Episode 14 Helicopter Heroes

If you're seriously ill

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 10 minutes away from a hospital.

The Yorkshire Air Ambulance can do 150mph,

and every day brings a new life-or-death emergency.

Five million people depend on these yellow helicopters to bring

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,

a disabled driver crashes his supercar,

and now the Fire Brigade must cut it apart.

He's basically gone from 70 to nothing, straight into a tree.

The team fight to save a biker's badly injured leg.

He's done some quite severe damage to his foot, and we're querying his pelvis as well.

On the road to the Dales, there's a serious accident.

The lady's gone over the handlebars and hit her head on the floor.

A young visitor to a stately home needs help.

Climbing on the tree and was trying to get off it and fell off backwards.

Owning a supercar is a dream that rarely comes true for most of us.

But imagine if it did, and you ended up writing it off.

One day in North Yorkshire, that nightmare became reality for one unlucky motorist.

On a country road near York, a high performance supercar has crashed.

The Nissan GTR has a top speed of 195mph and costs £60,000.

But today, this one has run out of road.

Four people are trapped in the vehicle, which left the road and ended up in a ditch.

They're shrouded in protective sheeting as firemen try to work out how to free them.

The major problem is if they've got life-threatening injuries,

it's how to get them out quickly to get them to hospital.

Prolonged entrapment causes us problems

regarding treatment we can give them on scene.

Helimed 99 is on the case.

The accident scene is a long drive from hospital.

Yeah, quite common for vehicles to leave the road on these types

of bends and end up like this one in a ditch at the side of a road.

Paramedics Tony Wilkes and Sammy Wills are in for a surprise.

Four people in this car, come off the road about 60mph, landed as we see there.

The driver is paraplegic anyway.

-Right.

-He's saying he's uninjured, that's good.

Front seat passenger complaining of right arm pain, agitated.

I've asked him if he's taken anything.

Anyway, very agitated, no neck pain. No-one's been unconscious.

Rear seat passenger behind the driver here, she's complained of neck pain and she's also

a nasty laceration to the front of her head where she's come forward.

They've been lucky.

Six feet either side is a mature tree that could've killed everyone in the car.

As it is, all the Fire Brigade have to worry about is a sapling that's in their way.

Brief update, four casualties, two double man ambulances en route.

However, at the moment, we are unable to gain access to the casualties.

This car is among the most powerful on the road.

500bhp and 0-60 in three seconds.

It's a lot of power for a driver using hand controls.

But it's the speed its occupant stopped that's worrying the Helimed team.

We're just waiting for the Fire Service to get us a bit of an entrance, really.

They're just starting to cut the doors off, get the roof off,

so we can actually get in and make an assessment of the patients.

Our main priority is to stabilise the vehicle, stop it

from going any further down into the ditch or making sure it's stable.

We're gaining initial access to the casualties using hydraulic cutting tools and hand tools.

As you can see, there's going to be some difficulty in getting the casualties out from where they are

just due to the location of where the vehicle's landed.

One is the driver, two, three, four...

Driver...

The flying doctor has been called out from his home nearby.

The impact's been severe.

Any one of the passengers could have a serious neck or spinal injury.

Just because of the speed that you've left the road,

what we want to do initially is put a collar on your neck, OK?

Not being able to examine their patients is difficult.

They're all conscious, they're all

breathing, their blood pressure and everything is within normal limits,

but we can't actually get into them,

so the Fire Brigade are just going to chop off the roof.

Then we can then do a full assessment, decide who's suitable, if anybody, for the aircraft,

and the land crews will be able to re-triage.

The car is built to survive high-speed impacts,

which means the Fire Brigade are going to have their work cut out reaching the four patients.

Several motorists saw the accident happen in front of them.

It just sort of went straight off the bend across the road, onto the mud.

Obviously, the mud slowed it down a bit and then luckily it went between

the very large tree over the far side and these small trees here, which obviously broke its passage.

Luckily, one witness was able to use her medical skills.

We arrived just after, so I made the call to the emergency services.

I'm a community matron so we sort of knew a bit - to keep them still and just wait for help to arrive.

The occupants were obviously shocked.

The gentleman in the passenger seat seemed quite agitated

and was trying to get out of the car, and I was trying to ascertain

how serious the injuries were.

I approached the car after we'd viewed the accident and the gentleman was obviously in shock.

I told him to switch his engine off. He said that he needed a wheelchair in order to get out of the car.

The team aren't unduly concerned about the condition

of their patients, but that's about to change.

I'm only observing from up here, but he just doesn't look comfortable.

Coming up - the team switch priorities as a passenger takes a turn for the worse.

A husband wishes he'd nagged his wife more.

I keep saying, "Put your helmet on, put your helmet on,"

but she said, "No, it irritates me."

And a passenger on England's most scenic railway has a nasty fall.

Whether it's speeding past the jams or the thrill of the open road,

bikers will tell you there's nothing like a motorcycle.

But you're unlikely to find too many paramedics riding them.

It's the beginning of summer on the roads of North Yorkshire, and the bikers are out.

Riders travel hundreds of miles to enjoy these views, and the sweeping bends

of the Dales and moors, but today, there's been a serious accident.

It's a road that runs parallel with the A59.

It's a car and a motorbike, someone with a partially amputated foot.

If it's fully amputated, we might have to bag it up and take it with us.

Paramedics need to think ahead.

The Helimed team's job is to get patients to the right hospital as soon as possible.

If we've got a partial amputation, LGI's going to be the best with this.

-OK, yeah.

-Do you agree?

-Yeah, fine.

Pete Balance and Glenn Powell are planning to bypass the local A&E

and take their patient direct to the trauma unit in Leeds.

-We've got it here, Steve, it's out at 9 o'clock now on the other road.

-Well spotted.

Helimed 99 to Yorkshire, we've located the incident and are just about to land, over.

'99 Roger, let me know if you're going to LGI and I'll let them know early.'

Within minutes of being scrambled, pilot Steve Cobb

is on final approach to a country road in Nidderdale.

There still looks to be a lot of working around the casualty.

Is there an ambulance on scene?

Yes, and a car.

Sometimes the initial reports of accidents are exaggerated.

But there's no mistake today.

Biker Tim Rowe from Harrogate was out for a ride when his bike was involved in a collision with a car.

-His foot is just...

-Hanging off?

It's in mush.

Hello there.

-Tim's leg took the full force of the impact.

-All right, son. Listen, I'm going to take your blood pressure,

and this guy's going to get you some morphine, and we'll get you in this helicopter and away, OK?

-Tim, where's all your pain coming from, fella?

-Foot.

-OK.

What would you score it as, out of ten? Ten's absolutely unbearable.

-Ten out of ten.

-All right, Tim. That's fine, mate.

He's come off his motorbike, hit a car, come off and he's done some

quite severe damage to his foot, and we're querying his pelvis as well.

He's still got his sense of humour, which is great!

He's just writing his details now for me.

He's remarkably lucid, but ground paramedics know Tim's very badly hurt.

We'll get you this morphine, and hopefully

it'll take that painful feeling away, and we'll get you on your way.

-It's now my right foot.

-I know.

The team's also concerned about his pelvis. It must be kept immobile,

otherwise broken bones could cause further internal injuries.

You're going to feel a belt go round your waist, all right? It needs to be pulled quite tight.

Your leg is in the best position we need for transport, all right, Tim?

OK. Just let us look after you, mate, all right?

-When am I going to fly?

-When are you going to fly?

As soon as we can get you over there, OK?

So he has hit a car, then?

Yeah, he said he thought the road was clear, saw the car coming,

pulled in and he's hit the left-hand side of the car.

The team know the details of Tim's accident could give hospital doctors vital clues.

Did you try and get up off the floor straightaway?

No, I took my helmet and gloves off straightaway,

-sat up and looked at my foot.

-OK.

-The one that was killing me.

-This case is close to home for paramedic Glenn.

He's a biker himself.

Is it a 600F?

-Yeah.

-I had to sell mine last year.

I'm thinking of selling mine.

Yeah, I won't be riding mine no more.

Half an hour ago, Tim was out for a ride in the country.

Now he's on his way to hospital, awaiting a decision that could change his life.

He may lose that, to be honest with you, by the look of it.

