Episode 11 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's an hour away by road

and speed is the only thing that can save you.

Helimed 99 is en route to you. Over.

The Yorkshire Air Ambulance and its highly trained paramedics are scrambled 1,000 times a year.

-'Tell me what's happened.'

-'A small child has been run over.'

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

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

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

Today on Helicopter Heroes:

a little girl is crushed by a lorry.

She tried to stand, but fell down.

I love you. Mummy's here. You're such a brave girl!

The birdmen of the Pennines take to the air.

But one's just fallen 40 feet.

Was it on your spine?

The team is called to a bizarre riding accident

with three patients.

-One lost their balance. One spooked.

-Three came off.

And the weather catches out a motorist.

These things are not designed to be comfortable.

We braked, then next thing, "Boof!"

Everything about a modern cityscape

presents a lethal challenge for an air ambulance pilot.

Street lights, chimneys, wires,

all can bring down a helicopter.

But sometimes a case is so serious

that the Helimed team are forced to land in the heart of the town

despite the risks.

'What is the address of the emergency?'

'Smith Street, Halifax. A child's been run over by a wagon.'

The west Yorkshire town of Halifax is built into the Pennine Hills.

Every bit of space is taken.

'A small child has been on the path. A wagon's run over her.'

-'By a wagon?'

-'Yes, very badly, love.'

But today, Helimed pilot Matt Tacken must find somewhere to land.

A little girl's life depends on it.

-'How old is the child?'

-'About two.'

-'Is she awake?'

-She's screaming. She's got crushed legs, very badly.'

A town centre helipad has been chosen by air ambulance paramedic Glen Powell

who was on a day off and shopping nearby.

He's guiding pilot Matt in the only space available,

a road junction between a multi-storey and a car park.

It was a good choice.

They're down within metres of their patient.

-It was a bit tight.

-You did a good job.

Onboard the chopper today, as well as two paramedics,

is the Helimed's Assistant Medical Director, Dr Jez Pinnell

She was on the corner here and was run over by this vehicle here.

She tried to stand afterwards, but fell down. She has an open groin injury.

Leg's completely crushed on one side. She hasn't cried once.

She's been conscious throughout.

-Katherine's mother is with her.

-Hello, Katherine.

Katherine was standing on the pavement while her mother paid for a parking ticket.

Now all she can do is comfort her little girl.

You're doing really well. Can you stick your tongue out for me?

-It sounds like a game...

-Lovely, well done.

..but Jez can tell several vital things from the tongue test,

from his patient's level of consciousness

to how hydrated she is.

Abdo is soft and non-tender.

Breathing, both bi-laterally, seems to be normal.

The three-year-old has terrible crush injuries.

Her legs are broken in several places

and her pelvis is fractured.

Stay with me, darling.

What we're going to do, because of the injuries she's got,

we'll get her to Leeds, the children's centre.

-Can you see your mummy, darling?

-We'll try and get some pain relief before we go.

She's being very good at the moment but it is going to be fairly...

Katherine's mother told her to stand on the pavement and not move.

She did exactly as she was told when the lorry came round the corner, clipping the kerb.

It's a large articulated vehicle involved. It's a very narrow street.

The back wheels cut the corner and ran up on the pavement

and made contact with the little girl.

Whether the driver was aware she was there, I don't know.

Everyone who's helping is amazed that Katherine isn't crying.

Lots of people around now, isn't there?

-You're very brave, Katherine, I have to say.

-You are, aren't you?

-Have you ever been flying?

-I shouldn't get involved cos I'm not in uniform.

There was a lot of commotion, so I asked if it was all right.

He said he'd call the air ambulance so I just organised a landing site.

Which, when I look at it now, looks quite tight.

But the pilot said it was good enough.

I would imagine they'll be looking at pain relief as the main thing.

The kiddy's badly injured.

We want to relax her and give her something for the pain

to make her less worried about what's going on. That's a priority.

All right, sweetheart. You're a good girl.

There's a good girl. Mummy's here. There's a good girl.

Dr Jez faces a dilemma.

Katherine's calm, but her injuries are life-threatening.

She desperately needs to be in hospital, but if Jez moves her quickly,

her condition could change catastrophically.

-All right, Katherine.

-Good girl.

Dr Jez's first attempt to find a vein fails.

It's quite often a problem getting intravenous access with children.

They have much smaller veins that are harder to find.

Also, if they're poorly, they can get shut down, and if you're cold, it's harder.

So the odds are really stacked against getting an IV right.

Let me see if I can find a vein on this side.

Perhaps because she's cold and she's at a chubby age, her veins are disappeared.

-Stay with me! There's a good girl.

-We need a cannula.

While Jez continues to search for a way to get life-saving drugs into Katherine,

her mother continues to support her daughter the only way she can.

I love you, Katherine. Mummy's here. You're such a brave girl!

Good girl!

If Jez cannot get the drugs in, Katherine can't fly.

All right, sweetheart.

Can you see Joe? He's come to say hello!

If she can't fly, she could die.

You're a superstar. They're making it better.

This thing weighs about three tonnes.

It costs about £3,000 an hour to run.

There are cheaper ways to reach the sky.

But they're rarely as safe.

Paragliding is as close to flying like a bird that a human can get.

Pilots soar on invisible currents of air, using the updraft caused by hills to stay aloft.

It's a thrill that brings hundreds of so-called birdmen to the Pennines every weekend.

This is pilot Norman Fellows.

But minutes after this video was filmed of him in the air,

he's come crashing to the ground and he's seriously injured.

-'Bearing is 272 and it's 24 miles.'

-24 miles.

Helimed 98 is on the way to the hillside near Clitheroe, Lancashire.

We've had a request from Lancashire Ambulance Service to assist with a patient.

I believe it's a paraglider, initial reports they've fallen from 40 feet.

No information at the moment on injuries.

But they're in an isolated location.

Norman is badly hurt.

A ground ambulance crew is already caring for him.

To make matters worse, he's come down in the middle of a road.

-Look! There's a paraglider chute there.

-Yes, that's official.

I suspect it's in that location. Keep your eyes peeled for other paragliders.

Now paramedic Pete Vallance needs Norman's mates to gather up their chutes

and clear the landing area.

If Helimed 98's downwash inflates one of them,

it could bring down the chopper.

It's still too close to us, this blue one.

They'll have to move that canopy.

At last Helimed 98 is safely down.

Hiya.

-Sorry about the delay.

-No problem.

-This is Norman.

-Yes.

-He's 40 foot up, he's completely stalled and he's flat on his back.

-Flat on his back.

Norman's in a bad way. His mates saw it all happen.

He's come off the hill. He's flying, come over to land where the helicopter is,

he slowed his airspeed down, it stalled on him, the glider peeled back

and he fell about 40 foot onto the road.

Someone's up there now, flying over,

but it's been a nice day.

Lads have been out flying over towards Clitheroe.

It's one of those things. That's how it is with the sport.

Fantastic. Well done, mate. Has he had any loss of consciousness?

No, but he is very sweaty. I don't know if he's got any injury.

Air ambulance paramedic Dave Appleby can see his patient is likely to have broken his pelvis.

Just tell me if you can feel me doing this.

But an impact like this can also cause spinal damage.

His questions are carefully phrased to identify any tell-tale symptom.

Whereabouts is the pain in his back?

-Lower back.

-Right across the back, or on your spine or what? Do you know?

-On your spine?

-Uh, uh, uh!

What's hurting you there? Can you feel your legs?

Pilot Andy Lister used to land Navy choppers on the pitching decks

of warships at sea.

But he doesn't fancy the risks of paragliding!

Paragliding seems a very foolish thing to do indeed!

