Episode 12 Helicopter Heroes

If you're seriously or critically injured, every second counts,

especially if you're up high or off the beaten track.

But thanks to these guys, the people of the UK's

biggest county are never more than ten minutes away from a hospital.

The Yorkshire Air Ambulance can do 150 miles an hour, and every day

brings a new life or death emergency.

Five million people depend on these yellow helicopters to bring a life-saving care from the skies.

When a multiple pile-up closes Britain's highest motorway or there's a serious accident

on the shop floor, the highly trained paramedics

and pilots of the Helimed team are there to rescue the casualties.

Today on Helicopter Heroes...there's a serious accident outside a school, and a teenager is badly hurt.

The skin's open and the bone's been exposed, so the bone has come out of the leg.

The RAF switch off the UK's missile shield for Helimed 99.

'They're going to switch off at 1815'.

In the Dales, a biker's fighting for his life.

I saw him go flying through the air and thought "oh, no".

And meet the patient who died three times.

I'd actually been declared dead at the scene of the accident.

Paramedics know there are certain times of the day that they're more likely to be called out, especially

to road accidents, and the morning rush hour is one of them.

The Helimed crew has only just clocked on, and the chopper's rotors are already running.

5-4-0-1-4-5.

All the team have been told is that there's been

a serious accident outside a school on the outskirts of Doncaster.

A 13-year-old boy has been knocked down by a car.

For pilot Tim Taylor and the crew of Helimed 98, it's just ten minutes' flying time.

And today they're in luck.

The accident's happened right next to a wheat field, an ideal landing pad.

Flying doctor Anil Hormis is going to take over

the care of 13-year-old Matthew Goddard from ground paramedics.

I've just loaded him up with Entonox.

Matthew's mum has run to the scene, still in her dressing gown.

I'm Anil, I'm one of the doctors, all right?

Are you OK?

Matthew was crossing the road to get to classes at Campsmount Technology College when the accident happened.

His leg is badly broken.

Dr Anil needs to know exactly how the accident happened.

-Can you tell me what happened?

-I looked left, but I didn't look right, and I got hit by a car.

That's fine, OK. I'm just going to listen to your chest.

Take some deep breaths for me.

In and out, perfect. Well done.

You didn't get knocked out, did you? Do you remember what happened?

I remember...

I got hit by the car, and I was spinning in the air.

-All right.

-Bit of a 360, was it?

-Yeah.

-All right, then, mate. Just getting a collar on him.

He's got a compound fracture of his right leg.

That means the skin's open

and the bone's been exposed, so the bone's come out of the leg.

Dr Anil is really worried that Matthew could have suffered internal injuries.

Children's bones are flexible, and a break as bad as this needs a massive impact to cause it.

And there are other risks.

Infection and vascular damage could mean Matthew could yet lose his lower leg.

What do you prefer?

-Matty.

-Right, Matty it is.

Paramedic Sammy tells Matthew what's coming next, and it's a problem.

My mate's just going to put a little needle in your arm...

No, I hate needles!

-I hate needles!

-Matty, just relax a second.

We'll use this gas and air, all right?

Even with very young patients, medics must tell them what's going on,

even if they have a feeling it's not going to go down well.

We've got to put this collar to protect your neck, OK?

You were spinning in the air.

We need to make sure everything's fine.

-Dad has arrived too.

-Is Matty normally fit and well?

-Yes.

-Yeah?

-Is he allergic to anything?

-No.

Time for the needle, and Matthew's being brave.

Right, Matthew, tiny scratch in your hand, OK?

You're doing really, really well.

OK, Matthew, that's it. That's all done, OK?

-Yeah.

-Well done. We're just going to put a little plaster on.

Get it stuck into place.

-Then we'll get you some strong painkillers.

-He needs morphine.

The bone from his shattered leg is sticking out at a terrible angle.

-He's going to have to be brave again.

-Matty, we're going to give you some medicine,

and that'll help take some of the pain away.

