Episode 5 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 trained team of pilots and paramedics

will fly to your rescue at 2.5 miles a minute.

These are Yorkshire's Helicopter Heroes.

When the people of England's biggest county dial 999,

there's a good chance help will come from the skies.

The Yorkshire Air Ambulance is ready to scramble 365 days a year

and each one brings a new life or death emergency.

Coming up on Helicopter Heroes,

a walker slips on an icy ravine and starts a major rescue operation.

Coming down here wasn't such a good idea.

There's a race to save a golf club greenkeeper's badly injured hand.

This gentleman's puts his fingers into what looks like a strimmer.

-The team hit the language barrier after a French jockey falls from her horse.

-La-bas ou non?

I think his dialect's all wrong.

And winter puts the skids under Yorkshire's motorists with painful results.

There's something about scenery like this that makes you want to put your walking boots on.

But the weather can turn a beautiful landscape into a dangerous place as one rambler found out last winter.

Sutton Bank is one of Yorkshire's most stunning sights,

a huge limestone cliff decorated by a white horse that can be seen 50 miles away on a clear day.

It's also one of the UK's most picturesque airfields.

Glider pilots love to soar in the up-draughts from its slopes.

On a summer's day, this is a rambler's paradise, but winter makes it lethal.

Jane Johnstone has fallen heavily on an icy path

and is in so much pain, she doesn't want to get off the freezing ground.

Helimed 99 won't have any problem finding their location today.

Jane and her husband Jim were walking down the steep path towards the Kilburn White Horse.

The limestone landmark covers one and a half acres.

This is one of the coldest winters I can remember.

We're going for a lady who's got some leg injuries.

If she can't walk, her temperature will plummet.

We as crew have to be prepared as well with multiple layers on.

For pilot Steve Cobb, the white horse might be easy to spot, but it could be a hazardous landing site.

-I wonder if it's on that path that goes round?

-Yeah, cos it goes down to the actual horse, doesn't it?

-Yeah.

-I don't know how... I've got someone on the floor halfway down.

-We're not gonna get there, are we?

-No chance.

There's no way pilot Steve can land the helicopter close to Jane and Jim. The ground's just too steep.

But he needs to get paramedics Sammy Wills and Pat Greaken as close to the path as possible.

We've had a visual with the walker, so we know she's conscious and breathing. She's sat down.

She's a good quarter of a mile down a footpath that's on a slope,

so rather than going down and having to come back and get kit, we're doing it all at the same time.

It's becoming clear that this isn't going to be a straightforward job.

-Really slippy.

-Jane is lying halfway down a steep slope and after days of freezing temperatures,

the path resembles a bobsleigh run. Despite wearing all the right kit,

Sammy and Pat know that carrying a patient back up the icy path will be very difficult

and potentially dangerous.

-Hello.

-Hello.

-What can you tell me?

It's left leg. Upper left leg. And her left wrist as well, I think.

-CRIES OF PAIN

-What's hurting...? Pat, don't push me any further.

-I'm sliding down to you. Let me come back up. The top of your left leg?

-Yes.

-Anywhere else?

-My wrist.

-When you fell, did you bang your head?

-No.

-Not at all.

It was such a beautiful day, we decided we'd go for a walk.

We live in Brafferton near Boroughbridge.

We decided to come to the top of Sutton Bank and enjoy the views, but coming down here wasn't a good idea.

I'm just not safe. I daren't get close to you. I'm gonna fall into you.

While Sammy struggles to examine Jane, more resources and equipment arrive

and one ambulanceman highlights the dilemma facing the rescuers.

Were you going uphill or downhill?

-We were coming down.

-Did you hear anything pop or crack?

-No.

-You've not tried to get up?

-Yes.

-You have and you weren't able.

Jane is lying precariously across the path

and even small movements are causing her to slide further down the hill.

-Don't you all slip as well.

-Don't go backwards either.

-Because we're walking on it, it's making it slippy.

-I know.

Below them is a 200-foot drop.

One slip could be fatal.

Your pain is my big challenge, all right? I need to make you as comfortable as I can.

As pain goes, it's not like giving birth.

That's why you're scoring five out of ten, rather than ten out of ten!

-Where is all the pain? In the hip?

-No, it's my left side.

-It's her left.

-My left side.

-Further down and then round.

-Is it more into your groin, my love?

-Yes.

-I think you might have damaged your hip.

-My hip?

-Yeah.

-With it being right at the top, it's either your hip or the top of your...

-Femur.

-Yeah, your femur.

This is bad news for Jane and her rescuers.

Fractures to the hip or thigh bone are serious injuries and will be very painful.

Sammy and Pat had hoped to escort Jane back up the path, but they must now reassess the whole situation.

We risk hurting it even more...

-It doesn't matter. You've got to get me out of here.

-We will, we will.

And they need to think fast. If they don't move Jane soon, she'll quickly become hypothermic.

Jane needs to be in hospital. Sammy and Pat's options are running out.

Coming up, the Helimed team call in the military as the cold gets to their patient.

They're gonna pick you up. I'll have to take it away.

In racing country, the rider of a race horse is thrown on the morning gallop.

And the driver of a sports car is caught out by an icy road.

Quite a small car, so they're difficult to get out.

Most of us rely on machinery at work, even if it's just a photocopier.

But for some people, a vital tool of the trade can inflict serious injuries.

And all it takes is one simple mistake.

To get a round of golf, you've got to get up early on popular courses.

And enthusiastic golfers demand high standards on the green -

well-trimmed turf and no leaves.

But today in North Yorkshire, a greenkeeper is in trouble.

It's a golf course in my patch at Harrogate.

Somebody has amputated a hand.

The crew know they can help.

We might be able to take him direct to the LGI who specialise in that sort of thing.

Let him know that the Air Ambulance is on its way.

Lee and Tony are met by an ambulanceman who has collected the missing fingers.

This gentleman's put his fingers into what looks like a strimmer. They look pretty badly chewed up.

Inside the ambulance is 30-year-old greenkeeper Keith Emery. He can't bring himself to look at his hand.

It is Luke Skywalker, innit? It's proper chopped off, yeah?

Yeah, you've lost a few fingers.

It looks like four fingers.

So we definitely need to be at Leeds if we can.

Keith was clearing leaves from the golf course when the accident happened.

He put his hand into a leaf blower.

We'll give you some to start you off and we'll give you some more as and when you need it.

Tony gives Keith morphine to kill the pain.

OK, let's get the story straight. You put your hand into what?

It's the back of a machine. It's picking up leaves, but it's basically a lawn mower.

Lee speaks directly to the hand surgeon at Leeds General Infirmary.

We've got the digits bagged. We've got the hand dressed, so we'll fly him straight to you from Harrogate.

It'll only be painful for a while. That'll kick in soon.

The digits are completely missing and the less time spent between them being off and being back on

is better for the patient.

-I can't

-BLEEP

-believe I've done this!

-It's too late to be concerned about that.

OK?

Nice and steady.

Leg in. Let's just get you settled properly.

The trauma of what's happened is beginning to hit Keith hard.

BREATHES DEEPLY

We've got him bandaged up and everything. We've got him on the aircraft and we'll come to you now.

It's seven minutes on to the helipad up top.

Will they know I'm going to Leeds for getting my wife to see me?

I told the lad who brought us on the buggy.

All the crew are doing their best to make Keith comfortable.

How is your pain now? Has it eased down from 10?

-About an 8.

-About an 8. So it's still quite painful.

What I'll do, Lee, when we land, I'll very quickly give him some more morphine.

-Yeah, OK.

-He's scoring 8 out of 10, so I'll give him a bit more.

-Want the heating up a bit?

-I think we're all right. Cheers.

You're doing well there, Keith. In a couple of seconds, we'll get you down.

-OK, first crane is at 12 o'clock on this big, high building. Can you see it?

-OK.

Within minutes, the crew are over Leeds city centre,

dodging the tower cranes on the way to the hospital's rooftop helipad.

The tail's over the pad at the back.

That's where we like to be.

We'll get you some more morphine on board, then we'll get you down to Casualty. OK?

-I'll give him morphine before we move.

-Yeah, all right, OK.

Keith has done really well, but the pain is kicking in hard

and the crew suspect it's more than just physical pain.

The paramedics have done their bit.

Now it's up to surgeons to see if they can save Keith's hand.

Coming up, surgeons have a few minutes to make a decision that will affect Keith for life.

The important thing is getting the wounds covered and closed without infection.

-A rambler's temperature is falling and her rescuers make the situation worse.

-Agh!

-Sorry.

-That's enough.

And the big freeze brings fun for some, but agony for others.

Aagh!

The paramedics rely on their patients to help them do their job.

Just asking them where it hurts can often result in the diagnosis.

But what happens when the patient doesn't speak any English?

In North Yorkshire's racing country, the Helimed team will find out.

The market town of Middleham is famous for its castle, once the home of Richard III.

It's several hundred years since he moved out, but the sport of kings is still part of the community here.

Hundreds of race horses are in training around the town

and every morning they ride through the market square to the gallops.

But up in the hills, there's been an accident.

A jockey exercising a horse has come off and Helimed 99 is being sent to help.

-She just fell straight down?

-Yeah.

-She didn't get dragged?

-No.

The trouble is the gallops include miles of track through the hills above the town.

Finding the incident isn't gonna be easy.

OK, let's print that off.

30 miles away at Leeds Bradford Airport, today's crew includes Dr Ben Wyatt

who is able to prescribe stronger painkillers than the paramedics.

We have lots of riding stables

in and around Yorkshire.

A lot of the best training stables

are based in God's own county.

There are occasions when the horse actually falls on to the rider.

These can be quite serious. We've had a number of patients that have been crushed by their own animal

at the time of their accident and these are serious, serious injuries.

With dozens of highly-strung race horses training below, pilot Andy Figg will have to be careful.

An ill-timed landing could create more patients.

All right, lots of horses on the gallops. I'll hold the height till we see where we're going.

-Yeah.

-About half a dozen race horses over there.

The team's patient is lying where she fell.

It's miles from the nearest road and the land ambulance has done well to beat the chopper to the scene.

Paramedic Darren Axe is about to come across a problem he rarely sees in his home town of Castleford -

the language barrier.

She's French. You have to speak to this lady.

Today's patient is Camille Mayeux, a French jockey who has just arrived in the UK.

Her English is as good as Darren's French.

Ask her if she can feel this.

Dr Ben knows a few words of French.

-La-bas ou non?

-Just not the right ones.

Ask her if she can feel me touching her legs. I think his dialect's all wrong.

-Wiggle her toes.

-Est-ce que tu peux bouger tes orteils?

Luckily, one of Camille's French colleagues can translate.

-T'as mal en fait quand t'as bouge?

-Leg...

-Leg. Yeah, we understand leg.

Local trainer Mark Johnston attracts ambitious riders from all over Europe.

Camille's just 18, but they start them young in the racing business and she's an experienced jockey.

She's got quite a large bruise on one leg.

As far as we can tell, it's not broken, but it could be

cos she has fallen quite a height off a big horse.

She's in severe pain.

-When she breathes in...

-Yes.

Really deep. Let it go out.

-Yes.

-In really deep. She's got to suck quite hard on that cos it's a demand valve.

As soon as she stops taking this, the effects will go.

Darren and his colleagues are concerned that Camille was kicked by her horse as she hit the ground.

In a moment, we want her to roll that way,

but keep breathing the gas. OK?

It's cold on top of the Yorkshire Dales and Camille was dressed for it

which isn't helping Darren.

She's got three coats on!

This is the Dales. Sensible, that, yeah.

Then we're gonna put her on to a stretcher, keep her warm, put her into the aircraft

and we're gonna take her to Harrogate Royal Infirmary.

She needs to be checked out.

Vas-y, doucement.

Paramedics have their own styles of beside manner and Darren likes to keep his patients smiling,

even if it does lose a little in translation.

I bet she wishes she put her make-up on now!

Which way are we going, guys?

Race horses can travel at up to 40 miles an hour.

Jockeys can sustain an impact similar to someone falling from a motorbike,

but they don't wear the same protective clothing.

Without a proper conversation with their patient, the team still have to use guesswork

about how badly she's been hurt.

Sometimes it can be a problem if people don't speak the language.

If you've got a risk of neck and back pain, any spinal injury,

the patient needs to fully understand what you're asking of them.

Hello. Are you warm enough? A little cold? OK.

In any language, Camille is now just 10 minutes from hospital, but now communication gets even harder -

there's no room for the translator.

My French... I could probably order a McDonalds!

That's clear. Just check over our shoulder.

Camille's still breathing painkilling gas, but it's not having as big an effect as the crew hoped.

She's in a lot of pain and obviously upset. we don't suspect it's fractured, but she took a nasty bang

to that area of her leg and it is painful. Hopefully, at hospital, we'll have another French speaker

who will be able to translate what she needs to say.

Other than that, her friends I'm sure will be making their way down to Harrogate to speak to her.

The NHS recruits staff from all over Europe and the chances are Camille will find a French-speaking doctor

on duty at Harrogate District Hospital. She may be a long way from home, but she's in good hands.

The young lady is in quite a lot of pain, with pressure on her leg.

Travelling in by ambulance would have caused a great deal of discomfort.

As it were, we lifted in less than 10 minutes and she's on her hospital trolley

going through to be assessed and to receive any treatment she requires.

Camille's injury turned out not to be serious

and she returned home to recover for a month before resuming her riding career on the Yorkshire Dales.

Finding out what it's like to fall off a horse the hard way hasn't put her off her chosen career.

I'm OK now.

I don't have a problem. My leg is very good.

And, as you can hear, Camille's stay in hospital did at least improve her English.

Coming up: a greenkeeper finds out if he's lost his hand in a freak accident

-or if surgeons can save it.

-We need to do that fairly soon.

And a car skids on an icy road and the driver needs help.

Nearly 1,000 feet up on the edge of the North York Moors,

a rambler is the centre of a complicated rescue that's about to get even more complex.

in North Yorkshire, the Helimed team are trying to help an injured walker near a famous landmark -

the Kilburn White Horse.

Jane Johnstone slipped on the icy path and Paramedic Sammy Wells thinks she's broken her leg

where it joins the hip.

We're going to go towards your back. I'd love to leave you until we got some pain management.

-Are you absolutely sure you want to try?

-Yes.

-Please, please, do tell us.

-If I start saying rude words... Ah!

-I just...

-Yeah.

It's not just Jane's condition they need to worry about. She fell a quarter of a mile down a steep path

and after weeks of freezing temperatures, the ground is too treacherous to carry her back up.

-Can I check your temperature?

-Pat's called for a mountain rescue team, but they're nearly an hour away.

With the temperature dropping to minus five, they need a solution before Jane turns hypothermic.

What we're going to do - walking you out will be too slippery -

is we hope to get the Sea King search and rescue aircraft that has a rope attached to it...

-Flippin' hell!

-I know. It's because of the predicament you're in.

It's the last resort, but they need the specialist skills of the RAF, who can winch Jane off the hill.

I'm really grateful. It's at times like this you appreciate how valuable they are.

Sammy's attention now turns to getting Jane's pain under control

-and preparing her for a frightening experience.

-Jane, we're preparing to move you.

I need you to take some more. Open your eyes again, Jane.

Jane's deteriorated. The cold is making her sleepy. This isn't good.

Sammy and Pat need to move Jane before the RAF arrive, but it's going to be very painful.

It's clear that she's done some pretty serious damage to her leg.

Lift your head up, Jane. We'll put that behind your head.

Take deep breaths.

'She's in a lot of pain. We're giving her pain relief and waiting for the RAF to turn up

'so we can winch her to the top. When the RAF get here, with the downdraft,'

it's going to be very slippy, so we'll have to be very careful.

You're a lot kinder than the midwives were when I gave birth.

They just said, "Pu-u-ush!"

Finally, to everyone's relief, the Sea King helicopter arrives.

There are six search and rescue teams in the UK. When they're not responding to 1,000 calls a year,

they spend three hours training every day for missions like this.

They're bringing the stretcher down. You just stay nice and still.

Winds of over 80 miles per hour, caused by the Sea King's huge rotors,

batter Jane and her rescuers, causing the temperature to drop to below -10.

Have some air now. When they pick you up, I have to take it away.

They've made their patient as safe and warm as possible,

but Sammy, Pat and the ground crew are now struggling to stand up.

Eventually Jane's ready for the terrifying journey towards an eight-ton helicopter

hovering over 50 foot above ground.

There are trees just metres from the rotors and the pilot must keep the aircraft as steady as possible.

As anyone who's been winched into a helicopter will tell you, it's an experience you'll never forget.

Jane's just glad to be off the hill.

Very, very windy and very icy.

I felt the cold blast on my face.

As the team make their way back up, it's clear they made the right decision.

-It is just like an ice rink down there.

-It's taken well over an hour to rescue Jane.

The whole team is exhausted, but the job's not finished for Sally.

Jane's body temperature has dropped so much, hypothermia's a danger.

Sammy will travel in the Sea King to monitor Jane's condition

on the way to the James Cook Hospital in Middlesbrough.

It's really impressive to see the RAF, how they control the aircraft so close to the hills.

I've seen them in the Lakes hovering feet from the mountains.

It's incredible to watch. Luckily, we don't have to do that.

After two hours on an exposed hillside, Jane's giving cause for concern. Her temperature's plunged.

Hypothermia is dangerous enough when you're fit and healthy. Her life could be at stake.

Coming up: Jane arrives at hospital and the medical team begins the fight to raise her temperature.

Her temperature is 33 degrees, which is hypothermic.

And a local council's gritting team is a little late to prevent a nasty accident on an icy road.

Now imagine losing your hand. It's an awful prospect,

but one that's terribly real for one man after an accident with a leaf-blowing machine

-on a golf course in North Yorkshire.

-This gentleman's put his fingers in a strimmer.

30-year-old groundsman Keith Emery has chopped all the fingers off his left hand.

He put his hand into a leaf blower.

It's barely half an hour later, but he's now on six floors from the operating theatre.

Yes, we've got the digits.

Leeds General Infirmary is a specialist centre for microsurgery. A surgical team is standing by.

Once there would have been no chance of reattaching Keith's fingers, but now they can be grafted back,

but only in some circumstances and time is crucial.

They've given Keith the best chance they could.

Look at the times we've done We're in A&E at LGI.

We've taken off at 13.16 from Leeds Bradford to go and bring him back.

And we've arrived at 13.52. So I mean... Time is crucial with things like this.

The surgical team know that losing a hand or limb causes psychological injuries as well as physical.

Some patients say it's like enduring a bereavement. At least doctors have ways of killing pain.

The risk is that it's bleeding a lot so we have to get control of that.

Then give everything a good clean as there's risk of infection.

We'll get a good assessment to have an idea of what we're doing in the theatre.

We'll have to crack on and do that.

Keith's in pain and unable to take in the critical examination that's going on.

Doctors are deciding if his fingers are fit to reattach.

They've got to weigh the chances of success against the risks of infection and additional damage.

There's a lot of mud on the fingers.

So we'll need to clean them up and see whether they're viable to be reattached or not.

Given the injury, it's unlikely, but we need to have a look.

Surgery is part art, part science, but the doctors don't like the look of what they've seen.

I've had a look at the bits that came off

and none of those are going to survive any reattachment.

If fingers come off with a clean cut from a guillotine or a knife, they can sometimes be reattached,

but looking at those, there's lots of contamination and crushed elements,

so it's unlikely they'll be reattached.

The important thing is getting the wounds covered and closed,

so that at a later stage we can reconstruct things for him.

Reattaching Keith's fingers is too risky.

An unsuccessful attempt could lead to their patient losing more of his hand

or developing a lethal infection.

The accident at the golf course has cost Keith his hand.

From now on, he will have to relearn how to carry out the simplest tasks.

It will be a long road to recovery, but he knows the Helimed team gave the best treatment possible.

Coming up: the crew recover from two hours in sub-zero temperatures,

but there's still no news about the rescued rambler.

We all live with the weather and most winters have to put up with icy roads or pavements,

but every year an unlucky few motorists are caught out by the big chill.

They may not be Torvill and Dean, but there's nothing more fun than slipping across the ice.

Apart from a few bumps and bruises, they won't trouble the local A&E,

but when it's a few tons of metal, that's a completely different story.

We're going to this road accident where somebody's hurt their arm. Multiple fracture.

It might need surgery, so we can take them to LGI,

which has got surgeons standing by.

It's the middle of one of the coldest winters people remember

and that's putting huge pressure on Yorkshire's emergency services.

Helimed 99 is on its way to one of many smashes caused by the icy conditions.

Two cars have collided head on and one driver has nasty injuries.

This is Robert, a 40-year-old gentleman, who's been involved in a head-on collision.

-This is the position I found him in.

-What's the matter, mate?

-Oh, my God. My knee.

-That knee?

Robert isn't trapped inside his car, but he's broken his leg and his arm. They're serious injuries.

The Helimed team are taking no chances.

The roads here are quite icy. Quite treacherous for all vehicles.

Two vehicles have collided head-on on a reasonably fast stretch of road

and caused quite a bit of damage to both.

-What's cracked your knee, then?

-The dashboard's all destroyed.

The plan is we'll get a board, stand you up, put the board behind you and lie you down. OK?

All right.

The gritters arrive half an hour too late. This is a back road used by commuters to avoid congestion.

With the councils running low on salt, it has remained untreated.

Without the Fire Service on hand, Paramedic Paul has to improvise.

One, two, three.

-Right, Robert, can we try and stand up?

-Ah!

-Head forward and stand.

-One, two, three. Up. Push, Robert, push.

-Push, mate.

With no sign of a spinal injury, they're happy to help Robert out of the car,

but that means moving his broken limbs and that's proving painful.

-Aah!

-Icy weather usually reduces the speed at which accidents happen.

Robert's been lucky. Higher speeds could have made these injuries much worse.

The bright yellow rigid spinal board is a welcome sight for Robert

-and the team can finally keep his legs straight and start to give him more pain relief.

-Aah!

Aah!

Well done, everyone.

Give them a heads up to be ready on the helipad for about five to.

The gritters should help prevent another accident here, but it's little consolation for Robert.

He's on his way to Leeds General Infirmary and a specialist team of orthopaedic surgeons.

After a lengthy stay in hospital, Robert made a full recovery,

but he still hasn't forgiven the council for running out of grit.

The helicopter gives the Helimed team one big advantage over colleagues on the ground.

With the roads 500 feet below them freezing over again,

Helimed 99 is called in to help another victim of the ice.

A dry stone wall isn't the only casualty in this smash. The driver of an MG sports car is badly injured

and trapped inside the wreckage.

Quite a cold morning here again. Speed is of the essence, really.

-People could get cold very quickly.

-The crew know this road well.

-They travel on it every day to work.

-Just getting it at 12 o'clock.

Here next to the fire engine.

Today Lee's wearing a new, improved flight suit. This job could be the perfect test.

There's debris everywhere and it's sub-zero temperatures.

-She just spun off?

-I think so. Complaining of left-sided neck pain.

Got some pain above her left knee. And she's got some abdominal pain and tenderness on her left side.

It's obviously been a big impact.

Claire Harrington's beloved MG is now just a lump of mangled metal.

I don't think the back is the easiest option. Just put the board at the side.

If you had to score that pain out of 10, where zero is no pain and 10 is the worst ever.

I've got a very high pain threshold. I'm a chef and burn myself a lot.

Claire may have a high pain threshold but when they move her,

the pain could become unbearable very quickly. Lee wants to make sure she's ready for the rescue

-that lies ahead.

-She's got some hip pain which I need to give her some pain relief for.

Just before we try to move her. It's quite a small car.

It's difficult to get out. I need to get her as pain-free as possible.

I'll do that, then liaise with the Fire Service and we'll have her out.

OK...

Modern cars and tyres are designed to cope with the worst weather,

but nothing will prevent your car from skidding on black ice.

The plan is to get the long board under her bum to slide her out,

causing the least amount of movement.

She has a bit of tenderness in her spine, so we don't want to move her too much.

Removing patients from the wreckage is never easy,

but the cramped cockpit of the MG is causing Lee and the others more problems than normal.

-You know what's happening, Claire?

-Yeah.

-One, two, three.

As Claire has found out, sports cars with wide tyres and powerful engines

are among the hardest vehicles to drive on ice.

Across the country, hundreds of unsuspecting motorists skid and slide to work in the wintry weather.

Chef Claire's customers are going to go hungry this morning as she heads to Harrogate Hospital.

It's years since Britain saw a winter like this.

Despite gritters dumping hundreds of thousands of tons of salt onto Yorkshire's road network,

with temperatures dropping to minus 10 commuters are feeling the big freeze the most.

Well, it just says, "Car on roof. One trapped."

Then it says on the bypass and another in the town centre.

The rush hour's barely begun and Helimed 99 is to help a driver

who's crashed just a few miles from their base.

Nice sunrise there. It is a nice sunrise.

Despite the beautiful sunrise, it is, in fact, minus 5 outside

and this driver lost it on black ice. It's another soft top sports car. That can mean serious injuries.

'It's a gentle slope as it goes away from us now.'

-We'll go down and have a look.

-He may not have to worry about black ice,

but pilot Steve has problems above and below.

The accident's happened next to a housing estate. There's little space

and they're so close to the airport, other aircraft circle overhead.

-Still OK?

-Yeah.

There's nothing wrong with Steve's parking, allowing Pat and Sammy to quickly assess the situation.

It's slipped on black ice

and she's gone up the embankment. The car's at 90 degrees.

There's no sign of the driver. In fact, a passing motorist bravely prised her out

and she's now keeping warm in the back of the Good Samaritan's car.

-Guys, what can you tell me?

-I didn't hit the lamp-post!

-Well done.

-Got a red mark here,

where the seatbelt's been.

The lady's walked to this car.

-We'll see what's going on.

-Valerie Smyth had a remarkable escape.

The car's flipped, but the lamp-post prevented it from rolling over.

With only fabric for a roof, this could have been a lot worse.

-Do you know what made you crash?

-Ice.

-You didn't feel dizzy or unwell?

-Absolutely not.

It went that way and I went into the hedge.

-Well done.

-'She's been very lucky'

that it hasn't been more serious.

The car's been on its side. You have to suspect spinal injuries.

I felt my car going that way... and then it veered that way. I just tried to steer it.

-You had your seatbelt on?

-I did.

-Val may have been able to clamber out,

but Sammy knows that back and neck injuries can take time to appear.

-She wants to fully immobilise her patient before moving her again.

-I'll hold the back of your skirt

and raise you forward. Ready, guys?

Some kind motorists have lived to regret allowing injured people to sit in their cars.

More than once, fire fighters have cut the roof off an undamaged car

to get at a patient with a suspected neck injury. Not today, thankfully.

There we are.

With Val successfully out of the car, Pam and Sammy are confident her injuries are not serious enough

to warrant a flight in Helimed 99.

Their colleagues on the ground will navigate the icy roads to A&E.

That lady was driving a lovely soft top car that she managed to roll.

It's hit a tree and just stopped short of the lamp-post.

That's been the saving grace. She could've had serious head injuries.

Well done to the ladies that stopped and offered assistance. Good teamwork. Good Samaritan.

I'm pleased to say all patients have recovered and are back on the road,

with the only damage to their No Claims bonuses.

Now let's catch up with the rescue of a rambler.

On a moorland airfield, Paramedic Pat and pilot Steve recover from two hours in freezing temperatures

waiting for news of their patient.

Jane Johnstone fell on a hillside path and suffered a suspected broken hip.

The Helimed team had to call in an RAF chopper to rescue Jane

but by then her body temperature had plunged.

We've decided to go with the lady in the aircraft to Middlesbrough.

By land, she'd be in a lot of pain.

Her temperature is 33 degrees, which is hypothermic.

Despite our best efforts, she's still become very, very cold.

She's got a thermal warmer over her, it brings nice warm air.

She's broken her hip or her femur and possibly her wrist.

She'll possibly need surgery for it.

Before they could deal with her injuries, doctors in Middlesbrough must slowly raise her temperature.

Only then will they be able to operate on her broken bones.

But, just a month later, Jane's back on her feet.

It was a beautiful day. Blue skies, sunshine. Just the day for a nice walk.

The views were just fantastic.

We decided we'd go along the top.

It was rough and there was a bit of snow, but we just automatically assumed it would be all right.

And Jim was in front of me.

And then, all of a sudden, I was on the floor.

It was a very narrow path, so we walked one behind the other.

I just heard this sort of yelp.

My feet just went.

And I went down with a bang.

-I think you've damaged your hip.

-My hip?!

-Yeah.

I just remember suddenly being in the worst pain I've ever been in.

I kept on thinking it was my leg. I kept saying it was my leg.

That's where it hurt, but it was my hip.

If they hadn't been able to get to me, I wouldn't be here, would I?

How on earth we'd have got off that path I've no idea. They were all absolutely amazing.

I was so embarrassed that I needed so many people

in just a... a second of my life. I slipped.

I'm just so grateful that people like the air ambulance and all the others are there.

You never know when you'll need them. If it wasn't for them, I don't think I'd be here.

When Helicopter Heroes comes back:

a jockey falls at 40mph.

-He's fallen.

-And Paramedic Lee is worried for his unconscious patient.

She's had a fit.

The team is scrambled to save a driver who is lucky to survive a smash with a milk tanker.

A builder is trapped under his upturned dumper truck.

The bone's sticking out of the leg.

And there's a helicopter crash high in the Pennines.

Subtitles by Subtext for Red Bee Media Ltd - 2009

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