Coming up, there's a serious setback as doctors begin the fight to save their patient's leg.

His bone's visible, there's lots of contamination from grass.

The trapped passenger takes a turn for the worse.

Find out what her obs are, then we can make a clinical decision.

And the team hit the tourist trail as a visitor collapses at a rocky attraction.

If you feel at all dizzy, we'll sit straight back down to where I am, yeah?

Break an arm or a leg and you could be up and about within a few weeks.

But fracture your skull and your life's in danger.

And that's why we're all encouraged to wear a cycle helmet.

The market town of Skipton

is known as the Gateway to the Dales for good reason.

For millions of motorists heading out of Yorkshire's big cities,

this is where the hills and the jams begin.

Luckily for the locals, the town has a busy bypass, leaving its shopping streets relatively quiet.

But today, one local has been the victim of a serious accident on it.

It's a bit of a murky Sunday morning,

we've been called out to a road-traffic collision

out towards Skipton at the junction of two major A-roads.

It's a cyclist and a car.

There is an off-duty paramedic on scene, who says there is some serious injuries involved in this,

so based on that limited information, we've deployed on it.

63-year-old Margaret Rouse was out on her bike

when she was involved with a collision with a car.

She's badly hurt.

It's not the best at the moment.

We're trying to make our way down the valley, er...

Quite low cloud, a little bit murky here and there, so we're just hoping for the best, see how we get on.

They're heading to a roundabout that was the scene of an identical crash last year.

That cyclist almost died.

Typical - fences.

There is lighting stanchions all the way around this roundabout by the looks of it.

Motorists, including an off-duty nurse, have already begun Margaret's treatment.

She wasn't wearing a helmet, and it's feared she has a fractured skull.

As far as we gather, the lady on a push-bike is coming around the roundabout.

Another lady in a car coming out of the roundabout has pulled out and clipped her.

Lady's gone over the handlebars, hit her head on the floor.

No loss of consciousness, as far as we know,

but she does have quite a head injury, so she needs to be lifted to the LGI.

Margaret lives nearby and had nipped out for a spin on an early spring weekend.

Now she's confused and showing signs of a serious head injury.

Got to secure it somehow, haven't we?

We've got two RRVs on scene. The ambulance is a fair way away.

Al's going to get us a spinal board and some further equipment,

then we're going to immobilise as just a matter of caution, really.

She's got quite a nasty head injury, so we're going to deal with that

and we think we'll pop her into the LGI and look at her, it's an isolated head.

Paramedic Daz knows this case is serious.

They'll dress her wound, but she urgently needs an X-ray and scan in hospital.

-Here we go.

-Marvellous.

-I've got you, Margaret, I've got you.

-I'm all dizzy.

-Are you all dizzy?

-Yeah.

This patient's got a head injury,

and although there's no evidence that she's damaged her spine,

with a head injury we'd always immobilise

just as a matter of caution, to be on the safe side, really.

Are we ready? Two, three, and lift.

Okey-doke, we're going up that banking.

The holiday season is stretching local emergency crews to the limit.

The nearest available ground ambulance was in Todmorden, 25 miles away.

Its crew have done well to arrive so quickly.

-Where will she be going now?

-LGI.

-Where's that?

-Leeds.

-Leeds.

Margaret's husband Paul was enjoying a lie-in at home

when his granddaughter told him about the accident.

He's rushed to the scene.

She just came to the door and said,

"Margaret's had an accident on her bike," you know.

Must've been a shock for you.

I were in bed. I was still in bed.

Wearing a helmet could've prevented Margaret's injury.

Cos we live on the main road, and most of the bikers coming past all have helmets on.

I keep saying, "Put your helmet on, put your helmet on,"

but she said, "No, it irritates me, it falls over my eyes

"and I can't see and everything," you know.

He'll play hell with me, my husband, cos I won't wear that helmet.

-Well, Margaret...

-It annoys me so much.

-We've said so many times, "Wear your helmet."

-I know.

-Honest.

-You might've got a few bumps and grazes, but you wouldn't have bumped your head, would you?

-No, I know.

-When you get back on your bike, are you going to wear your helmet?

-Yeah.

-Are you sure?

-This isn't the first accident Margaret has had on her bike.

I've had a few accidents. You wouldn't believe what I did. It were a bit softer, than this.

I cycled into the canal.

You cycled into the canal?

-Yeah.

-Were it an hot day?

-No, it were January.

-That's not good, is it?

No, it were a good job I could swim.

I bet you got out a lot faster than you got in.

Outside of work, paramedic Al Day is a keen walker, climber and cyclist.

He, more than anyone, knows the importance of wearing protective head gear.

I wear a helmet for anything, really.

I wear a helmet when I'm skiing as well, which not many people do, but I've just been

to too many head injuries not to, really.

Most patients are flown direct to the nearest hospital, but Margaret's injuries are potentially so serious

she's being taken to the regional trauma unit at Leeds General Infirmary, an hour's drive away.

Are you all right there, Margaret?

When Margaret is seen by specialists, it turns out she's had a lucky escape.

Although she's had to have many stitches in her head, a scan reveals she hasn't damaged her brain.

Margaret's head is very tender, and she's kept overnight in hospital for observation.

But the following day, doctors say she's fit enough to leave.

Her husband Paul is coming to collect her and take her home.

I can remember screaming and flying through the air, and then the next thing I know,

I was on the floor and people were round me immediately.

Well, my head was hurting, but I didn't have any pain anywhere else,

it was just my head, at the back here.

Erm, and I was really more frightened of the other traffic going past. I thought,

"I don't want to be run over while I'm on the floor."

Margaret knows she should've been wearing a cycle helmet.

Her reason for not doing so doesn't sound very convincing.

For some reason, I don't know if it's when you

get older, things irritate you more, and I'm trying to itch my head,

you know, with the helmet on,

which is not much good, and that's why I haven't worn it, basically.

Seven weeks later, and now it's the perfect weather for cycling in the Yorkshire Dales.

Despite her bad experience, Margaret is determined to get back on her bike.

But her husband Paul is insisting she now wears a helmet.

He said he won't allow me to go out unless I have a helmet on,

but I wouldn't argue with him at all,

because I myself wouldn't go without a helmet now, ever.

Every time I see someone without a helmet,

I do feel like saying, "Get a helmet on, you don't know what happened to me,"

you know? But I keep my mouth shut.

Coming up, a biker's family wait for news as surgeons fight to save his leg.

The plan now is to take him for a CT, make sure that we're not missing anything.

And a family trip to a stately home ends with a painful bump.

Now, let's return to North Yorkshire, where the team

is battling to release the occupants of a wrecked sports car.

On a country road near York, a powerful sports car is being slowly

cut apart in a battle to free four people trapped when it left the road and hit a line of trees.

The 195mph sports car had been specially adapted for its driver.

He's paralysed from the waist down following another car crash.

Just cos of the speed the car's come off the road, we're going to take precautions with your neck and back,

-so we're going to put a board behind your back and getting you out with the board, OK?

-OK.

Paramedics Tony and Sammy have been treating a woman in the back seat.

She has a suspected broken nose, but it's feared she may also have a spinal injury.

-Can you remember what happened?

-We come round the corner, and then it crashed.

Tony's giving her morphine to dull the pain.

Despite her seat belt, her face hit the back of the driver's seat

as the car crashed, but Sammy's concerned about Jamie, the passenger in the front seat.

I'm only observing from up here, but he doesn't look comfortable.

Flying doctor Rob Anderson goes to check his condition.

-Ideally, we'd like to put the needle into your hand.

-Don't ask me again!

But their patient's terrified of needles.

If you feel like you need something for your pain, just say, OK?

The team are worried. Jamie's agitated, and there are signs he could have internal injuries.

He has a raised heart rate and a reduced blood pressure.

There's no obvious sign of bleeding externally,

so we suspect that something is going on internally.

It might be that he's just a fit young man that's very anxious, but we'll play it safe.

They're changing their priorities.

Do you want to reprioritise? Are you happy for the lady

to still be number one by the aircraft and not number two, front-seat passenger?

I'd probably prioritise and take the passenger.

Jamie's desperate to be out of the car, but the team need to protect

his back from further injury, so he must stay where he is for now.

When we move you, OK, we're going to try and be as gentle as we can.

To do that, we're going to put like a big corset down your back, round your side,

so when we move you, it's not moving your back about so it'll keep your pain under control, OK?

We assessed the patient purely on the patient's blood pressure

and how the observations were.

Jamie's normally

quite an anxious chap, he says, but the...

blood pressure was a little bit low, and his heartbeat was going quite quickly. Even though he's

not complaining of any injuries, I've seen similar incidents of high speed accidents turn out

to have patients who have nasty chest internal injuries,

bleeding into the chest, which we can't detect without scans.

All four patients do still remain in the car, and it's possible we may be

reprioritising and having a young male.

Sammy's concerned that the operation to free her patients is taking too long.

It's almost an hour since the accident.

Just a general announcement, this RTC was one hour now, so if we can...

And there's bad news from the fire brigade.

If it is an electric seat, we may have to start looking at cutting away at the bottom of it

to further strut it, then it should lay back.

But we won't be able to tell that until we have a proper look.

-There's a manual device there.

-Yeah.

-Electric.

-Is it? Fair enough.

We might have to knife open the back of the seat

so we can see the strutting and then it'll be a saw-type job to cut away those struts so we can lean it back.

The four occupants of the car are tightly packed.

Without being able to move its hi-tech seats, squeezing their patients out

while keeping their backs rigid will be very difficult.

And Jamie's going to have to wait even longer for release.

Coming up - there's another setback as the fight to free the injured passenger reaches its climax.

We're having to take out the people in the back first to be able to lift the people out in the front.

And up in the Pennines there's an unlucky break for a charity walker.

-This is Linda.

-You all right there?

Imagine losing part of a limb.

For some people, it's like a bereavement.

No wonder the Helimed team are determined to make sure

a badly injured biker walks again, despite a lower leg that's been almost severed.

Right, Tim, we're going to leave you with these guys now.

Biker Tim Rose, on his way to hospital in Leeds after an accident

on a country road that has almost severed his left leg.

It took the full force of a collision with a car.

And if it hadn't been for his armoured boot, it could have been even worse.

Left foot

is virtually amputated

as a result of the accident.

Tim's in danger of causing further damage to his leg. It's almost severed.

Keep your right knee where it is.

-It's more comfy.

-I know...

-For me to put that up.

You'll cause your foot to be injured even worse if you do that.

It's not the one that's hurt.

-What - you want to bring your right one up?

-Yeah.

Just try and keep it where it is. You've got straps all the way round.

You've got to just stay like that, I'm afraid.

But Tim knows he's lucky to be alive.

-Seven years ago, his younger brother was killed in a motorbike accident.

-Tim?

-Yeah.

I know it's hard but try and breathe without grunting, I just want to have a quick listen to that chest.

HE BREATHES HEAVILY

In...and out. In...and out.

It's rush hour on the roads of North Yorkshire as Leeds commuters head home.

But pilot Steve Cobb has his own congestion to worry about.

This is peak time for airliners heading in and out of the North's airports.

RADIO: '...heading for LGI.'

'Alpha Roger. Radar control. Another 2,000ft, straight to LGI.'

Air Traffic Control try to give air ambulance flights priority.

And tonight, Helimed 99 is ducking under the main

approach path to the busy runway at Leeds Bradford Airport.

Ready, steady - move.

OK, all the way now.

Ready, steady... And move.

LGI's trauma team are already waiting for Tim.

They're experts in saving damaged limbs using micro-surgery.

You're going to be surrounded by doctors

and nurses, and they're all going to be firing questions at you, OK?

Questions that you've probably been asked already.

Just bear with it and answer best you can.

The decisions made over the next few hours will decide whether Tim walks on his own leg again.

Going from top to toe the main injuries seem

to be down his left-hand side and his foot is the main one of concern.

Very nasty injury there, there's bone visible,

lot's of contamination from grass and things like that

so it's primarily orthopaedic injuries that he's got.

The plan now is to take him for a CT to make sure we're not

missing anything, but those initial X-rays do look fine.

It's going to be down to the orthopaedic surgeons to take him to theatre, give it a really good clean

and see whether or not the foot is salvageable.