Matthew needs to be in hospital soon.

Surgeons at Sheffield Children's Hospital have already been told he's coming.

They will need to rebuild this leg if he's not to lose it.

Nice, deep breaths.

Coming up, Matthew puts on a brave face as the team straightens his shattered leg.

The deadly roads of the Yorkshire Dales claim another victim.

He went over the high side.

And the golfer who owes his life to a doctor in the 19th.

Shocked him twice and got a good cardiac output, and he started breathing.

This is one of the UK's most outsized landscapes.

You can walk for miles on the moors and dales without seeing a soul.

But when something goes wrong, you can be a long way from help.

It's a hot summer evening, and Helimed 99 is heading to the coast.

Reports have come in of an incident at a remote location in the North York Moors National Park.

Where the grid reference we've got is, there's no roads for a good three or four miles.

It's right up on the middle of the moor, so it's either an airlift

out or it's a long carry for the Scarborough mountain rescue team.

In his spare time, Al is a volunteer in his local mountain rescue group.

He knows that on foot, this would be tough.

It's a mountain rescue for Scarborough.

It's Scarborough, and I think their call-sign is Moor Jock.

Helimed 99 to Scarborough mountain rescue. Receiving?

Over. Inbound to yourself.

Got an ETA of about 12 minutes to yourselves, over.

With mountain rescue on the scene, the team can take comfort

in the fact that the grid reference will be spot-on.

The flight will take them close to RAF Fylingdales, a remote radar base with restricted airspace.

For a brief period, the team have permission to fly over the site.

I've spoken to Fylingdales.

They're going to switch off at 1815, one-eight-one-five,

and then we need to let them know when you clear their area, over.

I see something white just right on the horizon in the distance, which would be about the right place.

-I wonder if that's one of the manned rescue vehicles.

-Whereabouts are you looking?

Sort of 11 o'clock.

Fylingdales protects the UK from incoming nuclear missiles.

It's essential that the huge radar dish isn't transmitting when the chopper flies overhead.

Going up now.

The base emits high level radiation.

If it's not switched off, the crew know its effects could be unfortunate.

That's them, isn't it?

On scene, a marshal is waiting to guide

Helimed 99 to a safe landing site.

Hi, guys. You all right? How are you?

This is Richard Ashcroft.

He's presented with pain to his right ankle that's progressively got worse.

It was an injury from the Lake District a while ago.

It got to the point where he can't weight-bear on it at all.

The pain score was initially nine.

He's had sickness as well from the pain.

The group are four miles from completing the notorious

Lyke Wake Walk, a gruelling trek across the North York Moors.

It's approximately 42 miles in under 24 hours.

We set off at 1am this morning,

and were quite on target of doing it in about 16 hours,

up until this stage, when Richard's hurt his ankle

and we...slowed down drastically.

He's had a fair walk on it today - 35 miles.

Richard's determination to take on this challenge may seem ambitious,

but he's on a sponsored walk, and it turns out

this isn't the first time he's put his health on the line for others.

There's quite a story behind it.

The three of us here, myself, Richard and my dad,

I found out I had kidney failure a couple of years ago.

My dad was going to donate, and they found that my dad had kidney cancer, so he had a kidney removed.

My friend Richard,

who's injured, donated the kidney just over 11 months ago.

So we were raising funds for Kidney Research.

Attempting to carry Richard was brave,

but on terrain this challenging,

what they really need was expert help.

And fortunately, it was close at hand.

We were out on a training exercise, and we got the call from the police

that there was a person injured, so we climbed into our vehicles and off we came,

and we were going to carry out from here,

but it's obviously quite a long distance for us to carry.

Richard's on his way to Scarborough Hospital.

His ambition of completing the Lyke Wake Walk will have to wait for another day, as will his sponsors.

Coming up - so near, yet so far.

Can Richard make it on his second attempt?

We tried carrying him as far as we could, but couldn't really get any further.

-A teenager's mum is frantic.

-That's it.

And the driver who chose the right place to have a heart attack.

The time to have a cardiac arrest is when there's an ambulance crew there.

The roads of the Yorkshire Dales are narrow, twisting and often lined with dry-stone walls.

It's hard to go anywhere in a hurry. But bikers love them.

And the bright, sunny evenings mean the bikers are out to enjoy the country roads.

But for the Helimed team, it also tends to mean an increase in accidents, and today's no exception.

Been called out to Leyburn.

We've got a community paramedic on the scene saying there's been a collision.

A biker's come off, and they're struggling to get a decent pulse,

so BP's possibly low, and they've requested us to go and airlift.

Leyburn is at the end of one of the fastest roads in the Dales,

making it one of the most popular for bikers.

People who've been frustrated all winter

have got some nice weather, and now they want to get on their bikes.

Some are a bit over-exuberant sometimes, and get into accidents.

Shall I find out the closest hospitals?

-The closest hospital, mate, is James Cook.

-Right.

-Yeah, for trauma related stuff.

-Okey-dokey.

47-year-old biker Graham Bowen has crashed his bike head-on into a car.

He's hit the windscreen, and now needs urgent help.

OK, Graham? The helmet's just going to go over your head.

Well done.

I was the second car behind.

I was just driving along, and the motorbike overtook

and speeded up, and went straight into the lady that was coming...

the other way. But he spun over the car, with a big bang.

Graham's friend was right behind him, and saw what happened.

We were just queuing in traffic, and my mate didn't see the car that was turning right.

Went to pass the standing vehicles on the right hand side of us,

and unfortunately the car turned right

and he went straight into the side of it and over the high side.

I saw him go fly through the air and thought "Oh, no!"

Just fear the worst.

Graham's broken a few bones, but the paramedics suspect he's got a bigger problem,

one which means they need to get him to hospital straight away.

We'll just get him onto a spinal board.

The crew are helping Ben. Ben queries that the gentleman's got

a left haemothorax,

which means that there can be blood pooling into the lung itself.

So as soon as we get him on,

we'll get him over to James Cook and let the trauma team see him.

Ready, steady, go.

The danger is that a lung starts filling

and causing problems with his breathing,

so he'll become short of breath.

They can get agitated and quite panicky about it, obviously.

We need to get a chest drain in.

The quicker we get him to hospital, the better.

Obs at 55 were BP of...

-87 over 39.

-87 over 39.

-Pulse of 93.

Pulse of 93.

-Sats of 100%.

-Sats of 100%.

After being catapulted through the air, Graham's in a lot of pain.

So Lee prepares to give him a strong painkiller before taking him to hospital.

That's got morphine, OK?

As Graham's being treated, his friend Mick is still amazed at how quickly help arrived.

The paramedic guy in the car was here with him in literally minutes.

Literally minutes.

So fair play. Fair play.

I was told it was a road traffic accident involving a car into a fence.

When I actually arrived, it was a motorcyclist

who'd had a collision with a car and gone over the top.

The patient was alert and talking to us,

but had quite a bit of pain in his chest.

Graham's injuries mean his lungs are now filling up with blood.

-The paramedics know they need to get him to hospital as fast as they can.

-Ready, steady, lift.

It will take the Helimed team just 15 minutes to fly to hospital in Middlesbrough.

All happy?

It's a journey that could take nearly an hour by road.

Looking at 12 minutes, Ben.

Cheers, buddy. He's stabilised now.

The James Cook hospital has its helipad right outside the front door.

For Graham, that means he's inside getting specialist treatment in minutes.

He does look a bit better, thanks to the pain relief and the fluid therapy he's received.

His blood pressure's obviously come up, so his colour's improved.

We've got him a bit more comfortable than he was on the scene, trapped underneath or near the vehicle.

Coming up...a charity walker takes off for hospital.

And the badly injured biker who came back from the dead.

I'd actually been declared dead at the scene of the accident.

Now let's return to South Yorkshire, where the team are dealing with a serious accident outside a school.

13-year-old Matthew Goddard was knocked down on his way to school.

The damage to this car was caused by Matthew's leg.

The car's dented.

His leg's shattered.

A bone below his knee has come through the skin and is sticking out.

It's called a compound fracture.

There's a serious risk of infection and possible damage

to the major blood vessels nearby,

all of which could mean he could yet lose his lower leg.

He'll need an operation to get that fixed.

We'll take him to the Children's Hospital in Sheffield,

which will be about a nine-minute flight.

He's doing OK. We've given him some pain relief,

and we'll get him loaded and out of here as quickly as possible.

But Matthew's leg his buckled.

Before he can be put into the helicopter, Anil must straighten it.

He cannot splint it in the normal way because of the bone protruding out.

-If he did, the risk of infection would be greater.

-Look at us.

Right, nice, deep breaths.

Relax your thigh.

Just right down, right down, right down.

Right down.

MATTHEW SCREAMS

It's not only painful for Matthew, but for Mum and Dad, this is agony.

And some more. That's it.

Paramedic Sammy is great with kids.

We're not moving it any more.

You've done the hard work.

-And now the reassuring voice of Mum is on hand too.

-I'll be with you.

I'm not leaving you, all right?

-Ow!

-It's OK. They'll make it better.

Mum is going to travel with Matthew on the short flight.

Matthew's almost ready for the final leg of his interrupted journey to school.

Whilst many of his fellow pupils are still arriving,

questions are already being asked about the road's safety credentials.

They are questions that have arisen before.

If crossings are in place, you would presume that it would be safe to cross the road, wouldn't you?

You know, but that's obviously something I can't comment on.

Matthew has had the maximum amount of morphine that you can give a child of his age. It's done its job.

He's out of pain and now keen to get on with his flight.

Open your eyes. Do you see the blades?

-Oh, cool!

-Cool.

He's a lot more comfortable now.

Now that the leg's back in the position it should be

and the morphine's kicked in, he's chatting.

He's quite excited about riding in a helicopter, which is good,

because it's a distraction that will take his mind off his injury, which is a nasty injury to his lower leg.

It's been a distressing morning for mum Sarah too.

Matthew had gone out.

The next minute, his friend came knocking on the door, saying Matthew had been run over.

I scooted out, just found Matthew laid on the side.

Apparently, somebody had run into him.

Other than that, I don't know much about it.

The helicopter will fly over several other major hospitals

en route to the specialist children's hospital in Sheffield.

But there are medics there already waiting for him who all have the expertise,

experience and equipment on hand to give him the best possible chance.

Coming up, will Matthew walk again?

Doctors start work on his badly broken leg.

And there's a life-or-death drama on the golf course.

Luckily, we had two doctors here in the clubhouse.

Remember the charity walkers with very good reason to be tackling a long-distance walk?

Well, they're in trouble, and it looks like one of them

won't be completing the long-distance challenge.

The pain is behind the ankle bone, and then round and on top of the foot.

-Right.

-Richard Ashcroft was tantalisingly close to the end

of the 40 mile cross-country walk

when an old injury left him in agony.

He recently donated a kidney to his mate, Paul Stoddart,

and both of them were on a walk to raise money for Kidney Research.

We tried carrying him as far as we could, but couldn't really get any further.

With an injured foot, getting him to hospital by land could have taken hours.

-In Helimed 99, a hospital ward is minutes away.

-Are we all happy?

Ready, steady, lift.

As the group are on a sponsored walk, they're determined to push on.

They'll finish the 40-mile challenge and then meet up with Richard in hospital.

Watch your feet, Al.

Bit of a ditch.

We've probably got about another hour and a half to go.

There's people waiting for us at the end, so we'll be OK.

You just thought you'd keep going as long as you could?

With only four miles to go, it's easy to see why Richard tried so hard to complete the challenge.

But eventually, the pain became unbearable.

For two miles, they tried to get me...

get me near without having to resort to phoning,

and they just couldn't walk any further.

-It was getting worse.

-You take care of yourself.

Thank you very much. Cheers, guys.

Much appreciated. Thanks very much, lads. Appreciated.

See you next time.

Being rescued by Yorkshire's air ambulance costs an average

of £2,000, and it seems that Richard is planning how to repay the debt before he's even taken off.

We were doing it for charity anyway.

And we'll do it again now for you guys.

It can be the only repayment, can't it, really?

Anything else would be rude.

As Helimed 99 takes off to Scarborough Hospital,

it's clear that this isn't the way Richard wanted

to end his crossing of the North York Moors National Park.

Maybe next time, he'll be lucky enough to finish the journey on foot.

We'll be there shortly, Richard.

Mobile from Helimed 99.

'Helimed 99, go ahead'.

Yeah, we've lifted, en route to Scarborough now. Thanks very much for your help today. See you soon.

'Thanks to you, and see you soon. Over and out'.

This is Ravenscar, the finishing point for the Lyke Wake Walk,

and the two friends are back together.

For Richard to get that far and not be able to complete it was... I was really gutted for him.

Before Richard donated one of his kidneys, his friend was barely able to walk a few hundred yards.

It's ironic that this time, HE was the one that couldn't make the finishing line.

Even a few weeks on, his leg still isn't up to repeating the Lyke Wake Walk.

But both mates agree it's a cause well worth the pain.

It's something you can't really describe how good it feels that someone's willing to do that for you,

especially when it's someone I haven't known all my life.

I wouldn't change it for the world. I'm proud of what I've done.

I think...everyone who hears about it, or our friends just go, "It's amazing".

If you ever get the opportunity to do it for somebody, do it,

because it's...I don't think it takes that much away from you, and you give so much back.

It's a great feeling, and I'm sure...

Richard or anyone that knows me

would be able to say what a difference it's made.

Even though Richard didn't reach Ravenscar last time,

their fund-raising walk was still a runaway success.

From starting organising doing the walk

for Kidney Research, we talked and we said

we thought if we made £500 to £600, we'd be doing well.

All the money's not quite in. But hopefully, we'll have nearly £3,500.

So, very pleased with our efforts.

Coming up, a school waits for news of a 13-year-old knocked down on its doorstep.

Paramedics use all their skills to save lives,

but they know in some cases,

the odds of their patients surviving in the long term aren't good.

But they're never happier than when they're proved wrong.

A golf course is one of the most popular places

to spend your retirement, or a day off, for that matter.

But it's a sad fact that once a month on average,

one of the Helimed choppers is called to a heart attack on the fairway.

Often, they're instantly fatal, but sometimes chance and an awful lot of luck are on the patient's side.

Like today.

Helimed 99 and the crew are on their way.

This Alwoodley golf course in Leeds, just three minutes away from the airbase. Lucky break number one.

Think I've got the ambulance actually.

In between the trees.

-Yeah, got it.

-Just close to the bunker.

-Golfer Peter Johnson's heart has stopped beating.

-Hi, guys.

He just suddenly went down.

The legs went.

Lucky break number two - there are two doctors in the clubhouse

who have seen the commotion on the 17th, Andy Wilson and Pat Geraghty,

who is a doctor at Leeds United Football Club.

He also has a defibrillator in the boot of his car. Lucky break three.

Can you open your eyes for me, mate?

They commandeered a golf buggy to get there quickly.

Ready, steady, lift.

We just saw someone running down the 18th, so we ran out, knew something was wrong.

Got the buggy. Fortunately, one of my colleagues, who's a Leeds United doctor, has got the defib,

so we ran and got that and put it on the back of the buggy and got up here,

and found Peter was in VF and shocked him twice

and got a good cardiac output, and he started breathing. And then you arrived.

Having shocked their friend's heart back into life, he's being prepared for the short flight

on to the Leeds General Infirmary, where heart specialists are waiting.

We're playing our golf match with friends, and we were one hole up,

which golfers will understand, so that was good.

We had one more hole to go, so we were almost at the end of the match and he just suddenly keeled over.

But he does have, he has had a heart problem in the past, so it's not that surprising.

But he's a very fit person, so it is a huge shock.

But luckily, the ambulance and the air ambulance could come fairly quickly.

And luckily, we had two doctors here in the clubhouse.

So they ran up and were able to treat him, otherwise he would have died.

For every minute that goes by after a heart attack before treatment,

you're 14% less likely to survive and have a good recovery.

In other words, it doesn't take long, and you're dead.

Generally, there are lots of doctors in golf clubs, but very lucky that Pat had the defib, I think.

Very lucky.

With the doctors in their makeshift ambulance heading back to the clubhouse,

Helimed 99 takes off for the LGI with a very grateful golfer on board.

Back at the club, Dr Geraghty has come for a round of golf.

Along with his clubs, he still has that defibrillator in the boot of his car.

Since Hillsborough, every football ground now has to have a stadium doctor for the crowd only.

So I've been trained by the Football Association and by Leeds United for this sort of emergency.

So I carry the defibrillator. It's Leeds United's defibrillator,

but there's nowhere to store it there, so I store it in the boot of my car.

And a good thing too because it kept Peter Johnson alive,

and six weeks later, he's come to say thanks to the golfing doctors in person.

Well, how nice it is to see you chaps again.

Marvellous. Thank you very much indeed for what you did for me.

Peter isn't back playing just yet, but he hopes to be soon, and he knows who's to thank.

On the second impulse, my heart rhythm was corrected.

But I was still unconscious

and unaware that the wonderful air ambulance had landed.

But I think, having heard now

that the time it took, which was two minutes and five seconds

from this fairway to the helipad

at Leeds General Infirmary, was a real saviour and a blessing.

Bike accidents like this are killers,

and today on a road near Sherburn-in-Elmet,

another rider is fighting for his life.

Darren Axe knows the place well.

He rides a bike himself.

I've got to say, I'm a summer biker.

Unfortunately once again, this is a motorcycle incident

which has run into a car or vice versa

with a rider on scene at this location who's unconscious.

The crew of Helimed 98 know they are the patient's only chance of survival.

If you go to the cafe and follow that road into Sherburn, you'll be on that road.

The bike has hit a parked car. The land crew from nearby Castleford have done a great job.

They've immobilised the biker. He's already on a spinal board, neck collar on, ready to travel.

Hi.

Hi, guys. You all right?

All we know is it's Gaz. We don't know his age.

He's gone into that MG there. He's got a lot of bruising on his abdomen and back.

Kate talks to him to establish his level of consciousness

before deciding which hospital to take him to.

Do you know where you are, Gaz?

-Yeah.

-Where are you? INAUDIBLE

We're going to be taking you to the hospital in the helicopter, in the air ambulance, Gaz, OK?

It's not good. He is confused and showing all the signs of a serious head injury.

This man is quite seriously injured, actually.

He looks like he's got lots of bruising around his abdomen and back,

which means there's a really high risk of internal injuries.

It looks like he may have sustained some injuries to his chest.

Gaz is fighting for his life.

Kate knows it's only a matter of time before his injuries begin to overwhelm him.

Only surgeons and intensive care can save him now.

Speed is vital and Darren is recruiting some

volunteers to help them on their way to Leeds General Infirmary.

Lads, will you come and give us a hand?

As well as the head injury, Gaz is struggling with his breathing.

Daz and Kate are looking for signs of chest deformity -

paradoxical breathing - one side doing something the other isn't.

It's a sign of internal injuries that could kill.

-Gaz has got them, too.

-Gaz, I've just pressed on your chest.

Is this hurting you here?

It's hurting both sides?

Lifted and en route to LGI.

ETA approximately six minutes, maximum. Over.

Helimed 98 is definitely the last flight today on the rooftop pad.

It's 5.10pm and it will soon be dark.

The biker, known only to the crew as Gaz, was Gary Brennan...

a 51-year-old husband, father and grandfather.

His injuries are barely survivable.

During the next 10 minutes, his heart stops twice.

It looks like he sustained a lower leg fracture.

We won't need an X-ray to prove that. We can see where it's broken.

He has sustained a head injury as well because he is extremely confused.

He doesn't know what day it is, he doesn't know how old he is.

He's got a lot of issues that need to be resolved.

Fortunately for him, he's in the best place, the LGI.

Gary's wife was told to come to the Leeds General Infirmary to say goodbye to her husband.

The family were told he may only have hours to live.

Gary was put into an induced coma.

Life support machines in intensive care were breathing for him.

They were giving his brain and battered body the best possible chance of pulling itself through.

And incredibly, it did.

Hi!

Give us a kiss.

My next recollection, really, was waking up in hospital

about six weeks later.

My family, Shirley and my four kids, were around me.

I didn't realise that I had actually been declared dead

at the scene of the accident, which came as a bit of shock.

I didn't know anything about getting lifted on to a helicopter and coming in. Not a thing about it.

I'm an avid supporter of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance anyway,

but I never thought I would actually have been a customer of theirs.

Both my shoulder blades were broken,

I had had a hard impact on my heart and it had sent the rhythm out,

but it also created a lot of bruising.

My left lung was collapsed, my liver was torn and my kidney

was completely crushed.

Then working down, my pelvis had been smashed into quite a few pieces, and then my left leg,

the thigh bone was completely broken and they have put in a pin

from my hip down to my knee to keep that one together.

Three months on and Gary is back at home.

His accident has left him with massive physical injuries that time will heal.

But it's left the whole family with much more.

His daughters, who thought he was going to die, kept a diary.

You were nodding your head when I was talking to you and you even smiled at me. That meant the world.

I had been praying for a miracle and even though we've got

so much more to go through, I feel I have been granted my miracle.

You're still here and your brain seems to be intact, even if your body isn't.

Both Laura and Joanne had written the diaries,

and weeks ago, they give the diaries to me

and I literally got to the first page in each of them and just broke down.

It was so poignant, reading what your daughters have written.

I love you more than I could ever say and I am so proud to be able to call you my dad.

It was amazing, just to see what the girls had gone through

and what Shirley had gone through while I was in hospital.

Joanne was in Tenerife on holiday when her mum rang her with the news.

On the Sunday, before he went to theatre,

my mum just said, they've given him seven hours to live.

He's been in since 4.00pm and it's now 10.00pm.

The clock is working against him, basically,

so just in case you don't get back, I think you need to say goodbye.

She put the phone to his ear

and I had to tell him to hang in there

and stay strong and fight until I got back.

I just felt so guilty for being away. I needed to be by his side.

Despite all he's been through, you might be surprised to hear

that Gary is determined to get back on two wheels.

The accident didn't put me off at all. I just wish I could remember.

I've been riding bikes since I was six years old.

I'm 52 now and I would never ever be without a bike.

I'll be straight back on as soon as the leg is better.

He hasn't got a new bike just yet, but he's on the way.

Helimed 99 is on its way over Yorkshire's most famous moor to the Dales.

A farmer is having a heart attack in the back of an ambulance.

OK, we've got an ambulance crew who have picked a patient up with chest pains on the other side of Skipton.

They've confirmed that this chap is definitely having a heart attack.

The best treatment for that is to get this person as quickly as possible

to the Leeds General Infirmary where they will do a procedure called a primary angioplasty.

The longer that time passes by,

the heart muscle deteriorates and dies effectively,

so the sooner they have this treatment, the better.

If you are unfortunate enough to have a heart attack,

I guess the back of an ambulance is the best place to be.

50-year-old George Armstrong has never been ill in his life,

never taken time off work.

But whilst at the wheel of his van this morning, he felt really ill,

pulled into a lay-by, phoned a friend who recognised the signs and rang an ambulance.

That call saved his life.

Hi, are you all right?

George's heart was out of rhythm.

If he hadn't been shocked back into beat

by the North Yorkshire ambulance crew based at Skipton,

he would most likely have died.

George, the helicopter is here.

How are you feeling?

The time to have a cardiac arrest

is when there's an ambulance crew there because they're the ones

who are going to get you back 50% of the time.

The longer the time goes before you get that shock,

the less chance you've got of getting it back.

George is a very lucky man.

It was the first time the paramedic who saved his life has successfully treated a cardiac arrest.

We thought we had best get a helicopter out because it was such a long way.

He arrested about 9.20am on us and we just shocked him and got him back.

He's talking to us now and that's a good sign, so fingers crossed he'll be OK.

It's quite unusual in this situation to have somebody on the scene

who has a defibrillator to actually do something about it.

There has been a big push lately for defibrillators to be put

into supermarkets and cinemas and things because it really is time critical.

Half an hour ago, George was driving his van.

In the next 10 minutes, he will be having the blood vessels of his heart surgically cleaned out

by experts at Leeds General Infirmary.

The quicker you get that shock,

the quicker you are defibrillated, the more chance you have of returning

to a normal rhythm and then having some long-term success and long-term chance of recovering completely.

The more time that goes between you having your heart attack

and you getting that shock, the less chance you have.

The next day, George is sitting up in bed, having had his arteries unblocked.

Time to reflect on the quick thinking of a friend and being shocked back to life

and the last link in the chain, the helicopter that got him

from the Dales to hospital in minutes, not hours.

Sitting in my van and both my arms were tingling and shaking,

and my chest was tightening up,

then I got into the ambulance and I thought,

"Yes, it's OK, everything is going to be fine."

Then it just spiralled.

The patients who beat the odds, thanks to the Helimed team.

Now, let's catch up on the case of a teenager knocked down on his way to school.

As Helimed 98 takes off from a field opposite the gates of a school near Doncaster,

orthopaedic surgeons at the Sheffield's Children's Hospital

are getting prepared to operate on 13 year-old Matthew Goddard.

They will be trying to save his shattered right leg.

Pilot Tim Taylor knows speed is king in a case like this.

The journey south takes 12 minutes.

Sheffield Children's is one of only a handful of specialist paediatric hospitals in the UK.

It's the right place for Matthew.

The morphine he has just been given has done its job well.

-If 10 is the worst pain imaginable and zero is none, what number are you at now?

-Two.

A two out of 10? Oh, that's great.

When the morphine wore off, the business end of Matthew's journey began.

For the next five days, he was in and out of theatre as the surgeons tried to save his lower leg.

A few weeks later, he's back home in Doncaster with both feet almost firmly on the ground.

I did a bit of hopping about,

playing a bit of football with my nephew and my dad.

When you're 13, and it's summer time,

recovering from a major injury can be frustrating.

It was quite boring all the time, just sitting about doing nothing.

Then I just think about all my mates going out and playing and I'm stuck in my house.

But there are some advantages to being stuck at home.

My mum and dad are my servants.

Anything I want, I get it.

As long as it doesn't cost owt!

When Helicopter Heroes comes back...

The car passenger who's catapulted into mid-air at 70 miles an hour.

-Can the team save him?

-He's got a definite head injury, the pupils have blown one after the other.

Helimed 99 is scrambled to racing country after a jockey is hurt in a training accident.

Open your eyes for me, sweetheart. Where is it sore at the moment?

In the Peaks, a mountain biker is bleeding badly.

He's gone absolutely white.

And the team is called to a motorway shunt and not all the casualties are human.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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