Episode 14 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.

Roger. Helimed 99's en route to you. Over.

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

"What's happened?"

"A small child's been on the path. A wagon's ran over him."

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 paraglider pilot crashes in the Dales.

It's the impact with the wall that's done the damage.

This patient doesn't want to be helped.

Get off now!

Her head injury leaves the paramedics with a headache.

A cliff-edge somersault leaves a climber needing the teams' help.

-I actually landed on my head.

-That's all right, nothing important.

-And the drivers who take on tough terrain and lose...

-You don't feel cut in half, do you?

..the off-roaders who take it too far.

How's that for a view?

The Yorkshire Dales are world famous for their beauty.

So perhaps it's not surprising that some extreme-sports enthusiasts

are happy to take big risks

to enjoy a bird's-eye view of these valleys.

When the weather's right, paraglider pilots flock to the Pennines.

Leaping off a hill with what looks like a giant kite above you sounds dangerous.

And it is.

The updrafts that keep these pilots in the skies are unpredictable.

And when there's an accident,

they face the same forces as the victims of an air crash,

with very little of the protection.

Reports are a little bit sketchy at the moment.

Apparently, a paraglider's come down

and reports are that he's sustained quite a nasty fracture to his leg.

A paraglider pilot has hit a dry stone wall at high speed.

Down to your left, James.

INDISTINCT SPEECH

No crew on the scene.

Keep an eye on that chute.

The crew know if there's been one paraglider in the air

there are likely to be others.

-Clear left.

-Clear right rear.

The accident has happened in a remote part of Wharfedale.

Morning, gents.

The air ambulance medics are the first to make it to the patient.

-What's happened?

-I hit the wall at about 30 mile an hour.

-No worries.

Just keep nice and still for us.

There is a real possibility that Lee Gaffney

might have injured his spinal chord.

His damaged leg can wait.

Let's make sure you've not spanked anything else, bar your ankle. We can fix that.

-Smashing. Any pain in your tummy?

-No.

-OK. Any pain down here?

-No.

-So, it's just that left leg?

-Yes.

This wall has probably been standing for centuries.

For a human body to knock it down, the force of the impact must've been huge.

We were down there and we saw them paragliding,

and the next thing we saw was him hitting the wall and then be dragged over it.

-His leg was definitely bent the wrong way.

-Yes.

With his patient's neck immobilised,

James can now begin to examine Lee's leg. And it's bad.

What we're going to do is, if we can just roll you onto your back.

-I can't move my foot.

-You can't move your foot.

My foot was overhanging itself.

The break is so severe, the bone is sticking out of his leg.

It's not the ankle! It's the bone in my leg. I can feel it cracking.

It's going to be sore as we get this into a splint, but once it's in, it should feel a lot better.

-OK?

-Can I have some morphine?

It's not often a patient requests morphine,

but paramedic James agrees that he is going to need it.

-You're not allergic to any medicines?

-No.

-Have you had any medicines this morning?

-No.

-You get to fly with engines now.

-Excellent.

We're going to be going to Harrogate. We're going to take it nice and steady now.

We'll roll you onto a board. We need to be careful to make sure nothing else is injured.

It does look just like it's your ank... your leg.

It's going to be sore.

A broken bone as bad as this can crush or even sever the arteries around it.

If that happens, it can stop all circulation below the injury.

And that could mean Lee would have to have his foot amputated.

The skull is one of the hardest parts of your body. And it has to be.

Your whole personality is locked away in here

in a few pounds of jelly we call the brain.

And even a minor blow to your head can have bizarre effects on you,

as the crew of Helimed 99 are about to find out.

They've been called to an accident in one of north's most fashionable commuter towns,

high in the Pennines.

The tightly-packed terrace houses of Hebden Bridge

command high prices,

thanks to a railway line that links them to Leeds and Manchester.

RADIO COMMS

But pilot Chris is lucky.

The accident's happened near a sports field.

