Episode 3 Helicopter Heroes

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

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

Thanks to these guys, the people of the UK's biggest county are never more than 10 minutes from 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 life-saving care from the skies.

When a multiple pile-up closes Britain's highest motorway, or there's a shop-floor accident,

the paramedics and pilots of the helimed team are there to rescue the casualties.

Today on Helicopter Heroes:

-a 12-year-old boy fights for his life after his mum's car hits a bus.

-He's been unconscious all the time.

-A farmer's badly injured after an explosion in a barn.

-300-metre blast radius.

One of the UK's toughest sports claims a casualty.

Did you hurt anywhere else?

And there's a mercy mission in the snow to save a sick little girl.

She's got severe epilepsy.

Driving kids is something that worries many parents.

It's not just the distraction they can cause,

but the responsibility of having them strapped in next to you.

So imagine what it's like when a mum has a serious accident.

It's the tail end of the Friday morning rush hour.

One of the main roads into Leeds is blocked by the wreckage of a serious accident.

We're having to cut the car away for clear access to the casualty.

The crash is less than five miles from Helimed 99's base at Leeds Bradford Airport.

Paramedics Darren Axe and Ben Anderson are among the first there.

-A double decker bus?

-Next to the rugby field.

A rugby pitch right next to the road is an ideal helipad.

-We're about to go down.

-But the route to the accident is very far from ideal.

Darren faces a battle with a prickly hawthorn hedge to reach his patient.

Hang on a second. Trying to find somewhere to grip.

A 12-year-old boy has been badly hurt after his mother's hatchback collided with a bus. She's unhurt,

but he has multiple injuries.

-Were you with him?

-No, I was in the car behind.

-Right. Smashing.

Luckily, the crash was witnessed by a doctor.

He's been unconscious. His breathing's gone off.

Get some details off his mum. How old he is, any conditions.

Aris Hussain was being driven to the mosque for Friday prayers. Now he's fighting for his life.

It's a bad one. 12-year-old, not spoken since the collision.

Start getting ready. We'll almost certainly be taking this patient in.

His mother is being checked out in an ambulance. She's hysterical,

but she can give Ben valuable details of his medical history.

How old is he?

How old?

-He's 12 years old.

-20?

-12.

-12.

The damage to the bus shows the force of the first impact, but they then hit another car head-on.

I was behind the car in the accident

and I thought, "Are you going to pull out?" No, straight into the bus.

She spun across the road and caught the other lady.

Darren knows Aris's condition is critical.

We could spin him and slide him this way.

Officer, the faster the better, mate.

He's not doing so well, so the faster we can move, the better. Expedite.

Cutting apart a car with four people in it poses obvious hazards.

Darren wants to make sure no one else gets hurt.

-Mate, stick your helmet on this doctor.

-Thank you.

The police now need to start gathering the information for their accident investigation.

First, though, they need to know how seriously Aris is hurt.

-Not looking well?

-No.

-Still potential? Not dead?

-No.

As soon as he's out, put him on the spinal board and then we'll relocate the aircraft down there.

-So you want that cut out?

-Yes, please. That's lovely.

By air, Aris is less than five minutes from the Trauma Unit at Leeds General Infirmary,

but there's a problem. They need Helimed 99 to get closer.

We're asking the Fire Brigade

to get him out of the car. He's 12 and still unconscious.

We need the helicopter relocated onto the road.

Pilot Steve can only land on roads that have been closed by police.

It's usually straightforward.

But today, parked vehicles, lampposts, hedges and trees are getting in his way.

-I don't think he's happy with the landing site.

-It's impossible

and he has to abandon it.

I couldn't see enough to get in.

We tried to relocate the aircraft, but we can't, so can we make some gaps in these fences?

I couldn't see the road for the trees, so I cam back to where we were and we'll get him across.

Aris is still trapped and the race to get him to hospital has just suffered a serious setback.

He doesn't have much time.

Coming up: Aris takes a turn for the worse.

-This chest looks like it's swelling.

-He's in a bad way.

Paramedic Sammy finds a patient camped out in his own tent.

You've not banged your head at all? Or passed out?

And a snowbound patient with a suspected stroke gets help from the skies.

Farming's one of the UK's most dangerous occupations.

But sometimes the most serious accidents have unusual causes.

In North Yorkshire, a farmer's decision to clear out his outbuildings had awful consequences.

For Yorkshire's farmers, self-sufficiency is a way of life.

From fixing fences to tractor repairs, make do and mend keeps them in business,

but today Helimed 99 is on its way to a major explosion involving welding gear.

Shattered windows, bent metalwork and blackened walls are evidence of a blast

that threw debris 300 metres.

It's a miracle farmer Richard Franklin survived.

Richard's sister was in the farmhouse when an acetylene cylinder exploded.

I just heard this almighty great big explosion

and I presume the cylinder had blown up, the oxygen cylinder or something.

Now Richard's fighting for his life. His blackened face is worrying.

It means his windpipe is burnt and both of his legs are all but severed.

He has got isolated leg injuries, but they're not our primary concern.

Richard's injuries were caused by a shockwave that has devastated buildings in the farmyard.

It was heard three miles away.

We're trying to work out what happened. Obviously, one of the cylinders was involved.

We think it's the acetylene and he's been changing cylinders, but we can't say for sure

until we actually find it.

There's been a bit found down the road. 300 metres blast radius.

Richard's mum is in shock. Firefighters have their own worries.

They're trying to confirm that the explosion hasn't caused other cylinders to spring a leak.

That oxygen cylinder was venting off, and if you've got oxygen and acetylene mixed together

and the acetylene one's gone bad and that's what it is...

At least the blast wasn't followed by a fire.

There was no fire to be dealt with so the main priority is obviously the casualty anyway.

That's basically all we've done.

For paramedics Tony and James, the number one priority is keeping Richard's airway open

despite the burns, but this is also a race against the setting sun.

If they're to fly him to hospital, they must take off soon or be grounded by fading light.

We cannot fly at all at night, which is fairly reasonable,

but there's enough daylight left to achieve the task.

At last, Richard's ready for take-off.

We're about to lift for Harrogate. Vital signs within normal limits.

We'll need an airway set up. Over.

Clear now.

You're clear left.

OK.

-Vital signs within normal limits?

-Yeah, within normal limits, mate.

We're just lifting at Ripon and moving south to Harrogate.

He's not been knocked unconscious, which is a good sign,

but he has got fractures to both legs causing him quite severe pain,

so I'm giving the maximum dose of morphine. There's also potential

that the airway will start swelling up. We're going to Harrogate, the nearest hospital.

If he starts having airway problems, we're quite close to the hospital.

Other than his pain, he's quite settled. His main problem is fractures to both his legs.

A surgical team is on standby to examine Richard's shattered legs.

Tony and James are more concerned about burns to his throat and lungs,

but if he survives them, his broken bones are likely to prove a more serious long-term problem.

He could yet lose both legs.

Coming up: surgeons turn to transplant techniques to help farmer Richard walk again.

And there's a tricky operation to get a 12-year-old accident victim to the chopper.

Right, lads. Steady as you go.

And high in the hills, Mountain Rescue are called in to help take a sick man to hospital.

In some urban areas, the call centre staff who answer 999 calls

can actually hear the ambulance arrive at their patient before the caller has put the phone down,

but in the countryside it can be very different.

On a glorious spring evening in the Derbyshire Peaks,

it's easy to see why people are drawn to fell running.

It might be hard work, but you run through some gorgeous landscapes.

But when temperatures drop, that landscape can become life-threatening.

The worst winter for three decades is almost over and the year's first fell-running event is underway.

But someone's in trouble.

'We've got a fell runner with a torn hamstring.

-'They'll have problems getting him down.'

-All right.

-'OK.

-'I'll give you the details en route.'

-Okey-dokey.

There's no snow on the ground at the base in Sheffield, but it's different in the Peaks.

-We're now airborne. Over.

-With the weather conditions that we've had recently.

Fell runners have not been able to get out and do their thing

so a beautiful day like today, the snow's cleared, although there are still drifts up here.

It's been a fantastic day for getting out and doing a bit of running

and fantastic scenery while you're doing it.

The downside is if you injure yourself, you're a long way from help as this guy has found out.

-We've got a paraglider here.

-I'll keep a scan out.

Yeah, there it is.

Mountain Rescue are already on the scene and have let off a flare.

INDISTINCT RADIO CHAT

The biggest danger for a runner immobilised by an injury is contracting hypothermia.

-As soon as Mountain Rescue arrived, they put up a tent to keep their patient warm.

-Knock knock!

-Permission to come in?

-Hi!

-Hiya.

-Hello, sir.

-This is Neville.

-Hello, Neville.

Fell runner. Slipped on some ice.

Injury feels like it's the back of his right thigh.

-Right.

-Like a hamstring-y type of area.

-OK.

-He's in no pain but whenever he moves...

-Right.

-He's been a bit hypothermic.

-How long ago did all this happen?

-About an hour and a quarter.

-About one o'clock, yeah.

-OK, then.

-Neville?

-Yes?

-When you fell, did you fall and hurt yourself anywhere else?

-No.

And you've not passed out? Great.

It was like a comedy slip. I seemed to go up in the air and landed...

as far as I know, on my bum.

Apparently, he walked up towards here and couldn't go any further.

These runners were well prepared for the difficult conditions.

They carried special heat-retaining blankets and emergency rations.

Mountain bikers offered assistance. It's been really good.

This machine tells me how cold you are. I'll stick that in your ear.

-I know it's your leg that we're bothered about, but...

-You can take that off if you want.

I'll just ease it. I'll put it back on in a sec.

OK, you'll feel this cold in your ear, lad.

Neville is 63 years old, but that's not unusual for a fell runner.

Some people carry on into their 70s and even their 80s.

Right, Neville, welcome aboard. We're going to plug you in.

-Right.

-Anything I can do to make you more comfortable?

-No, I'm fine.

-And extremely grateful.

-You're welcome.

After spending two hours stranded in the open, Neville is finally on his way to hospital.

It turns out that the helicopter was essential.

What was initially thought to be a simple hamstring strain is actually much more serious.

Doctors at the Northern General Hospital diagnosed a rare bone condition that could have

gone undiscovered for years until it ended Neville's running for good.

Before the last snow has thawed on the Peaks, Neville is back on his feet, his injury's on the mend

and he's undergoing treatment for his newly-discovered problem which causes unwanted bone growth.

I saw a consultant who diagnosed

that I had Paget's Disease. I wasn't aware of this.

It's a disease which can happen in certain bones of the body

and on the X-ray it had shown up.

Neville was already fighting fit, but has now been prescribed more exercise to strengthen the bones

around his pelvis, one of which fractured in his fall.

I was pleased it has been discovered now rather than later.

I understand it isn't going to be a major problem in my life.

I'm not running as yet, but eventually I hope that I will be able to.

It's a little bit of adventure and also risk as well.

Pitted against nature, you have to get from A to B, from B to C and from C to D.

It's fairly straightforward.

Neville's fell running mates are missing him, but it'll be a few months until he joins them again.

Until then, he's restricted to more gentle exercise.

Coming up: farmer Richard undergoes surgery for his injuries, but he knows it could have been much worse.

Any higher up, I'd be dead.

And the ambulance service draft in a snow plough to rescue a little girl.

Now let's get back to the scene of that rush-hour crash.

Firefighters are still struggling to free a young passenger from the wreckage.

On a main road into Leeds, there's been a serious accident

and the Helimed team fight to save the life of a trapped 12-year-old boy.

Aris Hussain was critically injured when his mum's hatchback hit a bus and another car.

For 20 minutes, a passing doctor had been cradling Aris's head,

-but now it's time to move him.

-What are we like down there now?

We're just starting to get him out now. He's freed.

It'll be quite a long time yet.

The accident could have been much worse.

The bus was unoccupied for passengers. Driver's OK.

They're about to move Aris. His chest has been crushed, and he has multiple injuries

-to his legs and arms.

-Got any suction?

-He's breathing. The mask's off his face.

-He's still making effort.

What's the oxygen like down there? Is it full or empty?

Can you grab us another one?

Darren wants to alert the crash team at Leeds General Infirmary.

A 12-year-old male. That's all I've got. Pre-alert for LGI.

Can you take his shoulders?

At last they begin to free Aris.

His right leg is not going to go. On "move", nice and gently. Move.

-It's going.

-Whoa! Take his weight. I've got his head.

Ready, steady and move. Somebody take his head.