Fingers crossed - hopefully, it will be.

Under the next two days, Tim undergoes several operations.

The impact of the crash crushed the bones and tissue in his limb

so badly that the surgeons are forced to amputate his leg below the knee.

Tim vividly remembers everything that happened on the day of the accident,

including the unbearable pain that he felt.

Somebody asked me

to describe the pain on a 1-10 scale and I said no, 20!

It was just immense.

I wouldn't want anybody else to go through

that pain whatsoever.

Losing a limb is one of the most traumatic injuries you can suffer.

Nurses on the ward have specialist training for dealing with not only

the physical injury but also the mental recovery.

Emotionally, I've cried because...

..of what I've put the rest of my family through.

Or what my family are going to go through, because a lot of them still haven't seen me yet.

A lot of them still haven't been able to get from Kent to visit me.

You know...

People don't want to see their parents or grandparents with a limb missing.

Very few bikers are put off their hobby, even after the most serious of accidents.

In Tim's case, this is even more surprising.

I've had a brother younger than me,

seven years ago

ruptured his heart on a bike accident.

So I'm lucky to be here.

I'm grateful to everybody - the staff at LGI,

air ambulance that got me here...

Bless 'em. You know...angels of the sky, they've got to be.

Coming up - the patient at the centre of a major rescue operation is finally prepared for takeoff.

When summer comes to the Yorkshire countryside, the day-trippers are never far behind.

And no wonder, with places like this to visit.

But for an unlucky few, a grand day out ends with a medical emergency.

The magnificent Chatsworth Estate is home to

the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, and a major tourist attraction.

But this treasure house is also a star of film and television.

Most notably for the Keira Knightley movie, The Duchess.

Today, Helimed 99 is on its way to the 1,000-acre park designed by the legendary landscape gardener

Capability Brown, to rescue a seven-year-old boy who's fallen out of a tree.

Isaac is on a walking holiday with his mum and dad and they decided

to spend the first day of their week long trip exploring the grounds of Chatsworth House.

How are we doing, Isaac?

How's that feel? Uncomfortable? Squeeze this hand for me, Isaac.

Great job.

Now squeeze this hand.

Great job. Wiggle this toe for me.

And this one. Good boy.

Isaac, what we're going to do is move up to the helicopter now.

Mum's coming with us so there's nothing to worry about.

We'll have a proper look at you on there. get you out of the cold.

12ft is a long way for a seven-year-old to fall.

Paramedic James Vine is concerned that Isaac has damaged his spine.

The sooner he gets to hospital the better.

Have you been on a helicopter before, Isaac?

Whereabouts?

Was he knocked out at all, Mum? No, cried straightaway. This is Isaac.

He just fell off the tree.

Climbing on the tree and was trying to get off it and fell off backwards.

Landed on his back.

Isaac, we're just going to do a couple of checks, there's nothing to worry about.

Just checking your blood pressure and making sure your pulse and everything is OK.

All right - how's that pain?

-It's a bit better.

-Is it very bad or is it just bad?

Just bad.

Roger, seven-year-old male, normally fit and well, fallen approximately 12ft from tree onto his back.

Complained of mid-thoracic pain.

Primary survey is clear, no altered neurology.

Vital signs all within normal limits.

We'll be lifting in about five minutes. Over.

It was fine, all the indications are quite good.

He's fallen and thankfully he's gone onto the

soft ground, so that's a good thing,

and he's landed flat onto his back, again,

which is quite a good thing.

Everything's moving, he's got full sensation in every limb.

The painkillers are making Isaac sleepy, but the noise

from the helicopter's powerful engines can be overwhelming.

-Two minutes.

-Right, thank you.

He'll be seen by the specialist doctors there.

Right, OK, thank you.

Seeing your child in pain is heart-wrenching for every parent,

and James has to reassure Mum that Isaac is going to be OK.

I don't think there's anything for you to worry about.

'It doesn't feel like

'there are any steps or any deformities or anything like that.'

When Isaac gets to hospital, doctors confirm that he hasn't done any permanent damage to his back.

Two of his vertebrae are cracked, but because Isaac is so young, they will heal by themselves.

Many of Yorkshire natural attractions are in rugged places.

And some are so far off the beaten track,

the Helimed team is often called in to back up colleagues on the ground.

The A1 is busy with holiday traffic heading north.

Helimed 99 is about to touch down at the scene of a road accident.

-'They don't want us.

-Did you get a waver?'

Luckily, no-one's been hurt, and the helicopter isn't needed.

But dispatcher Dave has another job for them nearby.

I'm going to head you towards Brimham Rocks.

Brimham Rocks is a collection of grit-stone rock formations

10 miles west of Harrogate.

It's spread over 50 acres and is difficult to get to by road.

Unfortunately, it's also difficult to find a suitable place for the helicopter to land.

Paramedic Sammy has to make the final part of her journey on foot.

Good day, how are you? Hello, sir.

19-year-old student Josh Simpson was out walking with his friend.

He suddenly became very dizzy and keeled over.

He does have a central frontal headache.

It doesn't go anywhere else. No history of headaches, no history of loss of consciousness.

Up until today, fit and well, not ailing a thing.

-What was it that made you want to just sit down then, Josh?

-I felt like a rest.

-Just fancied a rest?

Proper genuine teenager, then!

-Yeah.

-Yeah!

-I haven't slept in three weeks, so...

-Why's that?

-I just haven't.

So, the thing we've discovered is your blood sugar is quite low.

Normal would be between 4 and 7.

You're 2.9.

Josh has eaten a meal recently, so it's important to find out why

his blood-sugar level has dropped so low.

We believe this patient's going to be conveyed by land.

I'm just going to assist taking him down to the vehicle.

You're OK where you are, Tone. I'll shout you if we need you, over.

This is quite sweet.

It's not the nicest thing in the world, but what it'll do is help get your blood sugar up.

What I'd like you to do is put some between your gums and...

-On the cheek?

-Down there, yeah.

We're just treating that with a sugary glucose gel.

Hopefully that'll freshen him up a little bit, and then

we'll take him to the ambulance and place him under investigation, find out what's wrong.

The concentrated glucose gel has given Josh enough energy to stand and walk to the ambulance.

-If you feel at all dizzy, we'll sit straight back down?

-Right.

It's a good job. He's 6ft tall, and carrying him on a stretcher would've meant calling out mountain rescue.

One of the basic obs that we do - after checking airway, breathing and circulation -

is their blood sugar, and on this occasion, young Josh... his blood sugar was quite low, 2.9.

Your brain needs sugar to operate, and, for whatever reason, his blood sugar's low at the moment,

so we've given him a glucose gel, it's brightening him up.

My colleagues are just rechecking his blood sugar, but because it's the first instance for him,

we're going to take him to hospital and let him be investigated as to why that's happened.

For him, it's a simple problem but could have huge implications.

He could've just sat down and stayed there and effectively gone to sleep until somebody had found him.

Victorian engineers gave the North dozens of new landmarks - from giant mills to huge town halls -

but few matched the monuments the railways brought with them,

and they have their fair share of visitors too.

This is the giant Ribblehead Viaduct.

Completed in 1870, it's 100ft high, 400ft long, and carries the most scenic railway in England.

The Settle to Carlisle line boasts stunning views, and it's Helimed 99's destination today.

'Channel 0, we've got a rescue, Channel 6.

'We're not sure at the moment whether we're going, because it's

'a nasty type of injury, or because of the where they are.

'So, it's quite a flight up for us, looking at the map.

'It's in middle of nowhere, basically.

'So, yeah, we'll see when we get there, but there's a good chance

'it's mainly an access problem for the local crews as well as for the injury itself.'

The team are trying to find a rambler who's fallen and injured her head minutes after getting off

the train at Dent Station, the highest in England.

But finding patients in the outsize landscape of the Three Peaks isn't easy.

'Roger, 99. We're still having a hover around, we can't seem to find

'anyone at the moment, there's nobody that's attracting our attention.

'We've spotted the ambulance itself, but no crew as such.

'Whether there's anyone inside or not, we're not quite sure, over.'

Finally, they spot Joan Dickinson. She was out with her husband

when she tripped on the rocky path down to the viaduct.

She's gone down, she's tripped over, caught the bridge of her nose, lost a few teeth.

I haven't looked at that one - there were nurses on scene.

I've just had a look at that one, you can just see it's a bit...

-So, what's your name again, sweetheart?

-Sorry, love?

-What's your name again?

-Joan.

-Joan.

Right, Joan, obviously cos you're quite a way from the ambulance, we're just going to bob you

in the helicopter and fly you down to where the ambulance is, OK?

Her blood pressure's a little bit high.

I think as long as we're nice and gentle, she can walk back

to the land ambulance and be taken to hospital if necessary there.

That's it, Joan.

-There you go. Feel dizzy?

-No.

-You feel all right?

-Mmm.

Well, it's a free ride in a helicopter.

One thing I didn't like doing.

I used to think, I don't want to go in a helicopter.

Joan's sight-seeing trip is over.

She needs stitches, so Helimed 99 will give her

the short flight down to the land ambulance parked under the viaduct.

I was walking along the path and I just tripped up and went forward,

banged my head, down to the ground and my nose, and did my teeth.

Just a bit shocked, that's all.

Sore, but the two nurses there helped me, which was lucky.

And I'm pleased to say all our injured day-trippers have recovered.

Now, here in North Yorkshire, paramedics Sammy and Tony

have their work cut out dealing with a bizarre accident.

For more than an hour, firefighters have been struggling to release

four people trapped in a sports car that left a country road and smashed into a ditch.

The driver, paralysed from the waist down in a previous crash, says he isn't hurt.

But paramedics Sammy and Tony are concerned about Jamie, his front-seat passenger.

He has a raised heart rate and a reduced blood pressure.

There's no obvious sign of bleeding externally, so we suspect

something is going on internally.

At last, the first casualty of the crash is about to be released.

Because of their potential injuries, we're having to take out

the people in the back first to lift the people out in the front.

They're in specialist sports seats that are unfortunately also

electronic, so we can't just wind them back.

The 23-year-old patient had joined three friends for a ride in the country.

Now she's strapped to a rigid spinal stretcher and heading for the accident unit of York Hospital.

Firemen have cut the supports in the back of Jamie's seat.

It's just loosely on.

Now they must gently ease him out. It's not going be easy.

But at last, he's free.

Right, got straps here, lads.

He's had quite a high-speed deceleration injury

from 60 miles an hour to nothing.

Lucky, you know. Hit a tree, and, yeah, it's amazing no-one's

more severely injured, really.

Finally, Jamie's on his way to Helimed 99 for the 30-mile flight

to the trauma unit of Leeds General Infirmary.

Surgeons have already been alerted by flying doctor Rob Anderson, who rushed to the scene from his home.

He's basically gone from 70 to nothing, straight into a tree pretty quickly.

Jamie's beginning to calm down.

He thought the car was on fire after the crash.

Helimed 99, imminent lift, ETA to LGI about 15 minutes maximum, over.

An accident with so many casualties places a strain on the NHS,

and Helimed 99's speed is going to help out York Hospital's overstretched A&E unit.

'It's always a case of assessing the patients and deciding which ones need to come out first in

'priority of the severity of injury, but then sometimes you can't get to

'them people, because somebody else is in the way.

'In this case, all of the back-seat passengers need to physically

'come out before we could get this patient out,

'so quite a long extrication, really, but a really good team effort

'with the fire service

'and the land ambulance crews to get everybody out as soon as we could.'

Just 15 minutes after leaving the accident scene, Jamie's arriving at Leeds General Infirmary.

Slide - ready, steady, slide.

He'll be undergoing a series of tests to establish whether he has indeed suffered internal injuries.

Luckily for Jamie, after a one-night stay at the LGI, he's released -

bruised but otherwise unhurt after what was a very lucky escape.

When Helicopter Heroes comes back...

the team faces a difficult rescue as a small boy is impaled on a metal spike.

He has got another potential for it to go in him again.

There's a serious accident on a moorland road.

A climber's badly hurt in a freak fall.

Just on the off-chance you've broken your neck, we'll take careful care of you.

And World Cup fever lands a soccer-loving dad in hospital.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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