Hi, there. This is approximately 42-year-old Nicky.

She's been knocked down by a motorcyclist that's come flying down the road.

It's hit her about 35-40mph.

The motorcycle's finished about 40 yards down there. He's fine.

She's quite agitated. I think she's probably got a closed head injury. She's got quite a swelling.

Whether there's a bit of hifema, as well, I think possibly.

Nicola Morris is badly hurt.

She's showing the symptoms of a serious brain injury.

It's called cerebral irritation.

-Can you open your eyes?

-I want to get up now!

-We need to look at -

-Get off!

-Can you open your eyes?

-Get off me!

-You're all right, Nicky.

-Get off!

She's been strapped to a spinal stretcher, designed to protect her neck.

It also helps restrain her.

Their patient has been lucky to survive

a nasty road accident outside her home.

This lady's run across from the houses

as a motorcyclist has been coming along.

The motorcyclist has tried to swerve out of the way,

possibly hit her with his shoulder,

and then he's lost control and gone into a telegraph pole

and then he's fallen off his bike.

You're going to be all right.

Nicola's behaviour is totally out of character.

The team know that it can often be followed by a sudden deterioration in her condition.

-Get you off to hospital now.

-I want to get off now!

Although it's hard to ignore a patient who's shouting at you,

Dr Ben would much rather Nicola was like this, than quiet.

It's a sign that whilst pressure may be building up inside her head,

it's yet to reach a dangerous level.

-Try and relax, sweetheart. We know it's uncomfortable.

-Get off.

-Get off! I want to get up now.

-We know you do.

-Get off!

-Get off! Get off! Get off!

-Nicky, relax for me.

Get off!

Doctor Ben knows surgeons may have to operate

to release the pressure inside Nicola's skull.

But for the moment, she's stable.

She's quite agitated and needs to be in a trauma centre as soon as possible,

which is why we called the air ambulance.

Our transfer time by road would be at least 40 minutes,

whereas she'll be in LGI in probably seven minutes.

I can't get out!

Nicky, we don't want you to get out. Can you remember what's happened?

She is agitated, which is dangerous in the back of a helicopter.

She's thrashing about. Obviously, she's injured

and it's difficult for her to remain stable.

Ben's just spoken to the doctors at the hospital to see which we're going to go to.

-We're thinking LGI because of the neuro place there.

-NICKY: Please open it! Please!

-We need to set off. We need you to be safe.

-Open that.

The sooner Nicola is flown to Leeds General Infirmary, the better.

This countryside has been shaped by wind and rain over millions of years

and it's the smoothness of the Pennine rockfaces

that attracts climbers from all over the world.

Sadly, when they lose their grip,

the consequences can be serious.

For some people, their thrills come from hanging off rockfaces, dangling high above the ground.

Even though most are fully prepared with ropes, harnesses and helmets, sometimes things go wrong,

and it's often down to the Helimed team to sort things out when they do.

Today, a 30-year-old climber has fallen off Stanage Edge,

a huge gritstone cliff in the Peak District.

He's somersaulted down the face, landing on his head,

and now he needs urgent help.

Helimed 98. Lifted from Sheffield. 98.

"98. Roger."

Flying from Sheffield,

it'll take the crew less than five minutes to reach their patient.

But also on board today, Doctor Steve Rowe,

himself a climber and keen volunteer with the local Mountain Rescue team.

You always worry about patients with head injuries.

Stanage, although not a very high cliff,

it's high enough to cause injuries.

We have, unfortunately, been to some fatal accidents on Stanage.

Even when we get here, getting access to the patient can be difficult.

You quite possibly have to hover the plane to get near the patient

and then we rely quite heavily on Mountain Rescue

to actually do the leg work really

and get the patient to the aircraft.

I'd like to try and find a place to land and get you off, if possible.

-The top's the best.

-Up at the top.

-You'd rather be at the top?

-Yes.

Do you want to hover the plane and meet at the top?

No, no. For us to fly to the top and jump out.

-OK.

-If you're happy with that?

-I'm happy with that.

They decide to land at the top of the crag,

but with their climber having fallen to the bottom, now they need a way down.

-Whereabouts is the accident?

-I've not heard anything.

-No?

We're just trying to weigh up or identify where the patient is,

obviously at the bottom of the face.

As we've landed, just disorientated a little bit,

so just looking now for a way to get down.

But Steve soon recognises a rough path to the bottom.

Eventually they find James, dazed but conscious,

at the bottom of the rockface.

I've got a gash on the back of the head. I've got... neck is quite sore,

-sort of about between my shoulder blades.

-Yes.

But I can still wiggle my toes.

As he's fallen so far, Steve wants to make sure he thoroughly checks James over.

-How's your chest? Is there any pain there?

-Er, no. No appreciable pain.

Deep breaths for me.

-Bit of bruising on my sternum.

-OK. That's gone down to your abdomen.

But it soon becomes clear which part of his body took the force of this fall.

-I actually landed on my head.

-That's all right, nothing important, then!

He got halfway up, he was putting a bit of gear in

and his foot slipped before he could clip it.

So he fell back to the ledge, halfway up,

and then the second bit of gear that he placed came out,

so he's fallen again straight down to the floor.

It all happened in such a quick flash

by the time I realised he'd hit the deck, he was already there.

That helmet's the best £40 you've spent.

-It saved your life.

-Tell me about it.

That's some significant damage to that helmet.

-It's going to get hung up on the wall.

-Trophy!

All right, James. 30-year-old conscious male climber. Head injury.

After such a long fall, James needs to be checked out in hospital.

But it's too steep to carry him back up the cliff to the helicopter,

so it's now down to volunteers from the local Mountain Rescue team to carry him out.

We're not going to rush at all because it's a little bit hazardous.

We'll try and get you warmed up

and these guys are experts at carrying you down.

James, 30-year-old male climber's fallen about 25 foot.

Head injury. No loss of consciousness.

So while Pete and Steve prepare James for his long trip to the roadside,

Pilot Jim relocates the helicopter.

-Just down the bottom?

-You know the car park down there?

I think that's going to be the best, easiest access.

It'll make it far easier and safer to fly from here to hospital.

We're going to be moving James shortly.

Pop a longboard underneath him, slide that up and get him secured

to immobilise his neck and back, he's complained of neck pain.

It'll be the Mountain Rescue guys coordinating getting him down to the aircraft.

For the Edale Rescue Team,

helping climbers like James is typical work.

He's got a head injury, but no loss of consciousness. He's got central neck pain.

This is bread and butter for us. I think this is job number 107.

And quite a few if them have been on Stanage, so it's pretty routine.

And remarkably, James is already considering

joining a mountain rescue team himself.

You know the ironic thing? A couple of weeks ago,

I was speaking to my friend who works for the local Mountain Rescue team.

I hope to do mountain training and join the team.

-He said, "Come along. You can be a patient and see how it all works."

-There you go!

-I think I might -

-You can report back now.

As the delicate process to move James gets under way,

his friend and climbing partner Ollie

has to tell James' family the news.

He's fine. He's up, he's awake, he's conscious, he's cracking his usual jokes.

-Bad ones.

-They're very bad.

He's like he normally is.

He's just got a small kind of gash to the back of the head.

And James' shocked family are already suggesting new hobbies for him to take up.

According to your brother, you need to take up darts.

-There's sharp ends on those things!

-Maybe the soft, sticky Velcro ones, eh?

OK. Ready, steady and move.

If you can just relax.

After such a long fall, James is exceptionally lucky to have only got the injuries he has.

But that's been largely down to the equipment he was using.

This is James' helmet. It's done the job it was designed to, which is absorb impact.

You can see from the damage to the plastic here,

that's where he struck the rock.

Fortunately, the helmet has absorbed the impact.

The polystyrene foam inside has acted as a shock absorber.

That's £40 well spent.

Ready, steady, lift.

Keep it level. I'm going to pass it to you, like that.

He's taken it all very well. Obviously, he's potentially had a very serious fall.

Hopefully, he's got away with it without too much

or too many serious injuries.

He's got a laceration to his head, as we know, but he's very alert.

Him and his colleagues and friends

have been having quite a laugh up there, so that's good.

And lower. That'll do.

Just before we started this climb, we both said we'd been climbing really well today

and we both felt really good.

We were both expecting to push it this afternoon.

But, erm, obviously it's not to be!

But I'm sure we'll be back another day.

I don't think it'll put him off too much.

James is on his way to Sheffield's Northern General Hospital.

Doctors there discover that as well as bumps and bruises,

he has a fractured bone in his back.

His trip in a helicopter didn't put him off climbing, though.

He and his mates are already back out in the Peaks,

and he has a new lifesaving climbing helmet.

Now, let's return to the rescue operation

launched to save a paraglider pilot badly hurt in the hills.

And it's not going to be easy.

Lee Gaffney partially demolished this dry stone wall when he came down to earth.

He hit it at 30 miles an hour.

It might not have been as severe if he'd cleared the wall.

It's the impact with the wall that's done the damage.

Unfortunately, that, erm, that's how it's gone

and we've dealt with what we've found.

Paramedic James Vine is worried he may have a spinal injury,

but they don't need an X-ray machine to see that he's broken his leg.

He's got an open right-ankle fracture,

which is obviously painful for him.

We've given him 10 milligrams of morphine up to now.

We're going to give him a further amount,

just to be able to make him comfortable.

Just keep this hand really still for me for a second. Sharp scratch coming up.

James is worried the displaced bone may have crushed,

or even severed, nearby arteries.

It's vital he finds a pulse below the break.

If he doesn't, Lee may lose his foot.

It's good news and X marks the spot where the pulse is.

He marks it so he can make sure it's still there later.

It'll be sore as we get this into a splint,

but once it's in, it should feel a lot better. OK?

We're going to give it a clean, because the bone's come through.

Then we'll get it into a splint, all right, pal?

Swear or grit your teeth as much as you like.

All right, chief, on ten. Just try and keep really still for us, OK?

Infection in an open wound is a real risk.

Everyone knows, despite the morphine, this is going to hurt.

All right, bud. OK.

The main thing is to get him comfortable

and make sure he gets off to hospital and we get an X-ray done

and all the...

..all the nerves and everything are all fine.

They are using a special spinal board that splits in two.

-Just hold that for me, buddy?

-It's called a scoop.

It reduces the amount they have to move patients

who may have a spinal injury to a minimum.

There we go, mate. OK? Pop that right leg straight. That's excellent.

Just slot it at that end.

That's it, we're in at that end.

OK, just nice and steady down to the helicopter.

How are you feeling there, mate?

-Pain.

-Pain. Score the pain out of ten, ten being the worst.

-Eight.

-What was it when we got here?

-12.

-A 12.

Lee's passion for paragliding has got him into trouble before -

with his wife, who told him it was dangerous.

Right now, she's offering nothing but support for her injured husband.

-Does this have air conditioning?!

-Unfortunately not, no!

We don't even have a service of drinks and light refreshments.

The Yorkshire Dales is the playground of the region's big cities.

Paraglider Lee and his family, from Leeds,

spend as many weekends as they can in their Dales caravan.

But he's not going to be back here for a while.

X-rays will determine whether he has any spinal damage.

And Lee is already wondering whether his trip in Helimed 99

was his last flight in the Dales.

Coming up... Surgery pioneered in Russia

helps paraglider Lee grow missing bone.

But will he ever get back in the air?

It's been a lengthy process, but there's progress being made all the time.

Remember the pedestrian knocked down outside her home in Hebden Bridge?

