Episode 9 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 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 life-saving care from the skies.

When a 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 climber plunges from a rock face

and paramedic Al has to jump for it.

Slide the door open. I'm opening the door now.

A lollipop lady whose car crash presented her rescuers with a big problem.

One, two, three, go!

We're not going anywhere.

Up in the dales, a trampoline lands its owner in hospital.

He's been in pain for a little while.

And the team treats the satellite guy who fell to earth.

Lift your leg up. That's sore when you do that?

For some people, there's no fun without risk.

Rock-climbers love the challenge of knowing that one slip

could mean a matter of life or death.

But imagine being unlucky enough

to be seriously injured on your first climb.

The rocky landscape of the Derbyshire Peak District

helps make it the UK's most popular national park.

But for some visitors, these rocks have a fatal attraction.

'A 21-year-old male who's fallen 40 foot. 4-0 foot. Over.'

Roger. 40-foot fall, 21-year-old. 237816. Over.

This is climbing country

and the risk is part of the thrill.

But today, medical student Joe Cracolici needs help.

5-0-8-3-0.

He's badly hurt after a 40-foot fall.

We're off to Stanage Edge, which is a very popular climbing crag.

Luckily, Helimed 98 has a mountain rescue expert on board today.

Paramedic Al Day is a keen volunteer with his local team

and he knows this area.

If he fell from the top, he could be quite seriously injured.

We're going to help out. The mountain rescue team is on its way.

We'll be there shortly and see what's happening.

Just finding a patient up here can be tricky.

Stanage Edge is 20 miles long

but thanks to pilot Tim's keen eyesight, they're soon on the case.

There's someone with his arms up there.

A bloke in blue. I don't know if that's our man.

Yep.

This is a tough call for Tim.

He knows Joe desperately needs medical help.

But landing on the steep slopes of Stanage is too dangerous.

Al is going to have to jump for it.

Just slide the door open.

Opening door now.

Hover de-planing is risky, but it's the only way to reach Joe quickly.

Happy with that?

OK. Bag's going now.

Disconnected.

Can you just check that distance on my side?

Helimed 98's rotor blades are so close to the rocks,

Tim has to reverse out after dropping off his passenger.

100 feet below, Al's using all his fitness to reach his patient.

Cheers. Gives me a chance to get my breath back.

Joe was abseiling with mates on his first climbing expedition

when he slipped and plunged down Stanage Edge.

Any fall over ten feet can kill.

To survive a plunge four times that is remarkable.

But climbers have a fatalistic attitude to accidents.

I screwed up, he fell. Pretty simple.

It's his first day out climbing, and probably his last.

He can climb indoors, but I don't think he'll climb outdoors again.

OK, Joe. I'm Al, the paramedic from the helicopter, OK?

I want to get my breath back enough to listen to your chest.

I'll have a quick look at you.

Don't move at all. Stay exactly as you are for now, all right?

Helimed 98 has no option but to land a quarter of a mile away at the top of the Edge.

Even here, the ground is boggy and far from ideal for helicopters.

-We sank as we landed. So I think we're in a bog.

-Yeah.

I know we're in a bog!

I'll listen to your chest, Joe. What's your last name?

Cracolici.

Cracolici?

Joe is in agony, but what worries Joe most is his shoulder.

He knows it's broken.

Are you receiving, Al?

Receiving, over.

Paramedic Pete is going to have to find a way down the cliff face.

Roger. I'll look out for you.

Pete's found a safe route

and he arrives at the same time as the mountain rescue team.

This chap's fallen from the top, abseiling.

I think his anchor came out as he went over the edge.

And he's got, as far as we know, a right shoulder injury.

Chest sounds OK. Otherwise, he seems OK at the moment.

But obviously with the nature of the injuries, we'll treat him as a spinal injury.

He's a medical student, so he knows what's going on.

A little medical knowledge can be a worrying thing.

Joe knows he's in a bad way.

But Steve Rowe, a mountain rescue doctor,

who often flies with the Helimed team, will deliver the best care possible on a rock face.

He's just going through the process of checking he's OK.

The guy's fallen while abseiling the face here.

He looks like he's had quite a lot of impacts on his way down.

He's not moved from where he is,

which is normally a sign that someone has a serious injury.

People tend to try and get out, particularly if they're wedged in a rock as he is.

Joe's breathing is becoming laboured.

His chest has clearly been badly injured.

Although age is on his side,

if he doesn't get specialist care soon,

he could quickly deteriorate.

How much pain are you in, if you had to score it out of ten?

It's down to three or four, now.

-OK.

-It was at nine.

Three or four, the pain, yeah?

OK. I can give you something for the pain if you like. You've got a vent going in now.

-Do you want something for it?

-Yeah.

-OK.

The team know he needs to be in hospital.

But to get him there, he has to go back up the rock face he fell down.

And that's not going to be easy.

Coming up: the difficult climb begins.

Some of the local climbers feel it's time to do a bit of a payback.

I hope I don't fall down, Tom, cos I'm heavy.

I'll end up landing on you!

Paramedic Daz becomes a trampolinist to save a young accident victim.

And the patient who drove home before dialling 999.

-Down your back, the middle of your back. It's spasmising?

-Yeah.

Our roads are a dangerous place.

That's why our lollipop wardens are dedicated to making them safer.

But one day in West Yorkshire, one of them had an accident herself.

That were a nice one, wasn't it? Have a nice evening, sweetheart.

On the walk home from school in Castleford,

everyone knows lollipop lady Jacky Robbins.

-How are you?

-Not at all bad, darling.

She's the larger-than-life guardian of the school crossing,

always looking out to protect her young pupils from the danger on the roads.

Right, my loves.

But today it's Jacky who's been involved in an accident.

She was giving a friend and her son a lift home from the shops

when her hatchback was involved in a shunt with a lorry.

Now Jacky's trapped behind the wheel.

The information on this one is that there's two cars and people trapped.

It's in Castleford, which isn't a million miles from here,

so we should be on it in about five minutes.

Fire-fighters are struggling to free Jacky.

Her tiny hatchback was in collision with this lorry.

Jacky's friend and her son escaped with minor injuries.

But Jacky's stuck fast.

52, yeah. The pain is more when she breathes in.

She's having pain in her arm.

-She's holding it.

-OK.

The paramedics have briefly assessed her.

She's got apparently pain in her chest and abdomen. And also pain in her left knee.

If we get two cuts on this vehicle, we can have the roof off.

Fantastic. Cheers.

And there's another problem. Despite the impact, the airbag did not go off.

This is a dangerous situation.

Fire-fighters have been killed by airbags inflating during rescue work.

They've put a shield over the wheel, but it's still a risk.

The car was just coming down here.

The guy in this big warehouse wagon just stopped,

not suddenly, and the car in front was just in slow motion and went into the back of it, unfortunately.

An off-duty nurse gave assistance. Hope it looks worse than what it is.

Jacky's complaining of pain in her legs.

She doesn't seem to be badly hurt, but the twisted bodywork of her car

means they can't examine her properly.

Take a really deep breath for me.

-Any problems there?

-It still hurts.

-Where does it hurt?

-On my stomach.

Right. OK. On the side, does it hurt there?

-No, just tender there.

-Just tender there. OK. All right, love.

For the fire service, this is a difficult operation.

Smaller cars mean less space around their occupants.

They have to do more cutting than they would with a bigger vehicle.

-No medical problems?

-No. I can't walk so far.

Can't walk so far. That's normal for you?

There's not much left of Jacky's runabout.

But at last they can try and move her.

If we perhaps get rid of that first, then we can get the board underneath.

-Slide it back and then...

-Lower her onto the board.

Yes, if we can get enough people to ease her up.

-Head rest out first?

-That's easiest to come out first.

She says she feels a bit stupid.

Ready? One, two, three, go.

No, not going anywhere, are we?

It's no good. Jacky's legs are still trapped.

If they are to free her, they'll have to do more cutting.

-So, perhaps a different plan of action. OK, Jacky?

-OK.

-We're going to bend the steering wheel a bit further away.

-OK.

So it's easier to get you out.

Jacky's car has been reduced to little more than a heap of spare parts.

Colin's trying to reassure her,

but she's been trapped for more than half an hour.

It's proving to be more difficult to extricate this patient than what we first thought.

Just had to take another door off.

This time, they're determined to free her.

One, two, three, go.

But she's still trapped.

Jacky's no nearer the hospital treatment she urgently needs.

And that airbag still poses a risk.

Coming up: Jacky's rescuers begin another attempt to free her.

Just wondering about this post here.

The race to get an injured climber to hospital begins.

He's in pain. He needs a quick evacuation.

And it's a long way down - and this man's just fallen every foot of it.

-Any pain in the back of your neck?

-Don't know.

-No?

If you're a parent, you'll know that Christmas starts in January,

as far as the kids' present list is concerned!

Many mums and dads know that something very large and round appearing in the back garden

will keep those little darlings happy.

But a trampoline can also have its dangers.

Got a call for a youngster that's been jumping on a trampoline

and he's fallen off it and got an injury to his side.

He's now complaining that he can't move his arm.

His right arm he could move at one time, now he says he can't move it and it's like fireworks in his arm.

That's why we decided to go and see.

20 minutes' away are a patient, two paramedics

and a worried mum.

We are bound to the Leyburn area.

Overhead flying at 2,000.

'Helimed 98, good afternoon. Continue direct towards Leyburn.'

Darren Axe is a dad himself, and has a low opinion of trampolines.

I've been out to a number of details where they've been off the damn things.

But invariably it occurs sooner or later.

They're not the safest pieces of garden equipment I've come across!

Wensleydale is one of the most remote valleys in the Helimed team's patch.

It's here the speed of the chopper can and does save lives.

Let's move off down to the right here. Bear right, one o'clock.

The accident has happened in the village of Redmire, deep in the dales.

Thanks to a handy sheep pasture at the bottom of the family garden,

help is touching down feet from their patient.

There is the offending article!

-Quite a few domestics.

-Yeah.

He's still on the trampoline.

98 on scene.

Hello!

By the standard of the hurdles the team often face, this one's easily overcome!

Not bad for a short-legged person!

Young Tom was playing with his sister when the accident happened.

He's still lying where he fell.

It's a precaution in case the pins and needles he feels are symptoms of a spinal injury.

Tom.

-Wiggle your toes!

-Just wiggle your toes for me.

You're wiggling your toes. That's fantastic.

Wiggle your toes on the other side.

Go on, top man! Excellent.

Are your feet ticklish? Yeah, they are! Wonderful!

Everybody is ticklish to a degree.

If they tickle his feet and they try to curl up, that's fine.

He can feel what we're doing to him.

I think he's somewhat shocked

and he's been in pain for a while.

I think that's adding to his lot in life,

as he is on his trampoline.

Tom's mum was busy indoors when her daughter ran in.

I was in the sitting room and she came in to tell me he'd fallen on the trampoline.

Many major hospitals treat more than 20 young patients a month

hurt in trampoline accidents like this.

Tom's four-year-old sister likes to play with him on the trampoline.

She knew what to do when playtime went wrong.

Tom sent me to go in to tell Mum.

And he...

And that ambulance come.

Tom, you know when you were saying you could wiggle your toes?

Do you think you can pull your feet together for me?

Can you move them close together?

Can you take them close together?

Yeah?

You help me, then. You're a strong lad, a bit stronger than me.

Can you do that? Yes.

Darren is optimistic Tom has escaped a serious back injury.

But he and the team now face a large problem.

Hope I don't fall down, Tom,

cos I'm heavy and I'll wind up landing on you!

Tom, like Darren, is a big lad.

His back must be kept straight until he can be x-rayed.

But how do you lift someone off a trampoline? Darren has to improvise.

One, two, three.

Well done, Tom.

Keep it going, medi-boy!

Yes. Again?

Keep going. That's it. OK, guys.

On three. One, two, three.

Super-duper.

One in ten victims of a trampoline accident needs surgery.

But Darren reckons the chances of a spinal injury today are low.

So Tom won't be going by air.

Instead, he'll be travelling to hospital in Northallerton by road.

They'll pop him up to Friarage just to get him checked over.

His parents can go with him

and I'm sure once he's been checked over he'll be fine.

Darren was right. Tom's injuries were minor.

But his trampoline hasn't been getting so much use since the accident.

I don't want to go back on it because I think it might happen again.

Allaina is just glad to have her brother back

safe and sound.

He was lying flat on the trampoline and they got a board under him.

And he... And he was...

And then they taked him to hospital.

The people of the dales know how important the Helimed team is.

Tom's mum, who breeds horses,

has hit on a very home-spun way of showing their appreciation.

I breed Dartmoor ponies and they're a rare breed.

I have a website. I've put on there two yearling colts that are for sale

and when they're sold, I'm going to donate that money to the air ambulance.

You'll never pay back for what they do, but it helps, doesn't it?

Coming up: Fire-fighters have their work cut out to free a trapped motorist.

-Do you want more painkiller?

-No, it's OK.

And a builder falls 30 feet into a flower bed.

He fell on something fairly soft.

Now, let's return to the Peak District

where rescue teams are struggling to rescue a badly-injured climber.

Right shoulder injury.

-Right shoulder.

-Definite right shoulder injury.

21-year-old medical student Joe Cracolici is an experienced indoor climber.

But his first expedition on the slippery rock faces of Stanage Edge

has ended in an accident that could easily have killed him.

Have you been asked to keep everybody back from the edge?

Joe's come down from the top of Stanage

whilst abseiling.

He has a lot of pain on his right-hand side.

I can't tell if it's a shoulder or chest injury.

The guys are packing him on the stretcher, up to the helicopter.

Steve fears he may have serious internal injuries.

Joe, what we're going to do now is move you out of your hidey-hole

and put a spinal board under you at the same time.

I'll support your head and neck

the others will man-handle you as gently as they can.

He's now about to be carried by a small army of volunteers

up the rock face to Helimed 98.

It's going to be a difficult journey for patient and rescuers alike.

Probably the best way, I don't know what you think, is if we just lift him,

come out slightly and put the board in underneath.

One wrong move could see Joe tumbling down the steep slope.

Is everybody ready?

-Ready.

-Ready, steady, move.

Aghh!

Sorry, mate. Well done.

How are we doing there?

The movement part of it is going to be the worst for you.

Once we get the package on, mountain rescue know what they're doing.

We'll get you up as smoothly as we can.

So we're ready to move Joe and the board now.

-So we're going to move this...

-The stretcher is secure.

OK. Everybody ready to lift?

Ready, steady, lift.

-That's it. Well done. Is he on?

-He's on.

Because we can't actually carry him over all these rocks,

we'll pass him from one person to another.

We'll form a line of people

and pass him down to the path.

Then we'll be able to carry the stretcher up to the helicopter.

Passing the stretcher hand over hand is the safest way.

After doing your bit, you leap-frog the group and get ready to receive the stretcher again.

It's tried and tested, but not without risk.

Flying paramedic Al Day has been in charge of Joe's treatment.

He's a mountain rescue volunteer

whose love affair with climbing started right here as a teenager.

I came here when I was a young lad, climbing with the Scouts.

Somebody fell off just round the corner. It was my first experience of mountain rescue.

A Sea King came over and winched this lady out.

The Edale Mountain Rescue team is one of the busiest in Britain.

Stanage Edge is known amongst climbers throughout the world.

Some of the local climbers feel it's time to do a bit of a payback!

Many who come to climb it find it's more dangerous than it looks.

I think they might have done this once or twice before!

Joe's nearing the end of his journey.

He's less than ten minutes from specialist care at Sheffield's Northern General hospital.

Doctors have already been alerted.

Joe, you're getting the quick ride. I'm going in the car.

I'll meet you there.

Al will continue to care for his patient up to the doors of A&E.

He knows the pain from Joe's broken shoulder

could be masking more serious injuries.

OK, mate? How's that pain now?

Getting a little bit worse again.

Getting worse. OK, we won't be long.

Only an x-ray or scan will reveal the truth.

Joe, they'll start the engines in a minute, OK?

You won't be able to hear anything. It'll be really noisy.

It's only a five-minute flight to hospital, OK?

It's time for take-off.

But there's a problem.

Helimed 98's skids have settled into the boggy ground at the top of the Edge.

Pilot Tim knows this could prevent him taking off.

Coming up: Will their patient's first climb be his last?

Hospital doctors prepare to treat him.

And a workman is badly hurt after a building site accident.

Imagine being trapped in the wreckage of your car.

A frightening thought.

But for one motorist in Yorkshire, it's a nightmare that's come true.

Lollipop lady Jacky Robbins was driving home from the shops

when her hatchback was involved in a shunt with a lorry.

For nearly an hour, fire-fighters have struggled to free her

as paramedic Colin Jones monitors her condition.

-How's the pain? Do you want more painkiller?

-No, it's OK.

What score is it now?

-About six.

-About six. Still quite a lot, isn't it?

I'll give you some more.

Jacky's in pain from her legs.

But the twisted dash of her car means the Helimed team can't see them.

I was wondering about this post here.

It's time for the fire brigade to begin their third attempt to extricate Jacky.

And this time, it works.

They're trying to keep her back straight in case she suffered a spinal injury.

It means a lot of manpower is needed.

But inch by inch, Jacky is slid out of the wreckage.

The team have decided she'll have to go to hospital by road.

The journey's just down the motorway anyway, so it'll be smooth.

Patients come in all shapes and sizes,

and ambulances are designed to accommodate all of them.

Some, like this one, come with electric winches

to haul stretchers aboard automatically.

I've given her some morphine for the pain.

So I'll have to go with her to hand her over to the hospital doctors.

Jacky will soon be in hospital, where a thorough check will identify any further injuries.

At least she's in better shape than her car.

It's only fit for the scrap yard.

In the end, it turns out Jacky's injuries are minor. But it's several weeks

before she could return to duty on the school crossing.

-Thank you for crossing.

-You're welcome.

You're welcome. Have a nice evening.

'Somebody were definitely looking after me.

'I've got some good angels and good spirits looking after me.

'Otherwise I wouldn't be here.'

I was worried because it was nearly time for school

and I was frightened about the children coming from school.

Because there's nobody to take over. We've no spare lollipop people

to take over if you're off, so that frightened me as well.

Jacky's memories of her hour-long ordeal were hazy.

But she remembers one thing clearly.

I just couldn't move. I was in that much pain.

I know somebody came and brought me a blanket and asked if I was OK.

They wanted to get me out of the car, but I couldn't.

I was in that much pain, I couldn't move.

One, two, three, go.

Everyone was really good to me.

Fantastic. What I was worried about was them hurting their back because I weigh so much!

I was frightened of them lifting me out and hurting themselves.

Sadly, Jacky's had to acquire a new set of wheels.

All I could think of, "Oh, no, my lovely little car!" I loved that car.

Thanks to the fire-fighters and the Helimed team,

Castleford's most popular lollipop lady won't be giving up her job any time soon,

despite her personal experience of the dangers of our roads.

Coming up: In the Peak District, there's a tricky take-off

as Helimed 98 sinks into a bog.

-Squelch!

-Yeah!

If you don't like heights, you can rule yourself out of a lot of jobs

from steeplejack to coastguard.

And every day, someone proves that it's common sense to treat gravity with respect.

Thousands of workers are dedicated to keeping a roof over our heads.

From tilers to high-rise roofing contractors,

and sadly, too many of them end up becoming patients

for the Helimed team.

Helimed 98. I'm bound north-east near Easingwold.

Today, Helimed 98 has been scrambled to a building site near the market town of Easingwold in Yorkshire.

A builder working on a chimney has slipped and fallen 30 feet.

He's in a bad way.

Stewart is a self-employed builder.

This accident is his first in 17 years in the trade.

But it's a bad one.

OK, what's happened?

-It's that way. He fell off a ladder.

-OK.

Stewart landed in soil put down only yesterday.

He missed a newly-laid brick wall by inches.

-Got any pain?

-In my back.

-In your back. OK, mate.

-No problem. Any pain in the back of your neck?

-I don't know.

-You don't know.

-I can't feel anything.

-You can't feel anything.

All his extremities seem OK.

He's in a lot of pain,

so we'll get a line in and give him some morphine to ease it.

One of Stewart's workmates dialled 999. It's been a shock for the whole gang.

With it being wet, the ladder's gone sideways on the gutter

and he's gone off.

He hasn't gone... He sort of slipped, tried to get off the ladder as it moved.

He's lucky he didn't hit the brick wall below.

He landed straight on his back, straight on the soil. So a soft landing,

but you don't know what to do.

The ladder's coming over and he's coming down.

You don't know whether to get under him and support him. I tried to.

Let me know if you're feeling sick at all or anything like that.

He's lucky to be alive,

but he's hurt his back badly.

Paramedics Paul and Colin fear he may have injured his spine.

I'll give him some morphine to ease the pain.

We'll treat him for spinal injury so we'll put a collar on and put him on a board.

We're getting him secure and we'll get him comfortable.

One, two, three, slide.

Aghh!

Every year, accidents like this leave several roofers in wheelchairs.

The team are determined Stewart isn't going to be one of them.

Helimed 98.

(INDISTINCT)

We'll be reaching back towards Harrogate.

He's on his way to hospital in Harrogate, strapped to a spinal board to protect his back.

The pain is in the side of his back, which is a good sign, really.

Obviously we're treating him as if it is a spinal injury.

Hopefully he should be absolutely fine with just bruising.

But it's too early to tell, so we'll see what the x-rays say.

Stewart's spine will be x-rayed by orthopaedic consultants

who've already been put on stand-by.

Tests will reveal that he's broken one of his vertebrae.

It's not too serious considering the fall that he survived.

But he'll be off work for several weeks.

You don't need to be climbing a tower block to have a fall.

Even a bungalow is far enough off the ground.

Helimed 98. We're leaving Harrogate.

We're en route to an accident near Whitby.

Today the team are on the way to the victim of a fall from a bungalow roof.

What makes this case unusual

is the patient managed to get home before the pain overwhelmed him.

-This guy's gone to his home address?

-I think so, yes.

-Where will our landing be?

-He said it would be obvious where to land.

To the right of the helicopter as you look at it. That field?

Oh, yeah, to the left. There's someone out in the field looking to...

There's a big tree to the right of the ambulance.

The noise from the helicopter has spooked some horses.

But they're fenced in and don't pose a danger.

The patient is inside the house.

He had the accident at work a mile away and his dad drove him home.

How you doing? All right?

Christopher Braithwaite is a self-employed builder.

Chris has fallen off a bungalow roof.

He's dropped about eight foot and then dropped another five foot onto a concrete base.

He landed on his back.

I've had a good feel of his neck. There's no neck pains as such.

-But we thought we'd better err on the side of caution.

-OK.

Chris hasn't been given any pain relief because of his medical history.

-Where's your pain, in the side of your chest or in your back?

-Down my back.

-Down your back. In the middle of your back?

-Yeah.

-It's spasming, is it?

-Yeah.

What are you scoring your pain now? Is it still ten?

That was then, yeah.

Let's give you this and get your pain settled.

We're not giving you the full dose of this. If you need more later, just let us know.

Hopefully this will get on top of your pain.

They need to lay Chris on the spinal board, but it's a tricky manoeuvre in a narrow hallway.

Chris, put your faith in me.

Relax. It's a strange sensation, but don't lunge forward.

Paramedics are used to patients who are reluctant to dial 999,

especially in rural areas.

You may feel yourself sliding, but you're not going anywhere.

I'm all right. I'm all right now.

Chris's dad was with him when he fell.

Yeah, he got up and walked a bit.

But every time he walked, "Ow! Ow!"

It took me quarter of an hour to get him in the van.

He's come quite a way, but you get that adrenaline rush

and it's fight and flight - you want to be getting home.

A cup of tea and it'll be all right.

But it's not! As you can see.

I had to fully immobilise and it's up to James Cook, we'll get him up there.

And it's no wonder Chris is in so much pain.

When he gets to hospital, he'll discover he's broken eight vertebrae

and he'll have to take at least two months off work.

Climbing ladders is all in a day's work for millions of people.

But one wrong move can leave your workmates dialling 999.

When you're based in Britain's highest commercial airport,

it isn't that unusual to get fogged in.

-In that area there?

-Yes, that's it.

When that happens, the flying paramedics end up going out on the road.

We're going to reports of a man who was putting up a satellite dish

and has fallen off the ladder.

It's not too far away from the air support unit

but it's still too foggy for us to fly.

So that's why we're in Dr Jez's car.

The destination is the village of Pool-in-Wharfedale,

just three miles down the road.

-SAT NAV:

-'You have arrived at your destination.'

Now, then, matey.

How are you doing? You've been better?

-Have you got any pain anywhere?

-In my elbow and back.

Pain in this elbow and your back. OK.

I can see your feet. Can you wiggle them? Yes.

Whereabouts in your back is the pain?

More towards the right.

So it's not central, it's towards the right-hand side?

Did you land on your side, or flat on your back?

-It's half and half.

-Half and half.

The man had finished fitting the dish before he fell off the ladder.

Your chest feels OK.

Can I press there? Is that sore at all?

Uh...

-No, it's not sore.

-That's not sore.

Wiggle your leg for me.

Good. Lift your leg up in the air.

That's sore when you do that?

-In your back, is it?

-In my back.

-Is it the middle of your back or to the side?

-I can't really tell.

-You can't tell.

Keep breathing it. It's a mix of oxygen.

He's fine. He's got no life-threatening injuries.

He's fallen onto his right side.

He has pain in his elbow

and pain in his lower back and the right side of his lower back.

Nothing else obvious at the moment.

So given his injuries, he's fallen from a reasonable height.

He could have some spinal injuries but he's moving his legs

so it's not anything too worrying.

Roofing falls can and do ruin working lives.

In the seaside town of Bridlington,

Helimed 99 is flying to the rescue of a builder

who has plunged 25 feet from the top of a two-storey house.

A young man has fallen 25 foot.

He's hit some scaffolding on the way down.

He's got two injuries on the back of his head.

He's not foggy. No movement in there.

His has lost consciousness. His eyes are equal reacting.

39-year-old Steve Martin is a self-employed roofer

and has been for 25 years.

This is the first big accident he's had.

I got a phone call off his work friend, his work partner.

He said he'd fallen through the scaffold or something.

Steve had just stepped onto the scaffolding to mark out the roof

when it collapsed underneath him.

Because Steve has suspected head and spinal injuries,

it's safer and quicker to fly him to hospital,

rather than taking him by road.

The plan is to go to Hull, which is the best hospital for his injuries.

When Steve gets to hospital, scans will reveal that despite falling so far,

he hasn't suffered serious head injuries.

But the accident still changes Steve's life.

It's one year to the day after his fall,

and although he's able to get around, his roofing days are behind him.

I've broken four vertebrae in my back.

Full side of my right-side ribcage.

They said there was a pocket of fluid on my hip.

I got diagnosed mild onset arthritis not long before the accident.

The specialist after the accident, he said it's kind of pushed the joint closer in.

So you're grinding. All he's told me is, "We can't do anything for you

"apart from put you a new hip in."

Steve can remember everything about the accident.

As soon as I felt myself falling, I thought, "That's it.

"I'm not coming back now." You know. It was pretty scary.

Halfway through the fall, I landed on a scaffolding pole.

Otherwise I'd have been straight down onto the concrete.

And I probably wouldn't be sat here now if that had happened.

Once Steve has had his hip replacement, he hopes to retrain as a bus driver.

Not surprisingly, working at heights has lost its appeal.

I'm pleased to say all our patients are now on the road to recovery.

But up in the Peak District, the battle to save an injured climber

is far from over.

Helimed 98's skids have sunk into boggy ground

at the top of Stanage Edge,

a popular climbing spot in Derbyshire.

Pilot Tim Taylor can afford to use some of the power from his two jet engines

but too much and he could damage the chopper, marooning him and his patient.

Luckily, the bog gives up its grip and Helimed 98 is airborne.

On board is a 21-year-old climber

who survived a 40-foot fall but has suspected internal injuries.

-Crew just turning out now for us.

-Good stuff.

After a five-minute flight to Sheffield's Northern General,

medical student Joe Cracolici

is about to get some unwanted practical experience

of diagnosing potentially life-threatening injuries.

For the next 48 hours, Joe is kept in the high-dependency unit

undergoing treatment for his injuries.

Four days later,

and Joe is still having fluid drained from his chest.

I had a haemopneumothorax,

which means that both blood and air was escaping into the space around my lung

and collapsing my lung.

I could actually feel that in the helicopter getting tighter.

Which was very scary!

Joe also shattered his shoulder blade and broke nine ribs.

It was the first time he'd abseiled outdoors.

I stepped backwards off the edge.

My right foot slipped.

And that's the last thing I remember. My right foot slipping.

Apparently the anchor failed at that point.

And I fell to the bottom.

Because I'm a medical student,

obviously I was aware a lot more of what was going on

and why they were doing certain things.

So I was immediately aware after I fell that I had to keep my neck very still

and not move that at all until I'd been put on the spine board.

And it was the kind of trade off between trying to get comfortable

and trying to keep my neck incredibly still.

But despite having survived a fall that could easily have killed him,

Joe is determined to keep climbing.

I think I'll take it slowly.

I think I'll start climbing indoors a little bit first.

I'll work my way up to going back to Stanage.

I'm undecided as to whether I'll try that abseil again.

Part of me thinks that I kind of ought to.

Just so it's not something that's defeated me.

And part of me thinks that would be a kind of silly idea!

When Helicopter Heroes comes back:

there are seven patients and only two helicopters

as a people carrier crashes.

Three are priority one at the moment.

One is trapped under the vehicle.

The team are called to a climbing accident

and a medical student knows she's badly hurt.

He went, "No, it's not broken." I went, "Yes, broken!"

A visit to Gran's ends in pain for an adventurous five-year-old.

Tell your mates at school!

And if laughter's the best medicine, this patient is treating herself!

-Do you take any drugs for anything?

-No.

-No medicines at all.

-No.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd