Episode 19 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 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 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 the team fly to the rescue of a man

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

We can't get his legs straight.

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

My dad says I were just saying to him "I'm gonna die".

This motorist shouldn't be moved but her car could be about to catch fire.

High in the hills, a mountain biker's banged his head but he's not lost his sense of humour.

I feel like a new man. So does the wife.

You can have an awful lot of fun for just a few grand if you buy a quad bike.

It's the popular new way to get off the beaten track

and to explore the countryside. But be warned, it can be a risky hobby.

Quad bikes are designed for driving across rough terrain.

They're robust, heavy, and powerful.

Argh... aaaargh.

Keep it nice and steady, mate.

Stuart Robinson, or Swampy, as he's known to his friends,

lives for quad biking, but today it could've cost him his life.

Go on, mate.

He tried to drive up an almost vertical bank near his home in Macclesfield,

but gravity had other ideas.

His injuries from the fall have left him in agony, and in danger.

Can you straighten your leg for me?

Just relax. Just relax as much as you can, mate.

Helimed 98 is on its way across the Pennines and into Cheshire.

We're heading out through the Manchester area, first call Macclesfield.

We've got a report of a gentleman who's come off a quad bike,

not sure of his injuries at the moment. We'll see when we get there

and decide which hospital he's going to go to.

A message from the air desk spells out the seriousness of the accident.

RADIO BUZZER

Air, Rodger. This gentleman has fallen six zero, 60, feet, and the quad bike's landed on top of him.

Paramedic Paul Bradbury's first to spot the hi-vis colours of the ambulance crew.

They're in the park there.

Crack the door, mate, there might be a flat bit here.

The hilly ground below was too much for a quad bike - it's certainly no place for a helicopter.

Look at that for a helipad.

Yeah, I'll keep left... we need to get it there.

Go on keep your eyes out, mate, for a landing.

Paramedic Colin Jones is the first to catch up with the ambulance crew.

-He's 25, he's been on a quad, got halfway up.

-OK.

-It's tipped up, he's rolled back

-and eventually the quad's landed on him.

-Right, OK.

Most of the pain's in his hips, we can't get his legs straight.

Stuart "Swampy" Robinson has life-threatening injuries.

His pelvis and femur - or thighbone - are badly damaged.

There are vital arteries in both areas and if one is severed

the loss of blood could kill him.

-Stuart?

-Yeah.

-Can you straighten your left leg for me?

Just gently, go from under his knee.

-Pull it, pull it, pull it.

-Argh!

OK, mate, nice steady breaths.

The paramedics have to work carefully and slowly.

One wrong move and they could cause an artery to burst.

What we're doing, chief, is putting something round your hip area, all right?

OK.

The pelvis injury will be the worst. He can bleed into his cavities from a pelvis injury

so we're trying to stabilise the pelvis, which we have to before we move any further.

What we don't want is to move and his pelvis split open completely

because you can lose all your blood volume pretty quickly.

The pain relief is kicking in and it can make you say some strange things.

-I'm flying.

-You're flying? You will be in a minute.

Keep hold of his right leg at the end.

Swampy's going nowhere for now. His pelvis is secured

but he remains in danger.

The paramedics still have to deal with that broken thighbone.

It's triggered internal bleeding that's made his leg swell.

Now you're all trussed up, Stuart, aren't you?

Sorry, mate. Keep going on that.

The crew of Helimed 98 have to fix the injury fast

or Swampy will struggle to survive the massive loss of blood.

Coming up: Swampy's condition takes a turn for the worse.

We're gonna have to straighten your leg out.

The lorry driver who rushed to help a motorist who careered off the M1.

Car's nothing.

We can replace the car, can't we?

And the motorcyclist whose body did this to a car needs a flight to hospital.

The flying paramedics have to know their human anatomy,

and they know that any injury to the spine is about as serious as it gets,

which is why a call to treat the victim of a scooter accident in a South Yorkshire street

is a top priority.

There aren't many parts of Yorkshire

where the Helimed team's highly skilled pilots struggle to find somewhere they can land,

but in some of South Yorkshire's ex-mining communities,

thousands of terrace houses are built back to back and there's little open space.

Today it's critical Helimed 98 finds somewhere to land in the centre of Hoyland near Barnsley.

A teenager riding a scooter has hit a car and been thrown into a wall.

He can't feel his legs.

98. All received, thanks, ETA approximately two minutes.

98, over.

The team are flying north from their Sheffield base.

It only takes a few minutes to get there but it may take longer to find somewhere to land.

What about the back of this yard - there seems to be a single blue car in that car park type thing?

Yeah, got it.

Into there?

Yeah, we can get out there.

Maybe we can come up as you turn left on the main road.

Yeah, got it, right.

Back of the club.

Yeah.

OK, mate.

Obviously the Victorian streets of Yorkshire's pit villages were built without a thought for helicopters,

but the miners loved their football so there's usually a pitch to put down on.

Paramedics don't do a lot of running but this case is serious.

James Vine knows the faster he finds the ground paramedics treating the patient,

the faster they can get him to the chopper.

Get the kids back.

Jason Kirby is 18.

He was riding his scooter with some mates when the crash happened.

The lady in the car in front were actually indicating to turn right

but the bike obviously didn't see that cos he just come straight round me and she turned.

He slammed straight into the car.

He shot straight off and hit the fence.

Keep walking or go back up there.

Many of the locals have turned out to see what's happened and who's been injured,

including Jason's shocked mum and girlfriend.

We've got to bend down. On three, one... two... three.

We're going up here.

Bring his helmet, just one helmet, whichever one he were wearing.

Where's the other helmet wearer?

The Helimed team and their ground colleagues do not see many cases as bad as this one.

Every year only a thousand people suffer a spinal cord injury

but most of those are suffered in accidents on our roads.

There's a large laceration on his forehead.

Although Jason has no sensation in his legs,

the team are not telling him how serious this injury could be.

Keeping a patient relaxed is vital but James is ensuring

any back injury isn't made worse by the walk to the waiting chopper.

We're going in feet first at 90 degrees.

-How old is Jason?

-19. 18 or 19, Jason? 18.

Paramedic Pete Valance wants the hospital to be prepared for Jason. Orthopaedic surgeons are on standby.

Yeah, we've got an 18-year-old male motorcyclist off his bike into a wall.

Total loss of sensation from about low thoracic.

Every time Pete and James move Jason, they know they could be making his injury worse

but a smooth flight in Helimed 98 is Jason's best chance of avoiding permanent paralysis

and the prospect of spending the rest of his life in a wheelchair.

Coming up: Jason's on his way to hospital

but how badly injured is his spine?

My dad says I were just saying to him, "I'm gonna die".

A quad biker faces an agonising medical procedure to save his badly broken leg.

Try and get the blood supply back to the lower part of his leg.

And the team search for an injured cyclist in one of Yorkshire's most remote landscapes.

Imagine driving along the motorway at 70 mph and finding debris in your lane -

do you try and swerve or brake?

Both have their dangers, but it's a dilemma faced by hundreds of motorists every day.

The M1 is the UK's oldest long-distance motorway

and despite the traffic, you can still drive from Leeds to London in around four hours.

But one businesswoman isn't going to make it today.

Her car has left the road and careered down an embankment.

A lorry driver saw it happen.

It were a piece of debris and the lady swerved.

As you can see, she come straight off.

I just stopped and just gave a bit of assistance, didn't want anything else happening to her.

Just after this fence here.

Paramedics Pat Greaken and Lee Davison are on board Helipad 98 today,

and it's taken them just five minutes to get here from their Sheffield base.

We don't know exactly what we're gonna find when we get there but

it's only a couple of minutes up the road here.

So we've just got airborne and we'll see what we can when we get there.

98, are you now coming up to it?

No, there's no ambulance there so...

There's only a response car there.

Divia Patel was on her way from her home in Leeds to a business meeting when the accident happened.

Her Lexus smashed through a tree, punching a hole in the windscreen,

and then rolled over.

She's got a bit of a head injury on the right side of her temple.

Her consciousness has been OK.

She's just complaining of pain in her right shoulder.

-She can move her legs, I'm just checking her arms.

-OK.

-Everything seems OK.

-Ow.

Despite her seatbelt, Divia's suffered the full force of several impacts.

She has a head wound and she could have hurt her neck.

-Were you avoiding somebody else?

-It was something in the road.

-Oh, right, and you've swerved to miss it?

-Yeah.

Lean your head forward slightly, that's it. There doesn't seem to be any major injuries.

There is some blood on her face and that

but we're just gonna give her a good check over,

make sure everything's OK.

I don't think there's any serious injuries but you never know with these things.

The driver's lucky to be alive but the police are concerned.

Smoke's been seen coming from the engine.

If fire breaks out, this could be serious.

They've got risk of fire with the car here.

So with the patient still in the car,

there'll just be a quick rapid extrication if we can, quickly just get her clear of the car.

You haven't got any spanners or owt in your car, have you?

Pilot Tim's not taking any chances - fire and helicopters don't mix.

We've landed closer than what we ought to,

I'm contemplating whether to move the aircraft a bit further away.

Right, that's fine now. You're doing really, really well now.

Paramedic Lee thinks Divia's injuries may be largely superficial

but he preferred not to rush the operation to remove her from the car.

That may have to change.

We're ready that if we need to extricate her before the crew get here, she's ready to do that,

just in case there's a problem with the engine cos we don't want to bring her out onto the mud

and her getting cold and that type of thing.

So at the moment we're just monitoring it and we can get her out if we need to.

The thick mud in the field has stopped Divia's car very quickly. Now it's hampering her rescuers.

The lady's not trapped.

We do have complete access to the lady but we do need the fire brigade to isolate the car.

We've got plenty of police on scene.

Motorways are difficult places for the emergency services.

They often find themselves driving past an incident on the wrong carriageway

and then fighting their way through the traffic back to the accident.

At last, the fire brigade arrive to make the car safe.

For the police, the description of the accident is familiar.

Every day, heavy lorries and trailers leave a dangerous legacy on the motorway.

She's swerved round something red in colour on the carriageway,

and unfortunately come down the embankment.

Divia's accident has happened a few miles from Barnsley Hospital, which doesn't have a helipad.

She'll travel for treatment by road, but first the team have to gently lift her out of her car.

Somebody gonna have to take her neck for me a sec. I've got the neck.

Everything's just a precaution.

Don't grab out, sweetheart. Just let them...

Can we just get this board underneath a bit so that it doesn't drop off the seat?

OK, my love. Just relax a little bit, you're doing really, really well.

It's a relief for lorry driver Derek Davies

who stopped his truck and ran down the embankment to look after Divia until help arrived.

It's just nice that she's all right, you know. Nothing serious.

Car's nothing. We can replace the car, can't we?

Carrying Divia back up the route she took at 70 mph in her Lexus

is a much slower process.

Despite the impact, Divia's mobile phone is still working

and she's managed to call relatives who've rushed to the scene to help.

Quite shaken up by it all

but quite unusual for them to get to the scene this quick.

Divia will be in hospital in less than five minutes.

OK. You all right?

OK, you go careful, all right?

The rescuers must now clean up.

Pilot Tim's allergic to cleaning boots after a career in the army.

If only my sergeant major could see me now.

But the team know they could easily get another 999 call right now.

Anything that keeps the chopper clean is a good idea.

Disengage?

-Disengaged. All clear and normal.

-Confirm.

It's back to base for Helimed 98,

and the crew know their patient has had fortune on her side.

She was quite minor injuries really for the speed that she left the road, she's cleaned a tree out.

Divia was soon recovering at home from cuts and whiplash

and not surprisingly, her car was a write-off.

Coming up: a scooter rider waits for news as doctors carry out tests on his damaged spine,

and an injured walker faces a 2,000 foot ride on a sledge.

The Pennines are famous for their steep inclines and unforgiving rocks.

They're certainly not the place to have a serious fall

but that's exactly what happened to one quad biker called Swampy.

He was on the quad bike over there and trying to get up the hill behind you.

He got halfway up the hill, the wheels started to spin,

the quad bike turned on its side and it started to roll.

He jumped off, ran down the hill,

and the bike caught up with him and sort of fell on top of him, and that's how he ended up down there.

The number of quad bike accidents is increasing every year to more than 4,000 at the last count.

High-profile casualties Ozzy Osbourne and Rik Mayall have shown the dangers of quad biking.

Swampy and his mates know what can happen and are willing to take the risk.

It is a dangerous thing to do but you've just got to know your capabilities,

what the bike's capable of really.

Over a ten-year period 23 people have been killed. Most of them weren't wearing crash helmets.

Put your hands across your chest for me.

But today Swampy had his lid on and that helped save his life,

but he's not completely out of trouble.

Try and just relax.

That's it, yeah.

-Just relax, mate, relax your legs down.

-If we get the weight belt on him...

The swelling at the top of Swampy's leg

tells Helimed 98 medics Colin and Paul that his thigh bone has snapped.

-Stuart?

-Yeah.

-We're gonna have to straighten your leg out now. Sorry, but it's gonna hurt a bit.

They've got to get the thigh bone back in line using a traction splint.

It's another delicate procedure. They have to be quick

because the break is putting pressure on the blood supply to the rest of his leg,

but they also have to be careful to avoid further damage to his shattered pelvis.

We're going to Wythenshawe Hospital.

From my point of view, it's a bit of a drama

because we're the wrong side of Manchester International Airport,

which is quite busy today,

so I've just phoned them to give them our intentions

and they're waiting for our call once we're airborne

and they'll give us priority clearance across the runways to get him to hospital.

-You can lower it if you want.

-OK, going down.

We're locked off.

Swampy's leg and pelvis have been successfully braced. There's no more the paramedics can do at the scene.

-Second time you've flown today, well this one's for the right reason.

-I know, not quite as far next time.

After more than half an hour of treatment, Swampy's ready for his ride in Helimed 98,

but first he's got short but bumpy journey to the helicopter.

It's going to take a team effort.

That's all boggy. You're all right here, this is all right.

And there's even time for some trans-Pennine banter.

-It's Yorkshire Ambulance so you're gonna have to put a couple of 20p in.

-Oh, aye, 50p meter.

It's gone up, has that. It's a bit more than that.

Swampy's quad bike gets left behind.

It's designed to take heavy knocks

and is in far better shape than its rider.

By the side of the helicopter, a paramedic colleague gets out

a third bottle of gas and air to ensure Swampy's flight is as pain-free as possible.

Right, industrial strength now.

-This is South Yorkshire gas.

-This is proper stuff, is this.

Now pilot Tim Taylor has to navigate a treacherous take-off

and a testing flight to get Swampy to the nearest trauma hospital.

It looks like he's doing well but he still faces serious surgery and a fight for his life.

Coming up:

Swampy takes off for hospital but pilot Tim has his hands full...

Out there at two o'clock.

And a female biker's badly hurt after an accident her husband missed.

I were about a mile down the road and realised she wasn't in my mirror.

Now let's catch up on the story of the teenager who suffered serious injuries

in a scooter accident near his home in Barnsley.

In the ex-mining town of Hoyland,

the crew of Helimed 98 are helping a teenager who's been flung off his scooter after hitting a car.

Jason Kirby is covered in blood

but the team are more worried about an injury which could change his life forever.

Jason can't move his legs.

Ready for take-off.

OK, doors please.

Jason is receiving the best possible care.

Helimed 98 will provide him with a smooth ride to the Northern General Hospital in Sheffield,

which has one of the largest specialist spinal units in the country,

just as soon as pilot Andy Figg navigates the chopper out of the town centre football pitch.

Helimed 98, we have lifted en route to Northern General, two minutes the ETA till landing.

Helimed 98, over.

He was stable into the flight. He got quite sick once we arrived at Northern General,

we ended up having to decompress his chest, he's got quite a severe chest injury

as well as what looks like quite a severe spinal injury.

He's got no sensation below his belly button at present,

fingers crossed for him at the moment.

Wait and see how the next 24, 48 hours goes.

As doctors begin to assess Jason in A&E

his condition quickly deteriorates and he's rushed into Intensive Care.

He suffered head and chest injuries in the impact which are far more severe than anyone imagined,

but Jason pulls through and two weeks later he's making good progress.

I nearly died because me rib went straight into me lung, so I were lucky really to survive.

My dad says I were just saying to him "I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die."

But I weren't feeling a lot of pain

but me legs have always been numb all the way through so obviously I haven't felt them.

Jason has fought a hard battle to survive life-threatening injuries but he now faces another tough test,

coming to terms with the fact he may never walk again.

50/50 they've told me at the minute,

but I'm still alive.

And then they've told me in about six weeks

me nerves should start growing back together,

in about six weeks I should start getting a bit of feeling back to me legs.

But if I don't, then I don't.

He hit a wall and in doing so the bone bent almost double

and there was a fracture to the lower thoracic spine, which is about the middle of your back.

It is a significant fracture.

With any spinal cord injury

what happens is the spinal cord shuts down for a period of time,

what we technically refer to as a spinal shock,

and then it begins to recover over a period of time, usually about six to eight weeks.

It's wait and see for the moment.

Sadly, there's been little sign of improvement in Jason's case

and he and his family have been told there's a possibility he may not walk again.

Coming up: Swampy, the injured quad biker, goes off his high-risk hobby.

Now that I've had this accident, I'm not gonna do it any more.

Yorkshiremen like to remind you that everything about their county

is outsized, but high in the Pennines there's an area that really lives up to the hype.

This is hard-core countryside, a landscape built on limestone.

The Three Peaks are Yorkshire's highest landmarks,

soaring more than 2,000 feet above the valleys below.

To scale all three in a day means 25 miles of hard hiking and a total climb of more than 7,000 feet.

You have to be mad to do it but many can't resist.

Today, Helimed 99 is heading for the top of Whernside, 2,500 feet up.

A walker's fallen and it's feared he's fractured his ankle.

This is one of the Three Peaks where we're heading to now,

a gentleman has fallen down. We're not sure of his injuries,

they have deployed crews from around the area

but this request has initially been passed on to us

by North Yorkshire Police.

The bad news is that today there's a sponsored walk.

Hundreds of walkers are scaling Whernside's slopes

and to make life harder for the crew, paragliders are soaring over their landing site.

It's possible that it's a paraglider that's fallen.

Anybody looking like a mountain rescue guy yet?

Nobody looking closely like they're stressed in any way.

-Looking sort of 30 yards at two o'clock there in front of you?

-Yeah, looks good.

-OK.

-Doors.

Secure front.

There's no alternative - they'll have to land and ask if anyone's seen a casualty.

Somewhere about, we'll see how we do.

It's hard to identify the patient but paramedic Darren Axe thinks he's spotted him.

Richard Tate has fallen 200 feet from the summit.

He's in pain but there's no shortage of company.

I was just walking down there

and I just buckled over on my ankle and it clicked, and it doesn't work any more.

I'm supposed to be walking the Alps in three weeks for a week.

Chris, they're gonna be better off relocating to the bottom of this hill.

With Helimed 99 parked at the top of Whernside,

Darren would like to take Richard up the hill

but the Mountain Rescue team on their way to his aid say that's too dangerous.

I think it's easier to walk downhill, isn't it?

So the chopper will have to relocate further down the peak, and that's easier said than done.

Tuck the nose right into there, gonna be not bad, isn't it?

Helimed 99's struggling to deal with Whernside's steep slopes.

Whoo, that's deceiving.

Not gonna happen.

Level ground's in short supply here and finding a helipad is hard.

-Putting up with these, that's bad, I hate that.

-It's not worth it, he's a big bloke as well.

He is.

Landing site number two is no better than the first.

It's no good, Mountain Rescue are going to have to carry Richard 2,000 feet down to the bottom of the hill.

Luckily they've brought their rescue sledge,

which means gravity can help.

-Can you walk at all?

-I can stand on one leg.

-That'll do.

Richard was in training for an alpine walking holiday and his rucksack was heavily laden.

I've got 30lb of weight in it, there's crampons and harness and God knows what in there,

and several changes of clothes and stuff.

We were living in the huts. I don't think that'll be happening.

Richard's descent down one side will be faster than walking.

The rescue sled is the simplest and safest way to get a casualty to safety.

We're just gonna stretcher him down to the helicopter, he's gonna hop off that and on the helicopter.

Helimed 99 is still searching for a landing site

and the crew are running out of options.

I'm definitely leaning back on my chair.

It's actually... It's not that bad but I don't fancy loading anybody into it, to be honest.

The weight will just shift.

Everybody ready, one... two... three... lift.

My, you are a heavy guy.

Mountain Rescue have brought plenty of manpower, which is just as well -

Richard weighs in at 16 stone.

Whernside's rocky slopes are hard work even for super-fit fell runners,

and you can't use a style when you're carrying a stretcher.

And again.

And again.

Richard's ride takes him 2,000 feet, almost to the bottom.

It's time for paramedic Sammy Wills to take a closer look at Richard's broken ankle.

-Just tell me, does it hurt there?

-Yo!

It's a bad break but for her colleague, Darren Axe, laughter's always good medicine.

-You know what they say about a man with big boots, don't you?

-It's a lie.

Big feet.

Watch your head.

Use my shoulder.

But Richard's not the only casualty on the Peaks today. The heat has got the better of one charity walker.

We have a second casualty, he's being now walked off the hill.

Another case for Mountain Rescue.

The locals say many walkers don't prepare properly for the Peaks.

Paramedic Sammy Wills prescribes cold water and something to eat.

He'll soon be OK.

That's more than you can say for Richard. He'll spend the next three weeks in plaster,

and his wife knows their holiday plans are gonna have to change.

I've said if he's faking it, I'm divorcing him.

Now you have to put on a pair of boots to really appreciate the Peaks,

but some sightseers like to take in the scenery the easy way.

Even that has its dangers. Close to the famous 300-foot high Ribblehead Railway Viaduct,

there's been an accident.

Motorcyclist Gillian Doherty has collided with a car.

Her arm was broken and she could have more serious injuries.

It's another case for Helimed 99.

We're en route towards Ingleton and we're gonna go past the beautiful Three Peaks.

We're going for a motorcyclist with reported injuries that we're requested to assist.

Gillian and her husband own his-and-hers bikes.

He didn't notice she'd had an accident.

The car just started to pull out so I swerved round the car,

Gill was right behind me, and then Gill must have...

I got about a mile down the road and realised she wasn't in my mirror.

The car must have pulled further out and she's gone right in the side of it.

The accident has blocked one of the Peaks' busiest roads.

At the moment it's just in your right shoulder and that lower leg, no pain anywhere else?

No, it's my left arm, my wrist.

-Did you manage to get up after the accident?

-No.

-You've stayed in the same position?

-Yeah.

This is why paramedic James is worried - her body caused this damage.

Her bike's come off remarkably well.

-Gill?

-Yeah.

-Just open your eyes for us, my love. That's it.

Sorry, I'm one of the doctors on the air ambulance.

-I'm just giving you a bit of oxygen to breathe while we lift you up to the helicopter.

-OK.

This young lady's got pain in her shoulder and her knee,

her airway breathing seems fine

so we're just going to take a run into Lancaster

to get her checked over, make sure her back and neck are OK.

Ready, steady, lift.

Well done, guys.

Gillian's being flown home to Lancaster, the nearest hospital to the scene of the crash.

Her arm was set and she was soon released.

She's determined to ride her bike again.

Just finding someone in an area like the Three Peaks is a challenge for the Helimed team,

and a birds-eye view is no guarantee they'll find the patient.

If you don't fancy the challenge of hiking up Penyghent, Ingleborough, and Whernside,

you can do it on two wheels and join the growing hordes of mountain bikers

who attempt to ride up the Three Peaks very slowly, and down them a bit quicker.

That's what novice biker Kevin Gilmore wants to do. But on his very first trek into the Dales,

the bumpy, steep terrain has catapulted him off his bike.

He's got a head injury but he's also queried fractures of ribs.

The challenge we have is not only is he on a small footpath,

the visibility isn't very good, so we're actually using the valleys to fly up.

30 miles away from the Dales,

the suburbs of Leeds are shrouded in mist.

Helimed 99 is struggling to navigate its way through it.

Navigation in this kind of weather's really difficult because

you're looking for gross error checks really on your navigation,

which means objects that are large and in the distance that you can aim at.

Obviously when you can't see more than 3,000 metres in any direction

it makes it difficult to pick those objects out.

This isn't looking good for the Helimed team or their injured patient.

With the Three Peaks measuring well over 2,000 feet above sea level,

pilot Mat Tacken's gonna have to climb much higher,

and if there's low cloud around like this, there's no way they'll be able to get there.

We're having to fly a circuitous route because the clouds on the top of the hills.

That ETA I've given, plus or minus ten to be honest.

Yeah, fine, not a problem.

But Yorkshire's weather is renowned for being unpredictable

and much to everyone's surprise, the Dales are bathed in sunshine.

-This is quite pleasant weather really, not bad at all.

-Not too bad is it now.

Good news you might think

but the fine weather has persuaded hundreds of walkers and bikers to venture up into Ribblesdale

and it's not going to be easy for the crew to spot their patient.

-He's just on top of that hill somewhere, is he?

-No, he's beyond that.

One skill you can't do without in this job is good eyesight,

and paramedic Darren thinks he's seen someone in trouble.

Come around to your nine o'clock.

I also had a group of people at the three o'clock.

Stationary people here at nine o'clock, on this edge. Keep coming round.

This helicopter can land on a gradual incline but nothing steeper,

and in the rocky foothills of Penyghent there's few spots to choose from.

-Looks a bit flatter to my side, mate.

-Yeah, just gonna come up here.

-Rocket's gone.

-Not going anywhere, that, mate.

-Feels good my side.

That's good.

The mountain cyclist, yeah, we've got a guy, he's come off on his right-hand side

and he's bashed his head.

It's a pretty long walk to where Kevin's lying,

but a lot closer than any other emergency service can manage.

Sammy's the first medic to arrive

and must quickly find out what's happened.

Kev, don't move at all, just stay still.

Right, so what's been happening to you?

I came off the bike coming down the hill there,

-leaned toward my right-hand side.

-Yeah.

-I put my hand out,

that's broken my fall a tad.

-I remember my head bouncing about a couple of times.

-Yeah.

My upper body's carried through and I've got a bit of damage to the top of my ribs on each side of my arm.

OK.

Kevin's head has hit the floor so hard his helmet is cracked, and that's a worrying sign for Sammy.

But he appears to have come round remarkably quickly.

It's come off, and although we don't believe he's been KO'd

they were concerned cos he wasn't his normal self for about ten minutes.

-So he's got his sense of humour back. You stay still, mate.

-No, I never had one before.

Are we saying you've got a changed sense of humour, a changed personality?

I feel like a new man, and so does the wife.

Reducing the amount of workload on him.

Kevin clearly hasn't lost his sense of humour

but head injuries are impossible to diagnose out of hospital and along with a couple of broken ribs,

he's feeling pretty sore.

-Two... three... and roll.

-Urgh!

Sorry, mate. I've got you.

-Hang fire!

-Hang fire, don't go anywhere else.

He's a long 'un isn't he?

With the Three Peaks in their patch,

this Mountain Rescue team is one of the busiest,

and Sammy and Darren are relieved to see more helping hands arrive.

He was a bit dazed when he's hit the ground, and looking at the dent in his cycling helmet

that looks like it's saved him a lot of pain and suffering really.

All too often we come across cyclists of all types who haven't worn a helmet

and the outcome is not always favourable for them.

One... two... three.

How's the head?

-Fingers clear.

-Can we go further up your way, Andy?

The rabbit holes and uneven ground has caught out many a walker on the paths around here,

so the team take no chances and load Kevin onto Mountain Rescue's specialist stretcher.

A 41-year-old male been involved in a mountain bike accident.

He's fallen from his bike and struck his head -

fortunately he was wearing a helmet.

He's not been knocked out but has an altered level of consciousness for a period of time afterwards,

his colleagues are saying for at least ten minutes.

Kevin was cycling on the Pennine Way,

a popular trail with hikers and bikers alike that runs for 250 miles from Derbyshire to Scotland.

Kevin was hoping to end the day with a pint and a pat on the back from his fellow bikers.

Instead, he'll be facing an array of tests and scans at Lancaster Hospital's Casualty Department.

It takes some people all day to climb to the top of these peaks,

but Kevin is over 1,000 feet up in just a few seconds.

Yeah, got the old chimney at the hospital now, mate.

Despite breaking a couple of ribs and a period of enforced rest and recuperation,

Kevin's back on his bike

and aiming to head back up into the Dales to face the Three Peaks once more.

And I'm pleased to say all our patients from the Three Peaks recovered.

Now let's find out what happened to the off-road rider who fell 60 feet

before being crushed by his own quad bike.

The crew of Helimed 98 have crossed the border into Cheshire

to help save Stuart "Swampy" Robinson's life.

Paramedics Colin and Paul have treated life-threatening injuries to his thigh and pelvis.

They've done all they can and now the pressure's on pilot Tim Taylor.

-All clear left?

-Clear left.

-Clear right rear.

The tail of Helimed 98

hangs over a 30-foot drop with cars passing below.

Tim gets Swampy and the crew safely into the air.

All is calm and quiet for the quad biker,

not least because he's on his third bottle of gas and air.

But the fastest route to Wythenshawe Hospital

crosses the runway of the busiest airport in the UK outside of London.

20 million passengers a year fly from Manchester.

These are crowded skies.

Out there, two o'clock.

That'll be for Manchester Airport.

Pilot Tim's troubles are over for now, but Swampy's continue.

His name's Stuart,

his main complaint really is his pain in his right femur.

He couldn't move his legs, he couldn't actually straighten his legs.

The guy's got quite a severe pelvis injury

and obviously his femur's either fractured or popped out of the joint at the top of his leg.

Either way, he's gonna be off his feet for quite a while.

The pelvis injury is the worse of the two

and they'll probably have to pin the pelvis back together again,

but it's all the underlying tissue that's underneath the pelvis

or inside of the pelvis that he's got to worry about.

Later that day, Swampy has the first of two operations.

It takes a total of six hours of surgery to fix his broken body,

but just three days later he's sitting up in his hospital bed.

As he looks at photos of his accident on the internet,

it brings back memories and makes the quad biker realise that this time he got lucky.

I thought I would have been at least paralysed, or passed away really, I mean, quite a way.

To actually be able to be talking a few days after the accident

is pretty good really.

The accident has changed Swampy's life.

Quad biking meant everything, but now it's something he feels he has to give up.

I've had a few offs but none of them have been this bad so it kind of didn't really bother me at all.

It's only now that I've had this accident that I'm not gonna do it any more.

Swampy's right leg had multiple breaks and is now held together by metal bolts and pins.

He faces a six-week stay in hospital and could be forgiven for feeling sorry for himself.

But he's just grateful it wasn't worse and thankful to the Helimed 98 crew who saved him.

They all did a really, really good job, I'm really grateful for them.

When Helicopter Heroes comes back:

a man's drowning and the Helimed team are called in to help the local lifeboat.

Somebody's shouting "He's gone in."

A pilot's in trouble...

Mayday. Mayday. Mayday.

Can Helimed 98 save him?

Total engine failure, about to crash.

There's a whip-round at the rugby to pay for a player's rescue.

It probably doesn't hit home till you need it.

And this won't hurt a bit.

Somebody said you've got a burning tackle.

The team improvise to rescue a farmer's wife.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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