The team are worried she may have a brain injury

and its symptoms are making life hard for them.

High in the Pennines, Helimed 99's being prepared for take-off.

Road-accident victim Nicola Morris has cerebral irritation,

a condition that can be the sign of a severe brain injury.

Please can we get off?

Please? Please can we get off?

Nicola's agitation is proving a problem for her rescuers.

This is typical when somebody's had a brain injury.

Not enough to make them unconscious, but what we call agitation.

So she could have intracerebral bleeding, intracranial bleeding

from being hit by the motorcycle.

Neck braces are uncomfortable

but they're designed to protect patients from possible paralysis.

There's no explaining that to Nicola.

SHE SCREAMS

Get off!

The flight to Leeds takes just ten minutes,

but for paramedic Tony and Dr Ben, it's felt much longer.

They're much happier on the ground with an unstable patient.

Just get off, love! Get off me now!

It's little wonder head-injury patients are often mistaken for drunks.

Friends say Nicola's a polite, placid woman. But not today.

-Just get off me. Get off now.

-You're doing really well. Just relax.

Her confusion is posing a real threat to her personal safety.

This helipad's 150 foot above the centre of Leeds.

Doctor Ben's so worried by Nicola's behaviour, he's calling in an anaesthetist to assess her.

If necessary, he can sedate her.

She's taken all the straps off her spinal board.

We're worried about the safety of her being on the helipad.

They're keeping Helimed 99's doors shut for Nicola's safety.

-Hi. Thanks for coming.

-That's all right.

It's such an awkward situation.

She was confused, but it's becoming increasingly agitated.

She's managed to undo the buckles.

They're keeping her contained inside the aircraft for the moment.

She seems to have calmed down a lot.

Everyone's relieved when Nicola is finally persuaded to sit in a wheelchair

for the short ride into the hospital,

where neurologists are waiting to examine her.

Over the next 24 hours at the LGI,

tests on Nicola's brain reveal nothing serious, just severe concussion.

But she does have a fractured cheekbone and a lacerated liver.

A week later she's back in Hebden Bridge,

baffled by her behaviour that day.

I'm trying to pull them wires out and everything.

-SHE TUTS

-Outrageous!

I can't believe how calm there are! They're so calm.

It must've been quite worrying for them,

being so high up in the sky for one thing,

and then on the roof, actually at the hospital, must've been very worrying.

Thankfully, she's now recovered.

She knows how lucky she was to survive a very serious accident.

I'd literally gone out of the house and gone to cross over the road

and the motorbike, unfortunately, tried to avoid me,

but his shoulder hit me

and his bike kind of went that way and I went that way.

-We're going to get you off to hospital now.

-I want to get off now!

The Helimed team knew exactly what was causing Nicola to behave so strangely that day,

but she had some explaining to do to the friends and neighbours who witnessed her rescue.

They were really worried for me

because all they could see

was me kind of looking like I was out of it completely.

Nicola's now fully recovered from her injuries

-and she's training to be a teacher.

-Good boy!

DOG SNARLS

-OK, Rav, here we go.

-You're going to show me how to drive one of these things properly.

Off-roading is a popular hobby.

Today, it's my turn to have go.

We're entering the course now.

Successful 4x4 driving is very much a matter of planning ahead.

If your hobby is testing yourself in the terrain in one of these,

it's best to have a bit of expert tuition.

But even if you're an experienced off-roader,

sometimes, it can all go wrong.

Officially, it's called off-road trialling,

Unofficially, this lot call themselves mud pluggers and bog hoppers.

The challenge is to beat the terrain,

and when you push gravity in a high-performance vehicle like this,

occasionally gravity wins.

He's up behind that roundabout where the plaque is.

It's rolled on its roof, that vehicle, hasn't it?

It looks like the patient's near that other 4x4, mate.

That's where the ambulance crew is.

The driver has taken a massive blow to the head and back from the force of this impact.

He's conscious, complaining of stiffness in his neck. We managed to get a collar on him.

He's got tenderness to the left side of his back, but not into his central back.

They got him out of vehicle before we arrived.

He's complaining of right knee pain.

The driver is Ian Bell from Durham.

Darren has is own unique way of asking his patient if he has any spinal damage.

You don't feel cut in half in any way, do you? No?

-Like you can't feel your legs?

-I can feel my legs.

-You can feel me touching you?

-Yes.

This off-road club meets regularly

and takes safety very seriously.

But there is always a risk in motorsport.

It was a crash at speed, we've been told,

so we've got to treat it as he's got a serious neck injury.

But as he's in the back of the Range Rover,

we may as well just drive him up, with somebody holding his head while they bring it up.

Keep the legs off this stretcher, lads, until we're all the way in.

Keep coming, keep coming.

And rest. That's lovely.

I'm going to take the casualty up to James Cook in Middlesbrough,

which is about ten minutes to the north of our current location.

Right, Ian, we're going to be on our way. Two secs, all right?

There's all sorts of different things going off at once.

He's banged his head.

He's banged it hard enough to crack his helmet,

which is a significant impact.

He has been unconscious. He's having lucid intervals where he's coming round

and then he seems to be unconscious for a few seconds.

It's only a short flight across the North York Moors from the farm to Middlesbrough,

but Darren's patient is getting agitated.

-Is he getting distressed?

-He's agitated, mate.

-Cerebrally?

-Yes.

That's it. Keep still.

In the confined space of a helicopter, it's dangerous.

Doors. Check yours. Check at the rear, please.

Safe-lock rear. Patient's trying to move around.

I've got that crane. I'm going to put it on my left-hand side and swing round the hospital.

Ian's racing helmet also provides clues

as to the nature of his injuries.

The report says he's rolled over maybe more than once, so he's banged it in several places.

So it looks like his whole head's been like a rag doll.

It's got polystyrene inside to further absorb any sort of impact.

But even with all that, there's a good two inches of padding,

even with all that, some of it will be transferred through to the head.

He's kept in James Cook Hospital overnight for observation.

His back is bruised, his tongue badly bitten and he has concussion.

But a few months later, Ian's off-road club friends are back at the farm

where the accident happened.

As he took off, there's a big void here,

so it made him drop further than he should've done.

If he'd have been landing onto flat ground, he'd have probably driven away.

He was just very unlucky with the circumstance and the way it happened.

Ian's Land Rover's body shell was a total write-off

but the engine survived,

and along with its driver, it's back on track.

Amazingly, he's choosing not to wear the helmet

that probably saved his life.

The accident was caused by the throttle sticking.

I remember that was a problem, for some reason.

Why I didn't react by knocking the engine off, I do not know.

I can't answer that one and I find it very frustrating.

The only thing I can remember is changing into second gear.

I remember a tree going over the car upside down, which didn't make sense.

I can remember falling out of the car upside down when the seat belt was loosened.

Then I remember being in a helicopter, and that is it.

The whole point of this sport is to take on the terrain in the middle of nowhere,

and Ian recognises that having an air ambulance nearby was fortunate.

I think I've been very lucky to be able to walk away from it.

The air ambulance is the only way to do it.

We've had difficulty getting into site today with cars.

We've had to use these cars to pull other vehicles in,

so the air ambulance is the answer to lots of things like this. It's invaluable.

This is one of the latest generation of 4x4 vehicles

and it can take on the steepest of hills.

But plenty of petrolheads prefer to do their off-roading

in something with a little more history.

Few motorists take greater pride in their wheels than Morgan owners,

and on the banks of the River Trent in Lincolnshire,

enthusiasts have been putting their sports cars through their paces on an off-road track.

Enthusiast Martin was a passenger in a mate's car

when it turned over and rolled over him.

A local ambulance crew has called in Helimed 99.

It's feared Martin may have damaged his spine.

There's no other injuries, apart from midline...

This classic three-wheeler sports car weighs half a ton

and every pound has rolled over Martin's body.

So, when you say he's had that effect,

-has that been outside of the car?

-Yes, the car's gone over him.

And it's whipped him out and then back in again.

I think it's thrown him clear.

The Morgan was built in an era where cars didn't have refinements like seatbelts.

Ready, steady, lift.

All right, Martin? Everybody happy?

He was sitting there. He got up, like that, and then he went over and the car went over.

And then he was sort of trapped against this seat.

But he was trying to get out. In theory, you're supposed to try and take the roll.

Richard's perfectly all right, the driver. That's the way it is.

The Morgan three-wheeler is a motoring icon.

First built in 1909,

Stirling Moss owned one,

and in its heyday it could top 100 miles an hour.

It's survived the crash relatively well,

but Martin's now on his way to hospital.

You've got to suspect quite a few injuries.

The crew have assessed him and found that he's got some pain across his back,

which, if that is the only injury,

I think you've come out pretty well, actually.

It'll take us a bit longer to get there, so...

It will take Helimed 99 just 10 minutes to reach Hull Royal Infirmary,

where doctors are waiting to examine Martin.

With the force of the car rolling, it's bent him over the door

and it's rolled onto him.

But the car's carried on rolling down and rolled off him.

There's potential there for serious injury,

but the crew have done a full assessment

and could only find the initial back problems

that's giving him the pain at the moment.

It turns out Martin's been very fortunate.

Despite bearing the full weight of the rolling car,

his spine is undamaged and he's soon released from hospital.

And his mishap does nothing to dampen his enthusiasm

for one of Britain's best-loved cars.

Keep that steering straight. Power on now. Power, power.

Power, power, power. More power.

Meanwhile, I'm finding out exactly how tricky off-roading can be.

-It made such a difference!

-Well done!

The challenges of this track are enough for me,

but some off-roaders find the steepest of hills and just have to give it a go,

sometimes with disastrous results.

The sort of results the Helimed team are about to find

in a quarry in West Yorkshire.

98 overhead. Landing in the quarry. Over.

A Land Rover has turned over and rolled down a steep slope.

The 23-year-old driver, Damien, wasn't wearing a seatbelt.

Hiya, chief. Big deep breaths in for me.

And out.

And again.

I'll have the traction splint and board, please.

And then we'll get him on.

By all accounts, the vehicle tried to go up the hill and got to about halfway,

where it's lost traction

and tumbled down to its resting place now.

I'd be surprised if it had ever got to the top, personally, but he had a good go.

Paramedic James Vine knows he's dealing with broken bones,

but even with his patient's help, it's not easy to know exactly how many and which ones.

Keep really still. Don't try and help us at all.

-My leg...

-I know, but because your leg's hurting a lot, we need to be careful.

You've rolled a Jeep a long way down a hill. OK?

The loose-shale bank Damien attempted to get up is near vertical at the top.

His body will have been severely battered on the way down.

And now the police are taking an interest in what happened.

The site's been recently closed due to the danger involved in it.

We can see the danger involved, in causing serious injury to people.

Damien has broken his femur, the biggest bone in his body.

He is going to need all the pain relief he can get

as the crew straighten his leg with a traction splint.

HE SCREAMS LOUDLY

Even with the help of morphine, gas and air

the pain is still immense.

The traction splint will help stem potentially life-threatening blood loss into the break

and it will reduce complications later.

We'll approach the helicopter. When we get there, feet first.

Mate? Shall I tell your lass you're going to the hospital?

The forces involved to break that bone in your leg, your femur, are fairly significant.

So he's got a fairly important distracting injury at the moment.

Presume the worst and hope for the best.

Get him into LGI and let the doctors give him a head-to-toe examination.

Orthopaedic surgeons at the Leeds General Infirmary

have been told to expect a patient with traumatic leg injuries

and possibly other as yet unknown broken bones.

During the next two days, Damien undergoes a couple of operations.

As well as his leg, he has broken his pelvis.

It was just one of those things. I thought it would be a good idea at the time. Obviously it wasn't.

I remember the windscreen flying out. It didn't smash, it just come out full.

The Jeep did roll over me, definite. I remember that.

My head was near the petrol tank. The diesel was dripping on my head.

So I'm lucky, to be fair.

Damien is very grateful that the air ambulance was on hand to help him out.

I needed to be in hospital. If the air ambulance wasn't there, I wouldn't have got to an ambulance.

How could I have got down there from the middle of a quarry?

The metalwork that's helping mend his broken bones looks substantial.

So is the list of injuries.

I got operated on on my left femur.

Er, I've had my pelvis operated on. And I broke four of my ribs.

I think I'm OK because my pelvis has been broke straight.

It wasn't a bad break on my pelvis.

So hopefully, it won't affect my walking or anything.

Damien and his mates are still keen 4x4 drivers

and once his bones have fixed,

he says he will be back off-roading.

Now that was a lot harder than it looks. Trust me!

And if you want to learn how to drive a 4X4 safely,

there are plenty of centres like this.

Now, let's catch up on the case of the paraglider pilot,

badly injured on a flight in the Pennines.

Helimed 99, alpha.

Lee Gaffney is taking a helicopter ride out of the Dales.

His days of flying himself might be over

after he came to earth,

smashing into a solid Yorkshire dry stone wall.

Paramedic James Vine is worried he may have a spinal injury.

With a bone sticking through his leg, it's clear it's badly broken.

I was doing a bit of ground handling, practicing paragliding,

and I was just jumping off a little...

..five-foot ridge, well, a little hill,

and then, er, a freak gust of wind got me.

The pain score initially was 10 when we got on the scene, and was about nine.

He's still in an awful lot of pain with that leg.

Doctors at Harrogate District Hospital X-ray Lee.

His neck and spine have escaped major damage,

but his leg is shattered.

Later, Lee is transferred to Sheffield's Northern General Hospital.

Using a technique pioneered in Russia,

surgeons remove fragments of broken bone

and encourage his tibia to regrow.

Two months later and the long road to recovery is just beginning.

I broke my leg in five places.

There was some bad bone in my leg that had to be removed.

So the loss of bone had to be regrown,

and with the frame that's been put on,

it's been a lengthy process,

but there's progress being made all the time.

-What's your ankle managing to do?

-Not a lot.

Show me. Can I?

If I hold you and you move it...

Surgeon Simon Royston has been putting Lee's leg back together.

In the meanwhile, just carry on doing what you're doing.

Work at your walking, your physio, your range of movement, all those things.

Lee's progress is good. He's going to have some of the cage around his leg taken off today

and some of the wires running through his leg removed.

Time for some pain-killing gas and air.

I feel good. I feel like progress is being made.

Obviously, when you've just got a pot on, it's a different type of break.

It's a long, drawn-out process with this frame

due to the complexity of the breaks and various o0ther things.

Six months after Lee's crash, high in the Yorkshire Dales,

it's the National Paragliding Championships.

This morning, the weather is against us.

As you'll notice, it's a tad drafty.

At last, Lee's back on his feet. Despite all he's been through,

he hasn't yet given up hope of getting back in the air.

Sadly, Lee's still grounded by his leg. It's yet to fully heal.

And the weather looks like keeping most of his fellow pilots out of the sky, too.

What's the likelihood of it calming down?

It's definitely too windy at the moment.

We've got people out on the hills checking the actual wind speed,

because it can just switch off and we've got to be there.

I can't wait to get my hands back in it and...

..be up there with the rest of you on that hill.

There's no flying this weekend.

But next year, Lee's determined to be here and taking to the skies.

And I'm pleased to say Lee's already making plans to buy another paraglider.

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