sure whether they've fallen

into the waterfall or not, it's a possibility.

There's over 100,000 miles of rivers meandering across the country and some of the most

picturesque and powerful can be found in Yorkshire.

They've been used for hundreds of years for fishing and boating,

but these days there's a growing number of dare-devils who see rivers

as a playground.

It's a glorious sunny afternoon,

so we've got a lot of people out walking up in the Dales.

You know, we get quite a lot of calls in this area for walkers

and people who fall - RTCs - so currently this is a normal job.

Someone has apparently jumped into a...

jumped on a rope swing and landed at the side of a wall,

so we don't know the extent of the injuries.

As Matthew's found out, using the river

as a playground can be dangerous.

Nearly 200 people die every year after accidents on our rivers.

Can't see any waterfall.

It's down there approximately three o'clock.

I'll stick us down by the ambulance

and then if we need to reposition, we can sort it out.

The team have dropped in next to Stainforth Force,

a well-known beauty spot a mile from the market town of Settle.

Matthew's mates have dragged him out of the water and ground power medics

have managed to move him to safety, but he's in a bad way.

Try and relax, try and relax onto the board.

Ah! Ah!

He's broken his leg, lost many of his front teeth

and could have caused some serious damage to his neck and spine.

The narrow Dales roads are notorious, and today

thousands of visitors will be clogging them up on their way home.

Matthew needs hospital treatment quickly,

and there's only one way he's going to get it.

We'll go to Lancaster with him.

On the landing... It's like that, so it's a nightmare.

Shall we get him back in the helicopter and we'll do it all up there?

Just get him out the way. ..Yeah, cheers, Bob.

For the local ambulance crew, it's a familiar story.

Hot days and rivers and things, we do get quite a lot at Ingleton

with the waterfall walks and things which I'm sure

you'll have been and seen before.

We do go there on summer days when it's busy, just general tourists

jumping in and enjoying the weather.

But for the next few days,

Matthew's going to be enjoying hospital food rather than the sunny weather.

Hiya, mate. I'm Clare, one of the nurses.

You're at Lancaster now, all right?

A couple of weeks later, Matthew's hobbling around nursing a knee that's been broken in three places.

It turns out he was never really that confident about taking

on a waterfall with a rope swing.

Everyone were having a go, so you do really - don't you? -

think I'll have a go. I didn't think anything would happen to me.

But at the start of the day,

I said to everyone, I'm injury prone,

something's going to happen today. And it did.

And Matthew's grateful to one member of the Helimed 98 crew

in particular, for looking after him once the worst had happened.

The woman who were sitting with me, she were nice,

because I was a bit nervous taking off, so she grabbed my hand

and reassured me that I were going to be all right, because it's loud when you take off.

And she kept turning to me nearly every minute saying, "Are you all right?"

I were pretty nervous, because I didn't know what I'd done.

Matthew says he's learned his lesson and his rope swinging days are over.

On a hot day a dip in cool water

can be hard to resist, especially for youngsters.

But every year the Helimed team find themselves dealing with a tragedy

that could so easily have been avoided.

It's another hot day and in a flooded quarry in Derbyshire,

a 15-year-old boy has vanished beneath the surface.

His friends have tried desperately to find him

but he's lost in the murky water.

Helimed 98 is on its way.

Believe that there's someone there possibly drowned

and is possibly in cardiac arrest. The information is quite sketchy.

Just do once more round the lake, see if you can see anything,

because it looks like they're still looking for him, Tim.

See if we can see any shadows in the water.

But there's no sign of the teenager.

After landing, paramedic James Vine races to the water.

Have you got him out yet?

Found him?

Get yours coming over and see if you can see any shadows.

The police helicopter continues the search from the air

as James gets an update on the ground.

-We've got a youth confirmed under the water...

-Yeah.

-He went in about 20 minutes ago.

-OK.

-Could be a little bit longer.

-Yeah.

-Didn't come up. Mates have been searching for him since.

Medical kit is prepared in the hope

that the teenager will be brought out alive.

Helimed paramedic Pete Valance believes he has a chance.

The fact that it's very cold water

and he's a young chap of about 16 years old

means that, you know, there is a chance

even after all this time under water

that he may be successfully resuscitated.

But obviously the longer it takes the less chance there is of that being a success.

When we come out, boys, we'll meet you at the edge with the spinal board.

-We'll come out feet first, head down.

-OK.

Fire & Rescue take to the water.

Visibility is poor so they use a thermal imaging camera

to search for the missing boy's body heat.

I think 60 minutes, we've got to be thinking...

I don't know. How cold is it?

But time's moving on and the boy's still missing.

It's frustrating for James, who's worked as a lifeguard in the past.

He'd like to get in the water, but it's too dangerous.

It's tough for Pete, too, who has a son of his own

the same age as the teenager.

It's frustrating for everybody here.

Obviously the fire service, the police were in attendance,

as were the ambulance crews very early on in the incident.

They weren't able to gain access to the water.

His friends have been in there searching for him as well.

They weren't able to locate him so yeah, it's a mixture of frustration

and wanting to be able to give him a chance

but unfortunately that's not occurred.

More than an hour has passed since Helimed 98 landed

and time has run out for the missing boy.

Even if he's found now, it's too late for Pete and James to help.

Now, let's hope we can reduce the number of accidents like that.

Now, when we last saw 13-year-old Calum Parkinson

he was deeply unconscious

with serious head injuries after an accident near his home.

Calum was knocked down by a car as he ran across the road.

Now he's on his way to emergency surgery at Leeds General Infirmary,

20 miles away.

Keep clear of those wires behind the houses.

OK, lovely, thanks.

The team have put Calum to sleep at the roadside to ensure

he survives the flight to hospital,

but only a brain scan will reveal if he will make a full recovery.

It maintains the patient's airway. So at the minute

he's being ventilated,

we're just monitoring his blood oxygen saturation levels,

make sure he's getting enough oxygen.

'Helimed 99 just lifting off from site down at Huddersfield

'and routing direct to Woodhouse, the secondary landing site for the LGI.'

Pilot Pete Barnes flew stunts for the Bond movie Die Another Day.

But this drama is real

and his flying skills are crucial to Calum's survival.

Time's against him and the Leeds General Infirmary rooftop helipad

is already closed for the night.

The last leg of the trip must be by road.

Just have a feel of his radial pulse for me, Tone, see what it feels like.

It is weak.

But as they land, Calum's condition deteriorates.

They need to get him to hospital as fast as they can.

His young body is struggling to cope with the build-up of pressure inside his brain.

Paramedics are not usually short of a word or two,

but the team know how serious this case is.

Fortunately they are just moments away from handing Calum over

to some of the country's leading brain injury experts.

Head injuries vary so much.

The fact that he's so unconscious now and the signs that we're seeing

really shows that he's probably got a very severe head injury

but until he's got to hospital, he's had a scan of his head,

it's difficult to say.

But certainly the signs that we're seeing now are not very good.

For Calum's mum Christine, this is the start of a month

in which she'll rarely leave Leeds General Infirmary.

Calum undergoes emergency surgery to relieve the pressure on his brain.

Two parts of his skull are removed.

Well, when we first got the knock on the door I kind of thought,

"No, this isn't right,"

and then when I went out to the scene of the accident

I could straight away see that it was serious because I saw the blood from his nose, the blood from his ears,

he was frothing at the mouth and he was fitting.

As soon as he arrived here he was straight into surgery

and we just had to wait in the waiting room

and I just remember we were just staring into space,

we weren't talking and we didn't know if he was going to make it or not,

so that was a really hard time for everybody.

But finally Calum started to make progress.

It's hard to know whether Calum will make a full recovery

and he faces a long and gruelling time ahead.

But the early signs are promising.

He's started moving his left side quite good.

His right side, his leg, has now started moving,

but what I've noticed most is his personality.

Um, it's like he's got his little cheeky ways, he smiles.

One thing he does do, always before he used to touch one side of his face

and then the other and he always used to say that he could never touch this side without touching this side

and now we see him in the hospital getting better

and he goes like this and then he goes like this,

so that's really good, that's definitely Calum.

Judging by the number of get well cards he's received,

Calum will never be short of visitors.

All his friends and family want to thank the medical team

whose treatment at the roadside undoubtedly saved his life.

Fantastic!

When Helicopter Heroes comes back, the team fly to the rescue of a man

who's fallen 60 feet then been crushed by his own quad bike.

The pain's in his hips, we can't get his legs straight.

A teenager's back is broken. Will he walk again?

I was just saying to him, "I'm going to die, I'm going to die."

This motorist shouldn't be moved

but her car could be about to catch fire.

And high in the hills a mountain biker has banged his head,

but he's not lost his sense of humour.

I feel like a new man, so does me wife.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd