Episode 10 Helicopter Heroes

If you're seriously ill or critically injured up here,

your life is in real danger.

Complaining of severe pain.

Mid-30s, been ejected from a vehicle.

Hospital is an hour away by road and speed is the only thing that can save you.

Roger. Helimed 99's en route. Over.

The Yorkshire Air Ambulance and its highly trained paramedics are scrambled a thousand times a year.

-'What's happened?

-A wagon's run over a small child.'

Many of its ex-military pilots flew the SAS into action.

That's not a suitable landing site. This is.

Welcome to the life-and-death world of the Helicopter Heroes.

Today on Helicopter Heroes...

A family holiday ends in a freak accident before they've even left home.

She's got possibly two fractured femurs. It's quite time-critical.

A trucker is seriously injured in an explosion.

-How is your pain doing?

-Horrendous.

There's an underground rescue operation deep beneath the Yorkshire Dales.

He's slipped about ten metres. He's hurt both of his legs.

And he's cute and cuddly.

But one of his friends has made a young animal lover seriously ill.

The bags are packed, the hotel or campsite is booked

and the kids are desperate to get on the road.

It's a familiar holiday story for many of us,

but for one family in West Yorkshire, it had a terrible ending.

It's the start of the summer holidays

and across the country, thousands of families are heading for the seaside.

And for millions living in urban West Yorkshire,

Scarborough, the UK's oldest seaside resort, is just the place for a stay-cation.

There's sun, sea, sand, donkeys and more.

But for one family, their holiday is over before it's even begun.

I just heard a load of noise and stuff being thrown about and screaming.

I heard Debbie screaming and kids crying.

Two young children were packing their car for their trip away, but there's been a freak accident

and now both of them are in real danger.

'Helimed 98 Alpha en route to Knottingley.

'Helimed 98, yeah, we've got a minute to run. Have we any update on this detail? Over.

'The crew are on scene.

'There's been no update, so I would land and speak to the crew. Over.'

-Tilly...

-Ambulance crews on the ground have just arrived.

They've got two badly injured and very young patients.

But today, the helicopter has some extra skills on board.

Dr Jez Pinnell has additional treatments which are about to be put to use.

-'I'll just take this bag with some extra drugs in.

-All right.

-'If we need anything else, I'll give you a shout.

-Yeah.'

-Hi, guys. How many patients have we got?

-Two, I believe, mate.

-Two, right.

-We've just arrived.

-Who seems to be your...?

-These two children have been stood behind that estate car.

-Right.

-Packing stuff in. The car's lost control and hit the back of the car.

-Right.

-So the kids were loading up this car?

-Yeah.

-Which was parked here.

-She's gone to move the car and it's just carried on going.

Moved the car and he's got trapped.

The little boy was under the car. He doesn't seem to have any fractures. He's got good air entry both sides.

This car came up here, obviously into the back of this family's car.

But the kids were... Tilly were laid where she were when I came out.

And the little boy was sat with his dad.

HE CRIES

Seven-year-old Tilly has got tyre marks across both her legs

where she's fallen under the moving car.

Her three-year-old brother Jason has been crushed against the garden wall.

-Was he awake?

-When I pulled him out, yes.

-He was awake, he was conscious.

-That's how I knew he were there because he were crying.

-What's his name?

-Jason.

-How old is he?

-Three.

-Is he fit and well normally?

-Yeah.

Two children have been knocked over.

Our young lady's got possibly two fractured femurs.

We're just getting on top of her pain before we straighten them.

You can't remember anything that's happened? Where's your pain at the moment? In your leg? This one here?

OK. I won't touch it at the moment.

It's vital Jez knows exactly what's happened to be able to work out

what injuries their two patients could have,

but it's a complicated story.

Just run that past me again. So this blue car was parked here?

-This car was parked just behind it.

-It was parked just behind it?

-She's got in to move it and it's...

-And it's shot forward?

-Yeah.

Right. So we don't know if the child's gone underneath this car?

We don't know if he's gone underneath or he's been pulled from behind here.

What is obvious is both brother and sister have very serious injuries,

but only one can be flown to hospital.

You what, darling?

The kids were looking forward to seeing the sea so much, one of their patients still wants to go.

This keeps your neck nice and still.

Jason has what looks like a serious head injury,

but the tyre marks across Tilly point to possible internal injuries.

It's now down to Jez to decide which of them should stay with him

and get a crucial helicopter flight to hospital.

Last year, 500 people went to work in the UK and never came home.

They were killed in industrial accidents

and sometimes the cause can be a routine task the victim has carried out many times before.

Haulage is big business. Almost everything we need comes on the back of a truck.

And it's an industry that runs on rubber,

on huge tyres inflated to very high pressure.

But today in East Yorkshire, there's been a serious accident.

'It's a tyre and it exploded on this patient.

'And his foot has been completely severed

'and it is hanging on by the sock. Over.'

The Helimed team know injuries like these need an urgent response.

'You can lose a lot of blood through a severed foot.'

If there's been an explosion big enough to take your foot off,

it could affect other parts of the body, so we've got ambulances on the way and us as well.

RADIO BEEPS 'Yeah, go ahead.'

This is John. It looks like a tyre has exploded...over his foot.

He's got facial burns.

He has been completely conscious throughout.

We haven't got a BP as yet. We've been here about five minutes.

Another worker has broken his ankle,

but it's clear this exploding tyre has caused John Pektus massive injuries.

It was so loud, neighbours rushed to help from the other side of the village.

Just a massive bang like an explosion. I thought it was an acetylene cylinder going off.

It was a tyre. 110 psi, so you expect a mess and it has caused a bit of a mess, unfortunately.

We've just treated him for light facial burns.

-We're just about to give him some morphine for his pain. He's deaf.

-He's deaf? What's he called? John?

John.

Apparently, the tyre off a wagon just exploded as he was changing the tyre,

so the pressure inside the tyre has done the damage.

The huge bang has made John partially deaf.

He is struggling to hear, but Tony needs to get vital information from him.

-Can you remember everything that's happened?

-I think so, yeah. The tyre blew up.

-How's your pain doing?

-Horrendous.

-Is the pain all in your left foot?

-Just on my knee and my left foot.

-OK, mate.

This yard is in rural East Yorkshire.

The crew could fly John to a specialist centre in Leeds for his badly injured foot,

but there is a far more urgent problem.

-Cos of the burns, we'll go to the nearest...

-A&E cos of the airway?

-Yeah.

This gentleman's suffering with burns at the moment.

We're obviously concerned about his airway.

And he's got an ankle injury which can distract away from one of the main potential problems, his airway,

so we're flying him to the nearest A&E.

So despite John's traumatic foot injury, it's the other effects of the explosion that could kill him.

His throat's continuing to swell, so a fast flight to hospital is now his best chance of survival.

Deep below this landscape is a secret world.

Yorkshire is home to some of the UK's biggest potholes.

Every weekend, hundreds of cavers go deep underground in search of adventure,

but sometimes something goes badly wrong.

A labyrinth of caves carved out by water over thousands of years honeycombs these hills.

Some are 20 miles or more long.

Up to 800 feet below the surface,

new passages are still being discovered, many unseen by man.

It's the thrill of exploration that lures many to the Dales,

but when things go wrong, it's down to a team of expert volunteers

who drop whatever they're doing and bring their expertise to even the most remote locations.

We're on our way to Ingleborough. Cave Rescue have been on scene at this detail.

One of the potholers has fallen approximately 85 feet.

We're unaware at this point what his injuries are.

A doctor on scene has requested assistance from air support, so we'll go in to have a look at the patient.

The Helimed crew work closely with Mountain and Cave Rescue teams

who cover Yorkshire's vast national parks.

It's timely that paramedic Glen Powell has been on a training exercise

which covered the problems of underground accidents.

It's a very difficult environment

in which to have an accident.

Extricating a patient from a pothole is a completely different scenario

to that that most land ambulances come across during their daily routine.

We've got reports that this guy's fallen 85 foot.

What we don't know is how far inside the cave he's fallen and what the conditions inside the cave are like.

We have had some recent heavy downfalls of rain. These caves are notorious for filling up with water.

They are a very cold environment,

so it's likely that this patient may well be having hypothermia,

as well as extensive injuries from his fall.

Glen's about to be reunited with the same rescue team that took him underground.

The smoke is to help pilot Steve Cobb judge the wind.

Plenty of room to my side, mate.

-Just a couple of boulders.

-Good my side.

-Good my side.

Super. Two feet.

Cave Rescue have managed to get their patient above ground and he is now warming up in a Land Rover.

Normally fit and healthy, no medication, no allergies.

He's fallen probably eight to ten metres, landed on both heels.

-Landed on what, sorry?

-Both heels. But then fell on to his back as well.

22-year-old William French spent an hour alone and injured while a friend went for help.

Paramedic Darren knows what their patient's gone through.

He used to be a coal mine medic.

I prefer caving with machinery. It's probably a bit safer.

This chap's been potholing

with only one other person with him.

Fortunately, the young lady with him has managed to find a way back to the surface and alert Cave Rescue

who have turned up and retrieved him from where he was stuck.

He lost control abseiling on the third pitch

down in this pothole, and basically, he's slipped about ten metres,

landing on his feet on the floor of the pitch.

He's hurt both of his legs and we've spent the last few hours bringing him out of the cave.

Even in summer, the heat from the sun doesn't penetrate deep enough

to warm the caverns explored by potholers.

William has spent a long time in very difficult conditions. For Cave Rescue, it's been a tough operation.

It used to be more common. These days, there are less abseiling accidents.

Caving is a fairly safe sport these days, but it does happen every now and again.

Unfortunately, this cave is quite awkward. There are some tortuous passages within it.

It makes it a lot harder getting him out from there.

-You didn't bang your head when you fell, William?

-That graze was on his way out.

-Right.

-It was a very, very tight passage.

-And eight to ten metres, you reckon?

-Yes.

-OK, just relax.

He's been very lucky to have sustained such minor injuries from that.

He's not in a life-threatening position at the moment,

so we'll transfer him from here with the helicopter down into Ingleton and on to one of our ground assets.

They'll take care of him and transfer him to the hospital.

Just watch that door, fellas. Feed him on. Careful with that door.

William is starting to warm up and can tell his story,

a story which could have very easily had a tragic ending.

How did you alert the emergency services whilst you were down in a pothole?

I was with another girl.

-Did they come to the surface?

-Yeah.

-How many of you were there?

-Just two.

Oh, really? Scary to be left down there on your own.

The Helimed chopper makes a short flight down the hillside to the village of Ingleton

where land paramedics are waiting to transport William on to hospital.

Thanks to the work of Cave Rescue, he's safe.

X-rays will confirm the extent of his injuries.

If it had been me, I'd have been very scared in a dark place all alone.

It's the type of environment where you hear noises you don't want to hear.

Another rescue over, their patient is ferried to A&E in Lancaster.

William is soon released from hospital and goes home to recover

a world away from the wide open spaces of the Yorkshire Dales.

He knows he's had a lucky escape.

The cave I had chosen to go down that day

had actually a reputation for being quite tight and nasty,

but fortunately, I wasn't that far down it when I had my accident.

I fell about ten metres. It wasn't entirely freefall.

But I wasn't being slowed down that much, and as a result, I broke both my heel bones.

Despite being left alone in the dark for more than an hour as he waited for rescue,

the experience has only confirmed his enthusiasm for his high-risk hobby.

I've been caving for a couple of years now.

I haven't been put off doing so by this accident.

I have no intention of stopping.

Now let's return to the case of the family of holiday-makers

involved in a freak accident in their own street.

It's the sort of thing every parent dreads. This family was heading on holiday today,

but now Deborah Wilkinson has two seriously injured children after a freak accident.

We have a seven-year-old female, query open fracture left femur and closed right femur.

A neighbour's car has crashed into the back of the one they were packing for their trip away.

Both her children were trapped.

Lovely. That's lovely.

'I were shocked, really shocked.'

I were thinking the worst, really.

Are they still alive or...?

She's got some nasty injuries to her legs.

We're going to give her some quite strong pain relief, just so we can get her legs straight.

Dr Jez Pinnell had to make a quick assessment of seven-year-old Tilly and three-year-old brother Jason.

Only one can get a place in the helicopter for a flight to hospital.

A car's gone over her at fairly low speed over both legs and pelvis.

She's got one femur and an open injury to the other femur which is possibly fractured as well.

Despite Jason having a serious-looking head injury,

Tilly is the one Jez is most concerned about.

The tyre tracks over her legs means she could have serious, unseen internal injuries.

-Where is it hurting you?

-My leg.

-Your right leg or your left leg?

-I don't know which is my left.

-This is your left leg here, the one with the bandage on.

-OK.

-That's the one that's sore, is it?

-Yeah.

And as well as medicine, reassurance is a key part of every doctor's treatment.

-Will I die?

-No, darling, you're not.

Paramedics usually give morphine as a painkiller,

but for very serious cases, Jez carries ketamine.

It's used by vets as a horse tranquilliser,

but here, it should help detach Tilly from her intense pain,

albeit with some slightly peculiar side-effects.

We're going to give you some very strong medicine for your pain. It might make you feel a bit strange.

Sometimes it makes you see things that aren't there.

It'll mean we can get your legs a bit better. And we're going to take you for a flight in a helicopter.

Is that all right?

Pilot Paul Smith has had to land the helicopter on a nearby rugby pitch,

so Tilly will be taken there by ambulance,

but it leaves Mum Deborah with an awful dilemma - which of her children should she stay with?

Two patients, a brother and sister,

right outside their garden, right outside their own home,

so Mum's just totally shook up,

but handling it really, really well.

She's broken one leg and she's got a nasty laceration to the other leg.

That might be broken as well.

She may also have an injury to her pelvis.

Hello, Tilly. Welcome aboard!

You're doing really well.

Very brave, aren't you?

-Are you always this brave?

-Sometimes.

-Sometimes, yeah.

What should have been the start of a family holiday has now become a race for urgent treatment

with Tilly and her brother now heading in different directions.

While Jason is off by land to the local A&E,

Tilly is soon landing at the regional trauma centre in Leeds.

Now it's down to the team of surgeons waiting down the ramp

to work out exactly how much damage has been done

with Tilly having been run over by the full weight of a car.

Remember the worker blown over by an explosion in a haulage yard?

He's badly injured and doctors are about to start the battle to save him.

John Pektus has just been caught up in a massive explosion.

I just need you to pop this hand on this tummy if you can for me.

He'd been inflating a huge lorry tyre when it blew up in his face.

Ready, steady, move.

John's foot took the force of the blast, but as his throat is now swelling through the burns,

they're rushing him to hospital to make sure he can keep on breathing.

Just relax there, John. We'll get you as comfy as we can, OK?

Ready, steady, lift.

Just walk him over to the stretcher.

We're heading back to the aircraft with this patient. In the next five minutes, we hope to be lifting. Over.

One, two, three, lift.

We're going to the nearest hospital. He's got the potential of airway problems developing

with the burns to his face, so we'll get him sorted at York.

It's at times like these paramedics need more than just their medical skills.

INDISTINCT

Tony's diplomacy is tested when faced with difficult questions from his patient.

What's it actually done to my foot? Can you see?

Yeah, you've got a nasty cut to it, John.

Is there owt left of it, like?

Yeah, it's still there, mate.

But everyone knows John is critically injured.

It's unlikely his foot will have survived the explosion.

John's flight to hospital takes less than five minutes, but this is where the serious work begins.

Surgeons start working around the clock to try and save his ankle.

In a series of complicated operations, severed nerves and blood vessels are repaired

and John finally recovers enough to see his first visitors.

Basically, it blew the middle out of my foot.

And the skin that was alive,

they could save it with skin grafts,

but he said till they started chopping and hacking,

they didn't know really what was what,

but he says, "As it looks, just feeling..."

I said I could feel what he was touching.

He said that was a good sign that they could actually save my foot.

It's now a week after the explosion and it's still not clear if his foot will recover,

but John is well aware the outcome could have been so much worse.

I consider myself lucky to be alive.

If I had bent down to pick the wheel up, I wouldn't have had a head.

Over the next few weeks, a string of medical experts do all they can for John,

but in the end, he has to make a hugely difficult decision.

They've been trying to save my foot, which I appreciate,

but anyway, in the end, the doctor decided

that it was going to be too long-term and too much to do

and the best option was to saw it off and move on with life,

so that's what we opted for.

He's sawn it off and hopefully now I'm going forward, like, you know.

Things are improving, I feel better

whereas if I was still as I was, I wouldn't have been any further on.

But for a man who has spent his life driving lorries across the country,

this accident means from now on, things will be very different.

That's it. We're up and running.

But it's certainly given him a new appreciation for those who have kept him on the road.

The frightening thing is when you think about it,

there's men every day that are putting their lives on the line.

Your tyre men. A bus gets a flat tyre, they come out.

A wagon gets a flat tyre, a car gets a flat tyre,

and they're touching potential bombs all the time.

Animals provide millions of people with a lot of love and companionship,

but they can also land you in hospital, often in surprising ways.

The High Pennines are Yorkshire's literary belt.

Poets like Ted Hughes have been inspired by these wuthering heights.

But one family outshone them all - the Bronte sisters of Haworth Parsonage,

creators of the smouldering Heathcliff.

# Out on the wiley, windy moors

# We'd roll and fall in green... #

But some tales you couldn't make up.

Like the shaggy dog story involving Norton,

15 stones of slobbering, sloppy mastiff.

He lives here in a farmhouse straight out of Wuthering Heights.

And he's supposed to be his owner's best friend. Not today.

In the local park,

Norton's owner Beryl Green is about to be loaded aboard Helimed 98 for a flight to hospital.

Her hip is broken, thanks to Norton.

How have you managed this?

I've got a 15-stone dog.

So remote is Beryl's hilltop home that they had to call out the Mountain Rescue team

to transport her down to the landing site.

She's got a 15-stone, old English mastiff and it got very excited and knocked her over.

It's about this high, its head is this wide, it's extremely friendly,

but too friendly on this occasion.

Ready, steady and lift.

Beryl is remarkably cheerful for a dog owner whose pet has landed her on a stretcher.

-How does that feel?

-There's a lumpy bit under.

You won't be on the lumpy bit for long. You'll be on a proper stretcher in there.

He bumped into me and knocked me flying. At 15 stone, he can give you such a thump.

Beryl is in her 70s and has spent her whole life living high up in the Pennines,

but she's going to have to get used to different surroundings for the next few days.

She's on her way to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary for surgery.

A few days later, relatives are having to take turns to walk the villain of the piece.

Norton needs his exercise.

The dog's with me all the time and when there's the two of us, we get on very, very well.

He follows me about everywhere,

as though he thinks I'm going to disappear if he takes his eyes off me.

And he shows a great deal of care.

But the good news is Beryl's home

and she's forgiven him for the exuberance that landed her in hospital.

Everybody was so kind.

And nothing was too much trouble for them. I think they're marvellous.

But you don't even have to touch an animal to need medical treatment.

One of these guys has just made someone seriously ill by being a bit hairy.

We've had reports of an eight-year-old child who is possibly having an anaphylactic reaction.

-Sophie, can I just listen to your chest, sweetheart?

-Yeah.

-Have you had this done before by the doctor?

-I don't think so.

It might be a bit cold, my love, all right?

Sophie Holt was visiting a petting zoo at a farm on the edge of the North York Moors.

She was stroking a guinea pig when she began to have trouble breathing and a rash started to form.

Allergic reactions can be very serious.

Around 15 people a year suffer anaphylactic shock and die in the UK.

Sophie, what happened the last time you went near a guinea pig?

-The last time I went near a guinea pig, my eye puffed up and I couldn't see through it.

-Right.

Fortunately for Sophie, the panic is over.

Staff at the farm washed her face and hands immediately

and already the symptoms have started to lessen,

leaving paramedic Tony and the Helimed crew free for the next job.

She's not with her family at the moment. She's with some friends

who didn't realise she was allergic to them.

She's picked one up and stroked one and had an allergic reaction.

It's not been a full-blown anaphylactic reaction. It's not as serious as it could have been.

Farm animals are often docile and friendly, but as any farmer will tell you,

it's unwise to forget many of them have the power to crush a grown adult.

A dairy cow weighs in at half a tonne.

Most of the time, they're happy to go along with the wishes of we humans, especially at milking time.

But things can change with the arrival of the vet.

And on this farm in Derbyshire, there's been a serious accident.

-A little bit further to your right, Andy, there's a calf.

-Right then.

-Are you going to jump out?

-Yeah, I'll jump out.

-I'll keep it running.

I'll give you an update as soon as I can.

Helimed 98 has been called to a farm near Matlock where a woman has been attacked by a cow.

Lee Gray knows animal attacks can be lethal.

Last year, the team treated a farm worker who later died from his injuries.

-Hello. Whereabouts is the lady?

-In the ambulance.

-OK, thank you.

Hello.

We're up against a vicious cow, apparently,

that we believe has kicked or somehow clipped this lady.

Jennifer Biggin has serious facial injuries.

She was kicked while helping a vet deliver a calf.

Was the beast stood still or did she just flick up at you?

We'd got her tethered and she broke loose and just swung round...

The team's patient is surprisingly cheerful, considering her injury,

but she, like them, knows how lucky she's been to escape with her life.

I'm going to have a real good feel around your neck.

I want to know it weren't really a blunt assault that abnormally pushed your neck to one side.

-Would you say it was or not?

-I don't know.

-No?

Are you sure you've no pain at all in there?

-It's just this shoulder that's sore.

-Just that shoulder.

-Right on the head of your shoulder?

-Just there.

-OK, sweetheart.

Cows in calf are notoriously aggressive.

Lee wants to make sure they load their patient well away from any animals.

Lee to Sammy, we've got a four-by-four vehicle on the scene.

I think it's going to be a lot simpler if we just bring her up on the four-by-four up to you. Over.

They're big animals. Never underestimate them.

They look so placid and provide so well for us.

Jennifer is driven to her flight to hospital.

She'll need surgery and her scars could last a lifetime.

Yeah, Eve's going over to pick me some...non-smelly clothes.

We'll head out of here on this sort of heading. We have a tree behind us.

Helimed 98 will have her in hospital in Chesterfield in a few minutes.

Jennifer later recovers from her injuries and returns to work with farm animals

with a new respect for their behaviour.

Farmers know the dangers animals present more than most.

They're never at greater risk than when trying to help their stock.

Gulliver the goat looks innocent enough, but he's just landed his owner in an ambulance.

Helimed 98 is touching down at a smallholding in the Dales to rescue his victim -

66-year-old Elizabeth Cook.

Liz has been butted by the goat.

She's been thrown into this fence here,

then she's come back off and landed sort of like by the tree.

My wife was taking the goat down to the croft.

He's been shut in for a couple of days, so we wanted him out.

He took exception to this, pulled her over and knocked her into a fence.

She seems to have damaged her neck in some way.

It's actually quite worrying.

The village of Austwick is a long way from a major hospital.

It's feared she may have a spinal injury.

The road journey would involve bumpy farm tracks and winding dales lanes.

The Helimed chopper will fly her quickly and smoothly to expert care.

OK, on three, guys. One, two, three.

She's done it before. She puts him on a lead and off they go.

But she's not as strong as she was and the goat is stronger than he was.

I've told her before, but these things happen.

She's been complaining of central C-spine tenderness.

Elizabeth has had a lucky escape.

Her injury could have led to paralysis, but she's soon sent home from hospital.

It's the start of a long and uncomfortable recovery.

Two months later, she is still in a neck brace -

a painful reminder of the day a pet goat turned hostile.

I thought I'd tie him to that post over there.

I don't know whether I let him go or he got his head out of his lead,

but I turned round and he was coming straight at me.

Head down, like a cartoon it was.

And I shot through the air and landed in the fence over there with my head in the fencing.

Elizabeth's injury was very painful.

However, the consequences were worse for Gulliver.

He was a meat goat and he was leaving us anyway.

He is now in my friend's freezer.

Although Gulliver is now just a tasty memory,

Elizabeth says she will continue to keep goats, despite the risks.

When I get a new billy-goat, I shall be a lot more careful. I hadn't realised he could be so dangerous.

You wouldn't think our feathered friends could do anyone much harm, but you'd be surprised.

Feeding the birds has hidden hazards, especially in the back garden.

Today, Helimed 98 has been scrambled to a bird lover whose interest in ornithology has left her in agony.

The incident we're attending,

it's a fractured neck of femur,

quite common amongst elderly people.

This is paramedic Paul Kilner's first job as an air ambulance crew member.

I'll feel better after I get my first job done.

He's responded to thousands of 999 calls before, but never like this.

The chopper is flying up into the Yorkshire Dales to the market town of Leyburn.

-How is it looking over there, Sammy?

-It looks OK.

-It looks OK on the right, Jim.

-OK.

Here in Wensleydale, there is no shortage of community spirit

and the neighbours have turned out to help the crew find their patient.

-We did see you actually waving there.

-Did you?

-Yeah, I did.

Yeah, it was a good wave.

-Is it your wife?

-No, no.

-Friend?

-It's a neighbour.

-A neighbour? What's your neighbour called?

-Mary.

-Mary?

-Yeah.

-OK, lovely.

-Hello.

-Good evening.

-Mary has fallen...

-Hello, Mary.

-..while chasing a blackbird in the garden.

-What are you like, Mary?

-She's gone over backwards on to her hip,

landed on the ground, managed to get herself up using the tree, but can't put her weight on to it.

Mary Gore was trying to save some fledgling blackbird chicks from a prowling cat

when she slipped on the grass.

Now she has a fractured femur, the biggest bone in her body.

She's very concerned about all these blackbirds.

Betty next door has got two cats and she's worried that these cats will get the blackbirds.

She'd gone to chase something and just fell over.

-You're in a bit of a pickle.

-Yes.

-I didn't want to go to James Cook. My husband died there three months ago.

-I'm sorry to hear that.

-Have you had a feel of that femur then?

-It's tender there.

Mary needs hospital treatment.

Her injury is very common among elderly people. Its cause isn't.

We've got a lot of little blackbirds coming out

and Betty has cats next door.

So they're very vulnerable.

They make a squeaking noise and this was little and it had just come out today.

I went to rescue it because it went in where Betty's cats are. I must have just slipped on the grass.

It was as easy as that. I tried to get up and I thought, "Oh, heck!"

Then I just got on my knees and I managed from there to here, shuffling.

But I couldn't get any further, you see.

We're taking you down to the hospital, but it'll be quicker to fly down.

-I've never been up in one.

-You'll be quite all right.

We'll look after you. Everything will be all right.

Mary gets her wish. She's being taken to hospital in Harrogate, instead of Middlesbrough.

They're about the same distance.

Mary has a suspected neck of femur fracture or mid-shaft femur fracture of her right leg,

so we're taking her to the most appropriate hospital for that type of injury, which is a trauma centre.

Mary says she's frightened of heights, so she's never been in an aeroplane or a helicopter

or any form of flying machine as it were.

So it's going to be a unique experience for Mary.

For the Helimed team's own fledgling, it's been an interesting case.

It'll be six months before paramedic Paul's training is officially over,

but at least now he has his first case under his belt.

Mary's getting a bird's-eye view of the Dales,

but it will be six weeks before she's fit enough to return to watch over her flock.

The patients injured by animals there.

Let's catch up on the case of the family whose holiday plans were shattered by a freak accident

before they'd even moved their car out of the drive.

It's a summer holiday getaway that is now over before it even started.

Deborah Wilkinson's two children had been packing their car for a week away when it got hit by another,

leaving them both lying seriously injured in the street.

All I can remember is I was stood at the boot, loading up for our holiday.

I can remember hearing the car behind me grinding its gear and I can't stand that noise now.

Then she came forward, hit my leg. My leg hit our car.

Our car's gone.

I'm screaming cos she'd hit me. I didn't know the kids were there.

I come round t'corner and I see Tilly laid out on t'path.

Then if it weren't for him crying, I wouldn't have known.

He started crying and I knew he were under t'car. I saw the blood on t'back of his head.

I saw the blood all over his face and I can remember seeing a big patch of blood on Simon, so I knew...

With two badly injured children, it has left her with the ultimate parenting dilemma -

which one should she be with?

Tilly's laid on t'floor, trying to get up.

I didn't know what to do or where to go.

I were in and out of the ambulance with Jason, back over to Tilly.

They all understood that I'm stuck between two kids and I wanted to be with them both.

Three-year-old Jason is now recovering at their local hospital.

A scan has revealed he's broken his pelvis, as well as the damage to his face and nose.

Ten miles away in Leeds, his elder sister Tilly is also being treated

after the car ran over both her legs.

Teddy went to the zoo. Oh, yeah, I had that...

'My right leg is broken

'and my left leg is just bruised at the top.

'My skin was off my leg.'

And it were bleeding.

And it really hurt and it were painful.

And it doesn't hurt now.

-Is it done?

-It's done, darling.

-It's done.

DEBORAH: 'It could have been a hell of a lot worse.

'I mean, two seconds prior to the accident itself,

'my third son was stood there. It could have been all three.'

I'm thankful that it weren't all three, but I'm thankful that they're alive. That's the main thing.

It doesn't matter, cuts, bruises, broken bones... They're alive.

So Mum is still torn between visiting her two children in different hospitals.

But with another holiday already in the diary,

this brother and sister can't wait to be playing together once again

after some sisterly love that made such a difference.

She saved her brother's life by moving him.

She grabbed his hand to run away.

Fair do's, she didn't make it, do you know what I mean?

But for a seven-year-old to grab a three-year-old's hand

and think to run, it's pretty smart.

That's all I can say. It's pretty smart.

I'm pleased to tell you the experience hasn't put the family off going on holiday.

They'll be heading to the coast again as soon as the children have fully recovered.

Subtitles by Subtext for Red Bee Media Ltd 2011

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