The reason for Aris's injuries becomes clearer. The car's air bags went off when it hit the bus.

There was no protection for its passenger when the second impact occurred with the car.

Let's get suction back in if we can.

-We need a call back on him now.

-I reckon ETA would be about 20 minutes from this point.

But don't pass that just yet, fella.

Looking well. We can be a bit more positive.

They've done all they can do here and Aris has had the best care possible -

a doctor by his side within seconds and a team of paramedics within minutes.

The race is now on to hospital.

Let's go!

Everything's fastened up, oxygen's on.

Ben, what were that access? Is it just there?

Yeah? Lead the way then, mate.

LGI is waiting for us.

'Base to 99. I'll give an ETA of 10 minutes.'

Yeah, roger.

You get this side, mate.

this is a delicate operation, but the team have no alternative

but to pass their patient hand to hand.

Right, lads. Steady as you go.

All right? Forward.

Happy, gentlemen?

-Yeah.

-Start making your way.

He's in a bad way, really.

-Need to get him there as quick as we can.

-But Aris is deteriorating.

His chest's not even and bilateral.

This chest looks like it's swelling.

It's not just the strap doing it.

-Ready for take-off now.

-Pilot Steve is ready to go.

He's a very time-critical patient. He's only 12.

The faster we're out of here to LGI, the better.

Aris is now within minutes of a highly trained team of doctors,

but his life is hanging in the balance.

Coming up, the team touch down at hospital

and doctors begin the fight to save Aris.

Unconscious throughout. GCS initially 5, down to 3.

And paramedic Colin has to deal with a reluctant patient.

Your missus is telling us symptoms and signs that we need checking really.

The first hour after a traumatic injury is critical.

That's especially true if you've just survived a devastating explosion,

so no wonder at Harrogate Hospital, doctors are anxiously awaiting the arrival of a badly injured farmer.

In a farmyard near Ripon, there's been a massive explosion.

It's a miracle farmer Richard Frankland has survived.

He was working with an acetylene cylinder used for welding when it exploded.

Debris was thrown 300 metres.

One of the cylinders involved...

We think he's been changing the cylinders over and it's gone bang, but we can't say for sure.

Richard's critically injured.

Just lifting near Ripon, routine flight to Harrogate.

But at least he's survived the journey to Harrogate Hospital.

His windpipe is burned and both his legs are badly injured.

The decisions surgeons make over the next two hours will decide whether Richard walks again.

Keep it running till then.

His injuries are so serious, they make the decision

to transfer him to a specialist unit in nearby Leeds.

It's six weeks before he is fit enough to talk about the accident.

Richard still has clear memories of the afternoon he almost died.

It was an horrendous blast.

I mean, it was heard for miles around.

I do remember a bit about the rescue because I knew a lot of the lads

from Masham Fire Brigade that were the first on the scene.

I was in absolute agony, as you can imagine,

and I remember being put in the helicopter

because I've never flown in my life before

and I didn't know how I was going to cope with that.

But he knows it could have been worse.

It could have been all over with that bang, yeah.

All the damage was below my knees which is incredible, really.

Any higher up and I would have been dead.

The good news is surgeons managed to save one of his legs

with an amazing piece of spare part surgery.

They said that I did have a choice with my right leg

that they could use some of my left leg to reconstruct my right leg.

But it was going to be over a lot of years to get it right

and did I want to go through that or did I want both legs amputating?

Obviously, one leg is better than none,

so we decided to go for a reconstruction.

Surgeon Simon Britten and his colleagues have transplanted parts

of Richard's amputated right leg on to his left.

Now they're growing new bone to replace a 12-centimetre length lost in the explosion.

This is the last time I saw Richard about three weeks ago.

At the moment, you can see that this segment of bone has been transported and a big gap here has opened up.

You may be able to make out the ghostly outline of a new piece of bone growing in the gap.

There are sort of white streaks here showing new bone forming in the gap.

He should be able to carry out some of his duties on the farm

to his satisfaction, but with such severe injuries,

we have to set the bar quite low, so we're looking for healed,

properly aligned, about the same length as the other side,

not infected and, very important, his foot points in the direction of travel.

We want his foot to point the direction he's walking.

It will take two years for the bone to grow back.

It's a technique developed in Russia and surgeon Simon is among the UK's leading pioneers of it,

following several trips to Siberia.

I've subsequently gone back another four times in divided blocks of time

because there's a limit to how long you can spend in Siberia and have a good time,

and learnt from the Russian guys, you know, got it from the horse's mouth how to do this technique

and those of us who have learnt from the Russians now teach the technique in the United Kingdom.

-Ready to stand up?

-Yeah.

-OK.

Coming up, a 12-year-old boy beats the odds after a terrible crash.

He's getting a bit stronger. He was quite weak when he came out of ICU.

When there's snow on the ground and the roads are icy,

the flying paramedics are called out to patients normally carried by land ambulance.

But however urgent the case, the crew must be certain it's safe for the helicopter to fly.

It's four days before Christmas and Britain is gripped by Arctic conditions.

North Yorkshire has been hit particularly hard.

You've got a foot of snow in places, so it's fairly likely that you can't get an ambulance anywhere near it.

Helimed 99 has been called to an isolated farmhouse where a young disabled girl has fallen ill.

'Roger. We do have an RV on the scene.

'Mobile and radio reception, as you can imagine, is appalling.'

As the crew fly further north, the weather takes a turn for the worse.

Yeah. Roger. We're only about three miles away,

but we've hit a patch of bad weather and we're struggling to break through it. Over.

The team have to consider their own safety, as well as the patient's.

From your point of view, Steve, we've got some issues over here with weather.

Whatever decision we make is a group decision.

A land ambulance has managed to get to seven-year-old Isobel Potter,

but will struggle to make the 25-mile journey to Scarborough Hospital

and it's too dangerous for Helimed 99 to land at the farmhouse.

There seems to be no way out, but then paramedic Al Day has an idea.

I'm just wondering, is there any way they could put this kiddie in the RV and come down to where we are?

-It's going to be the only option, I think.

-It is the only option.

-We're only a few miles away, so...

-We're 6.1 away from it.

-Right.

'Helimed 99, I've spoken to the RV on the scene.

'If you find a suitable landing place in Kirkbymoorside, I can advise them where that will be. Over.'

An empty car park in the isolated village of Hutton-le-Hole

becomes an impromptu landing pad for pilot Steve.

And level.

Ish.

-We're down.

-Bit lopsided, but we're down.

-Ish!

We're here. Get the kettle on!

The ambulance is going to bring the child to us here.

Then we'll fly the kiddie from here

the 20 or so further miles to Scarborough Hospital.

A snow plough was in the right place at the right time to clear the way for the ambulance.

The local ground ambulance crews are becoming experts in winter driving, and with a snow plough to follow,

they've managed to get Isobel through the drifts.

Hutton-le-Hole is a beauty spot packed with tourists in the summer.

Today, it's all but cut off.

We flew down in circles and tried all different avenues and this is the best we could do.

Hutton-le-Hole is the nearest we could get, but thankfully, this land ambulance got here as well.

Now we're transferring her to the helicopter.

Isobel's mum is used to dealing with her daughter's severe medical problems.

But weather like this has left her to cope alone in the family's isolated home.

There you go. That's lovely.

She's got severe development delay and severe epilepsy.

Her sister's had a nasty cold and, unfortunately, Isobel's picked it up.

She had a number of seizures on Friday night.

We were going to take her into hospital today, but the weather isn't great and she deteriorated.

We just felt it wasn't safe taking her ourselves.

Isobel's condition is potentially very serious.

The team knows she needs hospital care and thanks to the tenacity of the local ambulance crews,

she is soon going to get it.

With the North York Moors blanketed by snow and more storms on the way,

Isobel's flight has come just in time. She'll be in Scarborough Hospital in a few minutes.

-That's about as snug as we get.

-A few days later, after the thaw, Isobel was allowed home.

The UK air ambulances work together.

When one's busy, a chopper from a neighbouring area often flies to the rescue.

But if the roads are blocked with snow, it often means more call-outs than usual.

That's happened today. Helimed 99 is on its way across the Pennines

to Lancashire to pick up a patient with a suspected stroke.

Blackburn? I don't think I've been there yet.

High in the hills near Clitheroe, a man has collapsed on his farm.

Drifts are blocking roads and the route to his home is impassable for land ambulances.

There aren't any ambulance crews available

at that particular time and at that particular place,

so the air ambulance is another resource to get them to hospital.

Time costs lives with stroke patients.

Each minute treatment is delayed can cause more brain damage.

It may be a bleed within the brain, so one of the blood vessels might be a bit delicate and it's bled out

or there could be a clot.

Brian Oliver was trying to start his car after several days out in the snow

when he slipped, fell and hurt his head.

His wife noticed his face was drooping on one side and his arm was numb - classic signs of a stroke.

-What's been happening now, Brian?

-I just slipped down in the yard.

-You just slipped down, did you? When was that?

-About five to ten.

What time are we on now? Oh, it's only just happened. So you slipped.

He just fell over in the yard.

Can you lift them all the way up like that...? Fantastic. Marvellous.

-I walked up the yard.

-He walked back up.

-What was he looking like before?

-Terrible.

-In what way?

It seemed as though his face was so relaxed, it seemed to be down on one side.

-I was sure that he couldn't grip with his left hand.

-Right.

-And his speech was slurred.

-Was it?

-He was groaning.

-OK.

-I slipped.

-Listen, Brian...

Brian's speech sounds slurred, another sign of a stroke.

Your missus is telling us symptoms and signs that we need checking, really.

Is that OK with you? At the moment, there isn't an ambulance to send. We're with the helicopter.

Brian never expected his wife's 999 call to lead to a rescue flight from the other side of the Pennines.

But for the Helimed team, county boundaries are largely irrelevant.

-Yeah, we've flown here.

-You haven't?

-We have, yeah.

-Oh, you're daft.

-I thought you'd say that.

-Oh!

-I don't know.

The team aren't sure this is a stroke, but they're not taking any chances.

-Where are you from?

-We're from Leeds and Bradford.

Brian's on medication for a heart condition that increases the risk of internal bleeding.

It could be responsible for his collapse. Only hospital doctors will be able to tell.

We'll do heart tracings, check his blood sugars,

get a good history from him, check his blood oxygen saturation levels,

and after all that, we'll decide what's happening with him

and where he wants to go to get that sorted.

Brian's going to hospital, but there's a problem.

'99, can you give me a shout as soon as you know which hospital you're going to?

'72 from Blackpool is on the pad at Blackburn at this moment. Over.'

Helping out the neighbours has led to a queue on the helipad at the nearest hospital.

The Lancashire Air Ambulance will be asked to move quickly to allow Helimed 99 in.

It is a new pad, but I don't think it's big enough

to take two helicopters at the same time, so we'll liaise with them

and make sure they're not there when we arrive.

-What are the signs like?

-Everything seems to be not too bad at the moment.

-Blood pressure a bit low, but we don't know what it's like normally.

-He has vasovagal attacks sometimes.

Right, OK. Do the police know about that(?)

-He's not violent with it.

-As long as you don't start attacking us with your vasovagal whatever-they-ares!

-Have you flown before?

-Yes.

-You have? By helicopter?

-Yes.

-As a patient?

-It's not one of them boneshakers?

-No. It only shakes a few bones.

Many of the roads around his home are blocked,

but Brian's trip to hospital will bypass the problems faced by local motorists. His wife's coming too.

-Mind your head, love.

-Yeah, lovely.

-220.

-No worries.

Thanks to an NHS campaign, more and more families are recognising the signs of a stroke.

If treatment is started early, the chances of recovery are good.

The early signs are facial weakness,

some sort of arm problem as well.

They lose part of the feeling in one side of the arm and the movement.

And the speech might go as well.

All these things need to be looked out for quite quickly, really.

If all relatives acted as promptly as Brian's wife, many more people would survive strokes.

The crew aren't sure about his diagnosis, but his wife did the right thing calling 999.

In remote locations like this, the air ambulance teams often work closely with Mountain Rescue.

And when the ground is covered in snow, it isn't just walkers and climbers that need help.

The worst winter in 30 years means houses on moorland across the north of England have been cut off.

The reason we've become involved in this medical emergency

is the ambulance can't get to the patient's home.

Mountain Rescue are on the scene and will use some smoke, so we should be able to identify them easier.

Today, Helimed 98 is flying well out of its patch to a man with suspected pneumonia

who is stranded at his farmhouse near Oldham.

-68-year-old male, breathing difficulties.

-Yeah.

Volunteers from Mountain Rescue are already here,

closely followed by a BBC news crew who are filming an item about the Arctic conditions.

In places, it's up to my knee and I'm quite tall.

At the farmhouse, Mountain Rescue have got everything under control.

The patient has managed to get down the stairs, but he isn't strong enough to walk through the snow.

He's been feeling really unwell, bless him, since New Year's Day.

He's really short of breath. He's got some horrific chest infection.

He needs to be in hospital, but because of the weather

and where he lives, we've really struggled to get here, so we're going to fly him into hospital.

The patient is well wrapped up on the stretcher and there are plenty of willing hands

to carry him to the helicopter.

He'll soon be on the way to get the specialist care he needs.

You'll be pleased to hear all those patients went home after treatment.

But at Leeds General Infirmary, that seems unlikely for 12-year-old Aris Hussain

who was badly injured in a rush hour car smash.

Helimed 99 is racing towards Leeds General Infirmary

with a critically ill child on board.

We're approaching LGI - Helimed 99.

For paramedic Ben, it's been a difficult rescue.

I'm perhaps not used to dealing with that number of details involving children.

Medication and drug doses are different and we've got to deal with a parent who's hysterical.

I'll be back round in a second. I'm trying to just clear his airway.

Paramedic Darren fears he's losing the fight to save 12-year-old Aris Hussain

who has suffered multiple injuries in a car crash.

The Helimed team usually relax once they get their patients on to the roof top helipad

of Leeds General Infirmary.

Not today. Their young patient's condition is deteriorating.

He's taken a turn for the worse, basically.

We wouldn't always go down with all our kit.

He needs to be monitored. He could go into cardiac arrest.

Darren's still having to suction him on the way down into Resus.

He's in the best place, but his prognosis isn't looking good.

Aris was a passenger in his mum's hatchback when it collided with a bus and a car

on the way to Friday prayers at the local mosque in Leeds.

Darren and Ben are so concerned about his condition,

they've brought a defibrillator with them in the hospital lift.

It's in case his heart stops.

A team of highly trained consultants will fight to save their patient's life,

but everyone knows his survival is in doubt.

On lift then, please. Ready, steady, lift.

We've got a 12-year-old male who's been involved in a road traffic collision.

Unconscious throughout, GCS initially 5, down to 3.

For the next six weeks, his family will keep a constant vigil at his bedside.

Finally, he's well enough to leave intensive care.

To his dad's enormous relief.

He's come on in leaps and bounds every week.

When people come and visit him once a week, they realise how much better he's looking

and healthier as well, and he's getting a bit stronger.

But he was quite weak when he came out of ICU.

-Weren't you, darling? Yeah?

-Very weak.

-He's a lot better now.

Ready, steady, stand up. You can hold on.

OK?

-Stand there. I'll get the chair for you to sit down.

-I don't want to sit down.

-You want to keep walking?

Aris is now undergoing daily physiotherapy. He can't walk yet, but his power of speech is returning

and his physiotherapist is delighted.

When Aris first came to the ward, he wasn't able to do very much.

His level of consciousness was low, so we've worked towards him having independence in sitting and balance.

The next stage is working him standing, which is quite difficult at the minute,

but I'm sure he'll make progress and start walking again soon.

Catch it once, then I catch it once.

Aris's mum can't remember the smash.

His father was spending Eid with relatives in Pakistan when the accident happened

and flew home the next day. He's very grateful to his son's rescuers.

It's such a relief to have that service and the facility for people who need it. It's unbelievable.

People don't appreciate it until they actually have to use it for their own family.

It's such a good charity.

When Helicopter Heroes comes back,

the team battle to save a farm worker's badly injured leg.

Just take some nice, deep breaths. Don't worry.

Paramedic Sammy is in a tight spot with a patient who's rolled his hatchback.

Which wrist is it that's hurting most? This one?

An adventurous teenager tumbles out of a tree.

-I haven't broken my back?

-Nothing to say that, no.

And there is a major rescue operation to save a tombstoner who has plunged from a waterfall.

Subtitles by Subtext for Red Bee Media Ltd 2010

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