At this stage, it's unfair,

and I suspect, for whatever reason, the canopy's collapsed

and he's fallen onto the tarmac road.

It's unfortunate, because there's soft grass around!

Norman desperately needs hospital care.

But moving him will have its risks.

One wrong move could leave their patient paralysed.

Horse riders make up a big part of any air ambulance's workload.

When they come off, they hit the ground from six feet up

often at 20 miles an hour or more

and with little in the way of protective clothing.

But some riding accidents present even bigger problems

for the Helimed crews.

On a remote hill in the Peak District,

a group of horse-riders have been thrown off

and today, there's more than one of them who needs help.

One fell and it was like a domino. Then one horse jumped through the wall

and got wrapped up by the barbed wire.

It went a bit chaotic, then!

The crew of Helimed 98 have been dispatched from Sheffield

and they know they're facing multiple patients.

They tend to go out in pairs, these horse-riders, or groups,

so if something spooks one horse

it's not unusual to spook a pair.

But it's unusual for two people to be thrown.

Flying through the countryside means they often come face to face with wildlife.

Today, paramedic Sammy Wills is on the lookout for birds.

-There's another one!

-They don't know where to go!

No.

It's a bank holiday Monday, and the moors and tracks

are filled with people enjoying the sunshine.

But it means they can't be sure of who needs help.

We're struggling to find them, Dave. Did they say whereabouts they were?

There are a couple of people stood in a field there.

We'll go in, then.

Let's go back onto that road and twizzle round.

The ambulance is here, waving us in. Follow that blue car.

A local farmer guides Helimed 98 and the land ambulance

to where the riders are, next to a hilltop track.

What's happened?

This is Frankie. Three people fell. Frankie hurt her head.

Let's quickly just see. Two seconds.

It soon becomes clear there were three people all thrown from their horses.

We were going fairly fast down the side there.

The first thing I was aware of was one of the horses veered onto the road.

And then switched back.

I think then mine was basically stuck with nowhere to go

and decided to stop.

I carried on with the inertia and the next thing the horse is on top of me,

running past, and then I saw these two ladies and came to help them.

Sweetheart, can one of you help me? Can one of you kneel down where her head is?

I want you to hold her head while we have a quick listen.

Make sure everything is OK.

Nikky and Frankie seem to have similar injuries.

But the helicopter can only take one of them to hospital.

Paramedic James Vine has to work out who needs the most urgent treatment.

Let me have a feel of your back. Any pain down through here?

Yes or no, when I press, Frankie.

It's sore there? OK. Here?

I think as one was trying to overtake and the girl lost her balance,

horses tend to naturally avoid the rider on the floor.

And they tried to get round each other.

As a rider, if you're not expecting it,

you go one way, the horse goes the other, and that can unseat you.

-There's a lot of grazing. Can you wiggle your feet for me?

-Oh, gosh!

What? A lot of people say that to me!

Don't worry about it.

Don't feel no pain up here, though?

Our other lady hasn't been knocked out, so...

-OK.

-It seems very similar back pain.

James and Sammy suspect both riders could have spinal injuries.

Don't move at all for us, Frankie.

Everybody ready? One, two, three, roll.

It's decided that Nicky needs to get to hospital fastest.

So Frankie will head to hospital in the back of an ambulance

while Charles gets a lift in with his wife.

Dave, we're going to lift this patient to Sheffield Northern. ETA approximately 13.00.

I've got no network coverage here for the Ashay

so can I pass the details through you? Over.

Both patients have very similar injuries.

One's just in more pain than the other.

That's why we're taking this lady.

All three are soon on their way to hospital. One in a car,

one in an ambulance, and Nicky in a helicopter.

A multiple horse collision is a first for the Helimed team.

Happily all the riders made a full recovery and are back in the saddle.

Let's return to the case of Katherine,

the little girl run over by a lorry outside a playschool in Halifax.

She's badly hurt.

On a town centre street,

Dr Jez Pinnell is fighting to save a little girl's life.

It's a battle he's in danger of losing.

Her legs are crushed.

You've got beautiful eyes. We want to see them! There's a good girl.

Now Katherine's father has rushed to the scene.

-You're doing very well.

-Good girl, Kat.

I love you, darling. There's a good girl.

Katherine has noticed who's arrived.

Daddy's come to say hello! Shall we show Daddy Joe?

We're just, um... Jez is doing some treatment on this kid here.

Then we're going to LGA.

Dr Jez is struggling to get a line into Katherine's tiny veins.

He wants to give her painkilling drugs.

But the cold weather and her age are against him.

Mummy's here. There's a good girl.

Good girl.

Finally, he decides to try new technology.

The only other option we've got

is to put one of these little needles into the bone marrow.

-Right.

-It's a bit unpleasant

-but from a safety point of view, it might be the best bet.

-OK.

-Whatever you think. Stay with me, Katherine.

-All right, baby.

The paramedics call this the bone gun.

It was developed with the help of the SAS to help battlefield medics

to get painkilling drugs into wounded soldiers.

Today it's Jez's last hope.

It's almost the same as having access directly into a vein.

The amount of time it takes for drugs to get into the bloodstream

is almost instantaneous through the bone marrow.

At the key moment, Mum's comforting voice is there to distract her daughter.

All right. Look at Mummy. Look at Mummy. Where is she?

Hello, darling. There's a good girl.

It's worked.

Katherine's parents are keeping calm for the sake of their daughter.

-All right, darling. Mummy's here.

-Daddy's here as well.

-Yeah.

They know she needs their reassurance as much as the medic care she's receiving.

Can we just draw up a bit of morphine, mate. Ten of morphine.

She may not be so responsive now with that stuff in.

If she looks like she's in pain, we'll give her a bit more.

Are you in, sweetheart?

Hello. Stick your tongue out for me.

Can you stick your tongue out? That's lovely!

Pilot Matt must reverse out of his town centre landing site.

If an engine fails, it will allow him to land back on the junction.

It's risky, but it could save Katherine's life.

The local paramedics who were first to arrive

are the last to leave.

They are clearly shocked.

I don't think I've ever seen anything like it.

Not one tear throughout the whole thing.

A couple of cries of pain when she was being moved, but apart from that...

Unbelievable. Very brave little girl.

Within minutes of leaving Halifax,

Katherine is at the Leeds General Infirmary.

The Helimed team have done all they can.

This is Katherine. She's three-and-a-half.

She was standing on the kerb and a lorry has mounted the kerb

and gone over pelvis and legs.

Katherine is alive and in the best hands.

Whether they can save the three-year-old's legs is still in doubt.

Coming up: surgeons start the fight to save Katherine.

But her survival is far from certain.

You can't help but feel for the parents and what they must be going through.

Remember the intrepid birdman

whose paragliding accident left him with serious injuries?

Let's get back to his rescue.

This is paraglider pilot Norman Fellows,

soaring in the afternoon sun.

And this is Norman two minutes later.

His pelvis shattered, he's in a lot of pain.

Helimed paramedics Dave and Pete fear the downed pilot

has also broken his back.

Is that all right, Norman? It's not hurting you?

He just stalled it. He just came out and stopped.

It flew back on him. He just dropped out.

Now Norman faces more pain

as the team roll him so he can be strapped onto a spinal stretcher.

It's you to tell us to roll, cos you've got his head.

OK? Norman, we're just going to move you onto our board now

so you'll feel the padding at your back being moved away

and a board coming in.

It's essential his head and back are kept in line.

One mistake and he could be paralysed for life.

The main thing is don't let his head move, all right?

-On you.

-Ready, brace, right now.

Aghh! Aghh!

Well done. Well done.

-OK, mate.

-Aghh!

My leg! My leg!

But at last they've done it.

Two, three.

Time to return Norman to the air

but this time for a flight to hospital in Blackburn.

All right, Norman, we're nearly there, mate.

His mates are packing up their chutes after seeing after seeing a friend plunge 40 feet.

Their appetite for thrills seems to have disappeared for today.

He's complaining of a pain score ten out of ten at the moment.

We're reluctant to give him any morphine and pain relief now

because his BP has been quite low.

But it's now picking up after we gave him some fluid

so we'll try a bit of morphine.

OK?

Your left leg, painful?

In a few minutes, Norman will be undergoing x-rays on his spine.

Obviously just the way he's fallen

and from what he's saying about his injuries,

there's a chance that he could have done some quite serious damage.

Hopefully not, but you can't exclude it at this moment in time.

The accident has shattered his pelvis.

But he could have many other injuries

left to be discovered.

Two weeks later and the extent of the damage is very apparent.

I've got a broken pelvis, broken hip, ruptured bladder,

ruptured kidney...

Both sides of my wrist are broken.

I've got two plates in this forearm.

That one's only half a bone left.

I've got to have more surgery to have that replaced in my elbow.

And I've got a plate in my upper arm.

This had been Norman's first flight after recovering from a broken ankle.

He'd spent three hours in the air before things went badly wrong.

I'd had a previous accident.

I'd broken my ankle and it was my first flight from then.

What I should have done is practised take-off and landings,

built my confidence back up on landings.

But the weather was that good,

I took off, hit this thermal and that was me, I was sky-diving.

Then I made my way down, came in for the land,

the wing got a bit twitchy, I tried to slow it down as I came in.

Then it just dropped from behind me.

As soon as I've realised it, it's gone.

I've hit the floor.

I just remember a massive pain shooting up my back.

But paraglider pilots are a tough bunch.

Norman thinks he'll soon be ready to take to the sky once again.

It's just a matter of get back fully fit, then get mentally prepared.

And start from basics again, I suppose.

Then hopefully I will get back up there.

There's no escaping the weather in the north of England.

These hills endure some of the UK's heaviest rainfall.

Yet 50 miles that way, people living near the Yorkshire coast enjoy a climate

almost as dry as North Africa!

Nothing to give us any trouble today.

The cloud base is scattered at 2,200.

Every morning, the Helimed team know the forecast will decide whether they fly...

-Morning!

-Hi!

..or their life-saving service is grounded.

We've got 40 degrees out there. Eight degrees viewpoint, so no chance of fog.

Today it's good news but that's not always the case.

These helicopters are based here at the UK's highest international airport.

Leeds Bradford is nearly 1,000 feet above sea level,

which means it's often in the clouds. And that can be a serious problem.

It's cold, it's icy and it's foggy.

The Helimed choppers are going nowhere.

But for the team at Leeds Bradford airport,

this doesn't mean it's time to sit back and relax.

-What have we got?

-A car flipped over.

If the crew are unable to fly, if they're the nearest available paramedics, they will respond.

You'll be first on scene. The others are coming from Keighley.

The chopper's left in the hangar and they use their trusty Volvo estate.

On a road near Ilkley, this four-wheel-drive has skidded and rolled over

several times.

-How are we doing? What's happened?

-Bit sore.

-Where are you sore?

-Down the middle and my neck's sore.

Let's have a chat with you over here. Have a sit down.

We'll sort out the details.

We came round the roundabout. We were on the inside lane.

He swerved round the outside, seemed to skid on something

and then swerved and hit the barrier, completely flipped over

and crossed the carriageway so we slammed the brakes on and crashed into each other.

The car has done what it's designed to do, which is take the battering.

The driver of the 4x4 is taken to Leeds General Infirmary by land ambulance.

The air ambulance paramedics will return to Leeds Bradford airport.

If the weather has cleared, they may yet fly today.

He's been a lucky bloke. The car's taken most of the impact.

By rolling over, it's not come to a sudden stop and that's taken a lot of energy out of the impact.

So fortunately,

a bump on the head and a sore neck, he's got away with it very lightly.

Ask any helicopter pilot and they'll probably tell you

that high winds are what they hate to see on the weather forecast.

Any more than 60 miles per hour

and this chopper's grounded because of the way the gales affect the rotor blades.

High winds and driving rain are making flying conditions hazardous at Sheffield heliport.

But bad weather often brings work for the Helimed team

and today the gales have caused a freak accident.

Helimed 98. We have lifted for the Hemsworth area. 98 over.

In the small town of Hemsworth, a roadside tree has been toppled by a powerful gust.

The driver of this hatchback managed to stop,

but the two cars behind her didn't.

We've got no further details. The ambulance service are stretched.

We've only got a response car running on it.

The ETA is about ten minutes to the scene.

Paramedics Al Day and Pete Vallance

are getting a rough ride in Helimed 98.

Not the best of days for flying.

We've been offline earlier today due to heavy rain.

And the wind that's cleared that is now pretty uncomfortable for flying.

Sandra Leach has pins and needles in her arm.

Worrying signs for someone who's just endured a major impact.

She probably has whiplash, but it could be a spinal injury

and paramedics Pete and Al must treat her for that until an x-ray proves otherwise.

These things are not designed to be comfortable!

They're functional.

Bring your head straight. That's it. There we go.

The team are on their own for the moment.

Ground ambulances are all out, dealing with the victims of the gale.

She's had minimal contact with the car in front, but the car behind has given a severe impact

on the rear.

At the moment she's complaining of some neck pain.

There's no ambulances available so though she's stable, we'll extricate her from the car

and fly her to Pinderfields.

The three motorists caught up in the crash are shocked.

If the tree had hit one of the cars,

the consequences could have been fatal and Sandra's passenger knows that.

We saw her brake, obviously, for the tree.

So we brake and next thing, "Boof!"

He's run into the back of us.

Oncoming traffic were flashing their lights to warn of a hazard ahead.

I didn't expect to see a tree, though!

Are you all right, there, guys?

Sandra was driving a soft-top Vauxhall Astra.

It's lucky she was. If it had been an ordinary saloon,

the team would have had to call the fire brigade to cut off the roof to free her.

Never mind. You can buy another one, now!

I hope!

Sandra needs to be checked out in hospital.

But the weather rules out a flight.

She doesn't seem to be too seriously injured and it's very windy

and she'd be buffeted around in the helicopter, and it would be very unpleasant.

Being air sick is no joke, and a real risk for patients flown by helicopter.

Hemsworth is a former mining community and the locals are strong on self-help.

Men with saws soon arrive to clear the timber.

I haven't stopped since 7.00 this morning.

It's gone from flooding to tree damage now.

Dave, still no sign of this ambo. Have they been diverted somewhere else?

'I'll give them a buzz. They told me three minutes, just now.

'I'll call them back.'

Eventually, Sandra's lift arrives

and she can begin her journey to hospital.

One thing's for sure. Her insurance claim won't be the only one

that mentions the weather today.

The good news is, she was just suffering from whiplash.

Winter is bad news if you work for the NHS.

Not only does the cold worsen many diseases and encourage viruses to spread,

but the younger and fitter often find themselves dialling 999

for sporting injuries.

Snow has covered Yorkshire. Even though it's just November,

the county is in the grip of a very harsh winter.

Temperatures have plummeted to minus 14 degrees,

the coldest on record.

While communities are grinding to a halt, for many the snow has brought a chance of some exciting action!

But today one 12-year-old's lust for adventure

has left him in serious trouble.

And now he needs help from the air.

-Do you think it's that one?

-I don't know if it's sledging or what he was doing.

It's a 12-year-old, so I assume someone's with him.

Michael Foster has been out sledging with his friends.

But unfortunately for him,

he chose to tackle this slope in a slightly unconventional way.

He's having snowboarding lessons for his birthday.

I think he wanted to have a go at standing up, cos he was doing it last year as well.

He thought he had the hang of it, but he's just come off.

A land ambulance crew has just managed to get to Michael.

He's in a lot of pain.

So paramedic Paul Bradbury, who usually flies with the helicopter,

has decided to call in today's crew of Helimed 99.

He should just be out in the open there.

There's that big wood there.

Back at base, dispatcher John Pickford is co-ordinating the rescue.

Paul, they're just coming up now, so they should be there in the next two minutes or so.

The crew of Helimed 99 know their patient has an ankle injury.

But in weather like this, they also know things can quickly get much worse.

Conditions and situations deteriorate really quickly.

These people probably won't be completely adequately dressed

for long-term exposure out in these conditions.

So we need to get them to a place of warmth and safety where their injuries can be treated.

Soon they spot the ambulance.

Ambulance at four o'clock, mate.

And then a crowd gathered half-way down a steep slope.

-That's the ambulance, mate.

-People by the trees to the right of the road.

-Yes, that's them, surely.

-Yep.

He's gone down, stood up on his sledge and gone over on his ankle.

-He stood up on his sledge?

-Yeah.

Tops, nothing but a broken ankle. Got a good pulse.

Can't get a line in him. He's absolutely freezing cold.

OK.

Darren's used to dealing with sledging accidents.

But it takes him a moment to get his around what Michael's been doing.

-Did the sledge have a seat on it?

-It's behind you.

-But you were stood up on it?

-Yes.

That's a lesson, then! You won't do that again!

He got on his sledge straightaway and started to come down.

And he did a flip and snapped his ankle.

And we didn't know he was in pain at first cos he wasn't doing 'owt.

And like,

Matty rushed to him, saying, "What's happened?" And he'd snapped his ankle.

-I tried to move him cos we didn't even get a go at sledging.

-We phoned his mum.

We've got a big sleeping bag with handles on it.

We'll put him in that and carry him back up.

It has two effects. It warms him up and makes him easy to carry.

Apparently he'd been stood up on the sledge and he's come off.

They heard a snap. So he's been like this ever since.

Like a lot of these things, it could have been far worse.

He's still got a potentially serious injury to his ankle.

The main thing is it's in the middle of nowhere here

so access is a big problem. The land crew were on scene first, but it's a trek back to their vehicle.

So that's increased time to hospital.

And he'd be getting colder and delayed for any care needed to his ankle.

His birthday is on Friday and we booked him for Saturday for his first snowboarding lesson.

As the weather draws in, Michael's off on a short flight to Rotherham Hospital.

Certainly not the way he expected his sledging trip to end.

I went out to the woods. Just got there. I ran in front of everyone else,

stood on the sledge and realised I was going to fall off.

So I jumped off.

And that's when I heard a really big snap!

I was really upset at first, especially when I had to cancel his snowboarding trip with the school

and cancel his snowboarding trip for his birthday.

But his spirits are up now. He's got his sense of humour back

and he's all right at the moment but I'm sure he'll get fed up!

Michael's passion for winter sports is undiminished.

He hopes to be back on the ski slopes this winter

despite experiencing the risks of taking on the snow first hand!

You may be surprised to hear that hot weather is almost as bad as winter

for increasing the emergency services' workload.

It's high summer and the temperature is soaring.

Yorkshire's holiday hotspots are filling up.

But as the shorts go on and the shirts come off,

some injuries become more serious.

The Helimed paramedics are feeling the heat too, today.

But they're on their way to an accident that's common in the barbecue season.

A child burned while trying to light a fire.

'Just quickly, Ray's just been back on. Patient has between 18 and 22% burns

'to his right hand and abdomen.

Superficial burns to his head and face.'

The boy was accidentally splashed with flammable liquid by a friend.

It caught fire instantly.

-Right arm and a bit on his abdomen that was exposed.

-Face?

-Not that we can see, no.

-He's about 12?

He's 12.

With a burn like this, the first thing to do is to cool it. Water will do this.

The next is to cover it. The team have used clingfilm, ideal because it won't get embedded in the wound.

It will also stop air circulating around the burn and ease the patient's pain.

For information, right arm, partial thickness...

Sammy applies a burn shield.

Oh, laddy, you are going to like this!

This soothing pad contains aloe vera.

It will ease the pain until he's taken to the paediatric burns unit at the Leeds General Infirmary.

Can you feel the gel?

Good lad.

The patient doesn't want an injection.

Many of us are squeamish about needles but it means the paramedics can't administer morphine,

the strongest painkiller at their disposal.

Their patient is also not keen on the idea of taking to the skies.

He's really scared but if his mum can come with us, he'll come.

He doesn't want the needle.

I'd like to lay him down, but we'll just wheel him out.

Helimed 98 takes off for hospital with Mum on board for support.

Despite 10% burns, he'll soon recover from the accident.

And he's unlikely to be the last casualty of this heat wave.

The patients who were under the weather in more ways than one

thankfully are all on the mend.

But now let's return to Halifax in the Pennines,

the town gripped by the case of Katherine,

the local girl badly injured in a freak accident

outside a playschool.

Surgeons at Leeds General Infirmary will work through the night tonight.

They're beginning a series of operations to save little Katherine Ogden's legs

crushed by the wheels of a heavy lorry.

I've got two little boys myself,

one who's not much older than she is.

As a parent, you'll can't help but feel for the parents

and what they must be going through.

In the following few weeks,

Katherine undergoes a dozen operations.

Her broken bones are repaired. Muscle and skin tissue is grafted.

And her mother never leaves her bedside.

I think we're still in shock. We've not dealt with it yet at all.

There have been remarkably few tears.

We've been trying to keep strong for the children and keep strong for Katherine.

Where's the rest of her frock?

Two months and 18 operations later,

Katherine is out of intensive care.

The doctors have rebuilt her legs and the skin tissue surrounding them.

But they are so badly damaged, she's having to learn to walk again.

Ready, steady...

Well done, Katherine!

She's now seen her legs and we talk to her about how beautiful they are and how special she is.

She's just accepting what she is.

Mummy's got you.

She just gets on with it. That's what a three-year-old does. She's amazing.

Where's Grandma? Where are we going to walk to?

She's got a real will about her.

Well done, Katherine!

She's been a real battler.

I think somebody's going to get physio star of the week!

She does understand the reasons for things

and if you explain to her why you're doing different things,

she's able to work things out for herself.

-What's the time, Mr Wolf?

-Six o'clock!

And a few weeks after those first tentative steps,

Katherine is out of hospital.

What's the time, Mr Wolf?

The reason she's come on so much is we've tried to lead a normal life as far as we can.

Which has meant bringing her to the park, taking her on the school run,

so that she's just had an ordinary day-to-day life.

Reach up! Daddy lift you across the top?

Yeah!

There were times in the hospital we thought she might not walk again.

Times when we thought we might not see her again.

So soon, relatively, after the accident, it's just amazing

to see her up and about, walking and enjoying herself.

Hello, Katherine!

How are you today? Are you all right?

What have you got in your shop for me today?

-Some Weetabix.

-Weetabix, yes.

Somebody was talking to me the other day about how much of a close call it was.

It's only now it's hitting us how seriously injured she was

and how it was touch and go for a while.

The fact that there were so many people involved in making sure that she was going to make it

and that she was going to come back to being the little girl she always was

we can't thank people enough for everything that they did

in order to help save our little girl's life.

I'm pleased to say Katherine's recovering so quickly,

she'll soon be well enough to return to playschool.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd