Episode 16 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.

The hospital's an hour away by road,

and speed is the only thing that can save you.

Yeah, roger. Helimed 99's en route to you. Over.

The Yorkshire air ambulance and its highly trained paramedics

are scrambled a thousand times a year.

-"Tell me exactly what's happened."

-"A small child has 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 car careers into a house

and a disabled teenager's trapped in his wrecked bedroom.

Could be some serious injuries, but till we can get him out, we can't assess him.

There's a freak accident at a seaside funfair,

and the victim's nervous.

You're all right, chicken. Don't worry. Like a ride on a magic carpet.

There's a dramatic rescue on the motorway.

Hoping there's someone not still trapped.

And a man with a fan comes down to earth with a painful bump.

Ooh, that hurts! I must have been doing about 50 mile an hour.

There's no place like home for making you feel safe and secure.

The doors are locked, you're behind four walls,

and you've got your family around you. What could go wrong?

One day in South Yorkshire, a freak accident proved

that even at home, you can be vulnerable.

Today in a small Yorkshire village,

there's an incident so big it needs every emergency service.

The police, ambulance service, doctors, fire brigade

and technical rescue response team

are all heading to where a car had collided with a house.

Low right, one o'clock.

Got quite a turn-up of emergency services here, guys.

And despite what it looks like, this isn't a garage.

It's a disabled teenager's bedroom,

and he's not been seen since this car left the road,

demolished the wall and ended up on top of his bed.

Difficult to get a decent view.

It's clear this is serious,

for the ambulance service's top doctor, Alison Walker,

is already here, with a worrying update for Tony and Paul.

He's trapped underneath the car.

John tells me he's got a pulse of 154 and his sats are 74.

So we've got to just keep him conscious, OK?

-He's 13, is he?

-13 years old. Spina bifida.

Rhys Proud had been watching telly in his bedroom

when the car came crashing through the wall.

All we can see is his hand at the moment.

He's in a wheelchair. He's got spina bifida.

Could be serious injuries, but till we can get him out,

we can't assess him.

The scene's so dangerous, paramedics still can't get to their patient.

And with half the wall now missing,

it's clear the building has become extremely unstable.

Everyone else, back over this lane. Get them back.

This is a very serious incident

where we have a child in a wheelchair

trapped underneath the car currently.

He is speaking to us, but he's got a very fast pulse rate,

and he's got a very low oxygen-saturation level.

These teams have trained to rescue people from collapsed buildings

after earthquakes and bomb attacks,

but no-one ever thought they'd be needed

after a runaway car on a housing estate.

Looks like the driver's lost control of the vehicle.

We've been told it's a different transmission than he's used to.

The elderly driver's already been taken to hospital,

but Rhys has now been trapped for more than half an hour.

For his mum, there's nothing she can do

but wait and hope for the best.

I just saw it coming through. If I'd been in the kitchen

with their door shut, I wouldn't have known the difference,

because he just went... It were just one bang.

And it were quiet until I started screaming.

It's obvious that rushing isn't an option.

Everyone can see that the lintel is already starting to crack.

But the longer Rhys is trapped under the car,

the worse his condition will become.

But these firefighters know they will not be able to get to him

without some serious risk to both them and to their young patient.

The local air ambulance has become one of the UK's most popular charitable causes,

right up there with famine relief and animal welfare.

It costs seven grand a day to keep two choppers like this in the air -

but the results can be priceless.

It's the end of the summer, and the last bank holiday of the year

in the seaside resort of Bridlington, but on the prom,

there's been a terrible accident.

-"99 receiving."

-What's your message?

"Um, a very large ride on the seafront,

believed to be a log flume,

has ejected two people from a height into water."

"I believe they're conscious, but with serious leg injuries."

"RRV on scene is reporting one leg partially amputated."

Helimed 99's leapfrogging the holiday traffic

at 150 miles an hour. But it's not going to be easy

landing near their patient.

Where are they expecting us to land?

I'll have a look, see where we can put her.

Brid attracts two million visitors a year,

and it looks like most of them are here today.

I can drop you down literally where these people are on the front.

-Yeah.

-But I'm going to have to go, cos the water's coming up and over.

OK, mate. No worries. I can do that.

You want to open the door, mate, and just shift them,

and I'll see if I can put it on the green or somewhere else, mate.

"Air ambulance is looking for a good location to land."

Where those people are moving away.

Pilot Chris is going to have to drop off paramedic Darren on the prom,

-but there's no room to land.

-You got the short wall?

Yeah, I got the short wall.

The crowd has cleared, but Helimed 99's rotor blades

are still feet from brickwork. There's no time to waste.

There you go, mate.

Waves are threatening to break over the sea wall.

Helimed 99 must move or be swamped.

The log flume is one of the seaside funfair's busiest rides,

but 58-year-old Ann Smallwood's badly hurt.

Her right leg, just below her groin,

-has a degloving injury.

-Right.

She's scoring her pain as being relatively minor.

-She's fearful of helicopters...

-Oh, dear!

-..unfortunately.

-She is.

-I am, as well, Ann. They're terrible things.

You need to go to hospital and get your leg fixed properly, yeah?

If we put you in a vehicle, it'll take you a long time.

-Can my husband come with me?

-Probably not.

There's enough room for me and you to be cosy,

and we'll get you to hospital really quick.

Trust us. I wouldn't get on it if it were a problem.

-Where will my husband be, though?

-He'll be put in a police car

and he'll come down to you.

Ann's husband David can only watch and comfort his wife.

She was riding the flume when she and Isabella, her grand-niece,

were thrown out of their boat and into the water.

Ann was trapped, but all she's concerned about

is her fellow passenger.

-David, is our Isabella all right?

-Yeah. Yeah.

She's fine.

She's being looked after. She's fine.

She's better than you are.

Isabella's safe in the local minor-injuries unit.

But Darren's concerned that Ann's condition may deteriorate.

He needs Helimed 99.

Yes, 99. Am I right in thinking they're clearing a spot for me?

They're clearing the green spot above, where we looked at before.

Confirm again you want me to land on the green.

They've cleared the roadway just in front of it.

Yeah, roger. Whatever space is big enough for you to get into, mate, use that.

But there's a problem. Despite the best efforts of the police

and coastguard, holidaymakers are refusing to clear

the only suitable landing site.

There's people just walking straight across.

-Yeah.

-They're not far enough away.

But pilot Chris is forced to abandon his landing.

Unless he can land, Ann may have to take her chances

in the holiday jams on a 30-mile road journey to hospital.

Statistically, the UK's safest roads are motorways.

Despite the speed and the traffic,

separating carriageways means there's fewer collisions.

But paramedics know that, when there is a crash,

they're likely to be dealing with very serious injuries.

This is the longest road in the UK -

over 410 miles.

The A1 snakes its way up the backbone of Britain

from London to Edinburgh.

It's a route favoured by long-distance lorry drivers.

But today one of them is in serious trouble.

At Helimed HQ, dispatcher Dave Gardner

has spotted a large plume of smoke on the motorway cameras.

It looks like a serious job.

Ah, it is. Wagon on fire, blocking two lanes.

So it could be... He's on fire, and possibly trapped as well.

The crew of Helimed 99 are just minutes away.

Jobs like these are usually fairly straightforward

to spot from the air.

I've got smoke.

-OK.

-Got that visual?

Yeah, visual.

Just hoping there's someone not still trapped.

Kevin Pickford's lorry is now fully on fire,

and just seconds earlier, Kevin was trapped under it

after being thrown through the windscreen.

But he was dragged out by five other drivers

who risked their lives to save his.

I turned round my van, ran to the wagon where he was

with about four other lads,

and then we had to, like, push the cab off him

for another couple of lads to drag him out before it set itself alight.

He'd came through the windscreen, hadn't he?

I was trapped underneath it, and four guys pushed the cab up.

They've done a sterling job. Sterling job.

Paramedic James Vine needs to fully assess Kevin's injuries.

"Helimed 99, receiving."

My legs were trapped underneath.

Do you remember what's happened with the actual crash, then?

-What...

-The traffic was starting to pile up,

so I slowed down, but obviously, because it's wet,

there was no traction.

One casualty, one land ambulance required,

with chest injuries. We do require the fire brigade.

The cab is still on fire.

A burning lorry is a huge hazard,

and although the back of the truck was empty,

there are still things in there that could cause a serious risk of explosion.

Anything in the, er, in the cab at all?

Just little, um...Calor Gas bottles, you know, for the little cooker.

I know what you mean, yeah. Have you heard them pop yet?

Just to update the fire brigade, there is Calor Gas cylinders

in the actual cab, in the actual driving cab.

I don't know if I'll be able to get to talk to them

when they arrive. They'll probably arrive the other side of the fire.

Those gas canisters can go off like bombs,

so pilot Chris decides to move the helicopter

to a safer spot, away from the burning lorry.

Everyone knows that until the flames are out,

there's a serious risk from the tyres,

the fuel tank and the canisters inside.

Just walk with me. You all right, there, Sammy?

He might be a little bit...

Anything's better than nowt, isn't it, at the moment.

-SHE SPEAKS OFF-MIC

-No. I'd rather just put him down.

-SIREN WAILING

-If that's an ambulance, mate,

will you make sure there's someone on the other side of the road

so it don't go any further down?

This ambulance was actually heading to another 999 call,

but James will now be using it for his patient.

-Can I have your board, then?

-Yeah, no problem.

It's a wagon overturned. He's been trapped.

Lads have dragged him out, but as you can see,

-it's a bit of a mess.

-Flippin' 'eck!

-I know.

His chest's banged. He's bust all his ribs, I think.

They need to perform what they call a rapid takedown,

an ingenious way of transferring a standing patient

onto a spinal stretcher without risking further back injury.

Mate, this feels really strange, but you really have got to trust us.

OK? What I want you to do is just relax back.

-OK. Ready, steady, lower.

-Just you relax. Go floppy, mate.

-It'll be painful. Move your leg down.

-Move his feet.

-That's fine.

-OK. Yeah.

All right, pal. And we'll just go up the board.

James suspects Kevin may have serious chest injuries.

It'll take too long to relocate the helicopter

back to the motorway, so Kevin is going to travel

in the diverted land ambulance to the local hospital

while the firefighters start work to put out the fire

that could so easily have killed him.

Kevin spends several days undergoing treatment and tests

at Harrogate Hospital. But, for a man catapulted through the screen

of a moving lorry, his injuries are relatively minor.

So, it looks like the cab's actually sheared off completely

and on its side.

Yeah. A bit scary looking at that now, isn't it?

This is the first time Kevin has seen what happened to his truck.

His last memory was when he was trapped under the cab,

surrounded by flames.

I just remember everything sort of disintegrating round me,

and seeing flames, and there seemed to be a second impact,

and that's what's eventually thrown me out through the screen.

As far as I can remember, I rolled over a couple of times...

..basically ended up on my side,

and looking up and seeing the cab come down on top of me.

And I was trying to look up, obviously,

but I remember seeing bits of falling...

It must have been cloth on the interior of the cab falling down.

I remember seeing someone's foot stamping them out

because it was round me, sort of thing, and I just felt...

Someone just grabbed my shoulders, sort of thing,

and once they'd pushed the cab up, he just dragged me out

and got me as far away as possible,

cos it was taking over quite a bit by then.

And Kevin knows he owes his life to those total strangers

whose quick thinking quite simply saved his life.

If they hadn't got me out from underneath the cab,

I wouldn't be here now, definitely.

So it was either that or barbecue time.

I'm glad they did.

I just can't thank them enough.

Now, let's return to South Yorkshire,

where the battle to free young Rhys Proud from his wrecked bedroom

is nearing its climax.

He's trapped, badly injured, and no-one can get to him.

13-year-old Rhys Proud had been watching telly in his bedroom

when a car came crashing through the wall,

knocking him out of his wheelchair.

We can't get to him to start treating him,

so we're only observing what he's like at this moment in time,

and that is, he's got an airway and he's breathing.

We need to get him out fast, get a better assessment of him,

and then take it from there, really,

get him to hospital as quickly as possible.

The driver of that vehicle there is not used to the vehicle's controls.

He's come down the road, hit the accelerator instead of the brake,

and you can see the aftermath here.

So far, paramedics have only been able to get to Rhys's outstretched hand.

But as more bits of his bedroom are carefully removed,

eventually a specialist medic from the technical response team

is able to squeeze in next to him.

It's a confined space.

It's an unstable building. I've seen cracks in the joists

actually holding the roof up at one point,

and the wall's gone in, so it's quite precarious.

We're relying on these guys so we can get him assessed and treated.

But this is all about planning ahead.

They're bringing Helimed 99 closer to the house

so there's no delay in getting their patient to hospital.

-What do you want to put him in?

-We've got our green scoop.

-Shall we get that?

-As time passes, concern for Rhys grows.

This is one of the most complicated incidents

the emergency services around here have ever faced.

We have had other patients. We've got the driver of the car.

There were other children and family in the house,

and they've all had to be assessed by paramedics and technicians.

So the plan at the moment is that we are going to,

with fire and rescue, and the police Urban Search and Rescue team,

lift the car, and move him out.

We will do a reassessment of him out here,

see if there's any lifesaving interventions he requires,

and taking him to the helicopter and flying him

where they've already been alerted that there's a child coming in

with significant trauma.

Eventually, after an anxious and very nervous hour,

Rhys is pulled free.

Right. Spin him, Ewan, then head-first.

Incredibly, he's able to talk to the medics,

including an A&E consultant who's driven from the local hospital

to bring emergency care to the roadside.

Rhys's disability makes checking his injuries even more difficult.

He doesn't normally have any sensation below his waist,

so assessing if he's damaged his legs or pelvis is extremely hard.

-Can you feel your hips?

-They know the only way to be certain

is an emergency X-ray in hospital.

His mum is just glad to see her son alive.

Very tight compartment, but the guys have slowly moved things out the way

to make sure that he's fine. No further dangers placed upon him.

He's done really well. He's been really calm.

He's been an excellent patient. But he's been moved out

on the air ambulance, so we'll take him in and do a full assessment.

Rhys, when we set off, it'll be a bit noisy.

It's not deafening, but we can't really hear you speaking.

If you feel like you're going to be sick -

we'll only be flying for five minutes, so hopefully not -

just stick your hand up in the air. We'll get you sorted out.

Just chill. You'll be fine once you're in hospital.

Let's flip this glass out. Keep your eye closed.

There's glass round his eye.

While emergency teams continue their work

at this most bizarre crash site, Rhys is now on his way

to the specialist children's hospital in Sheffield.

Many thought it unlikely he'd even come out of this alive.

But it's only when he arrives at the trauma centre

that the true extent of his injuries can be discovered.

Gravity is one of the biggest enemies of the Helimed team.

Every day, the pilots have to make sure

the combined weight of the fuel, crew and passengers

doesn't exceed the ability of this helicopter's two engines

to get them all off the ground.

But there's one factor pilots can't calculate,

and that's human behaviour.

It's bank holiday, and the east-coast resorts

are flooded with day-trippers -

so many that police trying to clear a landing site

for Helimed 99 on Bridlington seafront can't cope.

"99, the people are too close in, mate. Sorry."

Yeah. Roger, Chris. I've alerted the police.

They're going to deal with it now.

-I bet you weren't expecting that, were you?

-I want to go.

I can't...

Ann Smallwood desperately needs a flight to hospital.

Her leg was almost severed in a freak accident on the log flume,

and paramedic Darren needs the help of his colleague Darrel quickly.

We need Darrel to bring the combi board over.

200 feet above the crowd,

pilot Chris can only wait for the trippers to move away.

"99, there's too many tourists sat close in,

all thinking it's a good laugh."

"You still got people blindly walking straight across the area."

Finally a patch of prom is cleared, and Chris makes his move.

All clear, mate.

OK. Brilliant, Chris.

Ann was staying in a holiday caravan nearby

when an outing ended in a freak accident.

Privately, they're concerned that her wound may have been infected

by the water.

I've found a degloving injury,

which is where the skin and soft tissues are torn away

from the back of her right leg. There appear to be no bone injuries,

though we can't completely exclude that.

Right. You've got pain, and it's about six out of ten, yeah?

We're not going to give you a great big dose of morphine

and make you feel like you're going tripping somewhere.

We'll just give you a little bit, just to take the pain off the edge,

cos we have to move you and put you onto a stretcher.

Despite the pain, Ann has other things on her mind.

I've got to go back to see to my dog, George.

Listen, your dog's sorted.

Everybody's sorted out except you.

All right.

Up on the prom, pilot Chris is recovering from his landing.

I suppose you could call it fairly tight.

It's not the tightest, but it's challenging enough,

with the winds, and the public getting in the way.

The police and coastguard helped to move them away.

Soon he knows he'll have to do it all over again in reverse.

All right. Shut your eyes, Ann. Don't look.

Ann's unwittingly become a tourist attraction,

but she doesn't want the same thing happening to anyone else.

David, I need to see the police.

I need to, because that's not safe. I don't want nobody to get -

Nobody else is going on it, love. It's not going anywhere. Just relax.

Nobody else is going on it. It's shut down.

An investigation into the accident's already started.

They got stuck at the top of the float.

Someone went up to clear the way...

..and then, when it went,

it hit the bottom, and there weren't enough water in it,

so it hit the side instead of hitting water,

and threw them clear of the ride completely.

They were trapped in between the two outside walls, apparently.

They'll not do anything with it until they've spoken to you.

-Ann is understandably frightened.

-I don't want to have my leg off.

You won't. Now, listen to me. We're going to go now.

-It'll be a bit noisy.

-Will you come with me?

I'm not leaving you.

But the Helimed team's banter appears to have helped her forget

her fear of helicopters. She's about to lift off for hospital in Hull.

-Oh, dear!

-You're all right, chicken. Don't worry.

It's like a ride on a magic carpet, only you don't have to pay.

On a sunny day, the drive from Bridlington to Hull

can take an hour or more. But just ten minutes later,

Ann's on final approach to the Royal Infirmary,

where doctors have been warned she may need urgent plastic surgery.

That night, Ann undergoes a major operation,

but she wakes up to another nasty surprise.

Her accident's headline news.

We got to the highest point,

and it just went down so fast, and just came off the bottom.

I can remember it looked awful.

It looked like a shark had had hold of my leg.

And, if laughter's the best medicine,

Ann reckons paramedic Darren is the man with the right prescription.

They were cracking jokes, and he said...

I kept saying to him, "Have I got to have my leg off?"

And he kept saying, "No, because we only take legs off on Sundays."

And he went, "Oh, it IS Sunday." They were fantastic.

Absolutely first-class. They were absolutely brilliant.

'I can't thank them enough.'

Ann's just relieved her great-niece escaped almost unhurt,

but she won't be joining her at the seaside funfair next time.

Even the most innocent pastime can land you in a freak accident.

You may think taking a walk in a park's pretty safe.

Think again.

Children are often a factor in the most bizarre incidents

the Helimed team have to deal with,

and even a simple playground swing isn't without risk.

Today at a park in South Yorkshire,

Helimed 98's touching down to rescue a pensioner

who's been involved in a mid-air collision with a youngster.

We tied it up. The swing's come round with somebody on it.

-Right.

-It went into the small of her back, right-hand side,

and off the floor. Definite fracture, right clavicle.

Got central mid-C spine pain as well.

-Right. OK.

-Ten out of ten initially.

Patricia Sullivan was doing voluntary work,

keeping the playground near her home tidy, when the accident happened.

She gardens and that every day,

plants...plants all down there, tidies up and all that.

She were just picking rubbish off on that play area there,

and some kids were on the swing,

and they've gone round and knocked her off her feet,

and she's landed on her collarbone.

On three. Two, three, hup!

She's in a lot of pain, and local paramedics fear

she may have injured her spine as well as broken her collarbone.

So, she's had five morphine now, hasn't she?

Patricia's friends are keeping her spirits up.

No-one blames the kids. They were doing what kids do.

But paramedics Darrel Cullen and James Vine know

their patient needs X-rays to rule out a serious injury.

-Is it just digging a little bit?

-Yeah.

I'll just take your... Might be just your shirt catching at the back.

She's taking off for Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield,

where doctors discover her broken collarbone

is her most serious injury. She's soon back at work,

but is now keeping her distance from the swings.

Air-ambulance crews are often first to the scene of accidents,

and that means they have to be pretty self-sufficient,

and when your patient's a bird-man strapped to a parachute

and a propeller, you have to be prepared to improvise.

This is paramotoring, the cheapest form of powered flight,

taking off with just a parachute and a petrol-powered fan

strapped to your back.

It's not everyone's idea of luxury travel.

When things go wrong, there's very little to stop a rough landing

turning into a serious accident.

In a North Yorkshire cornfield,

Mick Burniston has crashed at around 50 miles an hour,

and he's badly injured.

RADIO CHATTER

Now it's down to some fellow aviators to come to his rescue.

"We've got a paraglider, and a gas tank is attached to his back."

"They're going to try and disconnect it. Over."

Mick's blue canopy is easy to spot from the air.

Yeah. We're just above him now.

Received. Overhead scene. Landing shortly. Over.

Two passing walkers have come to his rescue,

but he'd already been stuck here, facedown in the field,

for more than a quarter of an hour before anyone found him.

-We're going to create our own crop circle.

-We certainly are!

I think he's broke his collarbone, and he's definitely broke his ankle

-just above his boot down there.

-OK. Which leg?

-Bottom leg.

-It were all that side impact?

-What's his name, sir?

-Mike Burniston.

-Hiya, Mike.

I haven't been able to remove that bottom strap.

He could have serious injuries. He's broken his shoulder blade

and has an open fracture to his ankle.

But crashing so hard at such speed with a heavy engine on your back

means he could have done even more damage.

I couldn't get into the wind cos I were going that quick.

I must have been doing about 50 mile an hour.

Have you got any pain round your neck or your back?

No, just my shoulder and my leg.

You want to just come top-side here for me?

What I'm going to ask this guy to do, while we're moving round,

if you come round here... All I want you to do is support his head.

All right. What I don't want to do is for him to move back,

cos he's injured elsewhere. We don't want to risk

that that might be covering up him having back or neck pain.

I saw him flying around earlier this morning,

and then it's Tim, who's on leave from the army,

that was having a walk with Emma, and luckily saw the parachute

coming up above the corn, otherwise...

If the parachute hadn't billowed, I don't think they would've seen him.

I think he's got... There's some bleeding there,

so I'm assuming he's got an open fracture of some sort there.

But despite his serious injuries, there's a far more urgent problem.

-Does it unzip, Mike, on the back?

-What?

There's a zip across the back. Does it unzip from there?

The distinctive smell of leaking petrol is a huge worry

for paramedic Pete Vallance.

The engine's fuel pipe ruptured when Mick crashed,

and this leaking motor is still hot,

and still firmly attached to his back.

We saw his parachute. He was lying underneath it.

Luckily he was conscious as he was there.

Just talked to him, phoned the ambulance service,

and within five minutes, you guys arrived.

At last they've worked out how to separate Mick from his fuel tank,

to the relief of everyone.

Mick's wife has heard about the crash and has rushed to help.

It's paramotoring. It's something he's done for a few years.

Um, he's never crashed before.

Um, it's basically a parachute-type thing,

and a motor on your back, and it allows you to take off

from a flat surface, as opposed to off the top of a hill.

It's something he enjoys doing and does quite often.

We're just going to take your boots off, Mick.

All right. Yeah. OK, here we go.

Mick's ankle is badly broken.

The bone's sticking out, and he's losing a lot of blood.

Get his sock off, and we'll have a look at that foot.

I think we've got to control this.

It looks like he's certainly got an open fracture to his ankle,

and he's also complaining of pain to his shoulder,

so we're querying whether or not that's actually fractured as well.

But we're controlling his pain well with morphine,

-so we'll be bobbing him off to Harrogate shortly.

-Ready, steady...

And roll.

-OK?

-Wonderful. Stay as we are.

He's quite a big fella, really. When we lifted him over,

it took six of us to get him into the aircraft.

It's not my idea of fun. It seems a little bit too dangerous,

in much the same way that climbing rocks, riding horses

and riding motorbikes is.

Up and left, and if we can carry on in...

He was lying for 15 minutes when we'd seen him.

He could have been lying there for a lot longer,

so it was lucky to come over and see what it was in the field.

It's now nearly an hour since Mick came crashing down into the field.

99 lifting from scene to Harrogate.

And now he's taking to the sky again,

this time heading to the local hospital for checks

to work out exactly what damage he's done.

OK, everyone?

And move.

A week here in Harrogate leaves plenty of time

for his injuries to be treated, but also for him to think back through

why his flight went so badly wrong.

I were lining her up into the wind, cos you've got to land into wind,

slow the machine up.

And I just hit something, and I come down awfully quick,

without losing a lot of speed.

So therefore I crashed into the ground, basically.

It's, er... It's only a one-in-a-million chance

of it happening.

I mean, I've been doing it for over three years now,

and nothing has ever remotely come close.

We're going to cover you up with a sleeping bag,

get you across to the aircraft, then do a few obs on you

and get you through to hospital.

'To be perfectly honest, I've always wanted to go in a helicopter,

'but the only trouble is, I never saw much of it,

'cos they put a thing round my neck to support my neck

'in case of any injury, and all I could see

'were the roof of the helicopter and a little bit of the sky.

'I couldn't ask for a better flight.'

But despite his trip in the twin-jet-engine Helimed 99,

he can't wait to get back in his much simpler flying machine.

'It hasn't put me off in the slightest.

'I just love the freedom,

'the space, the nothing there,

'up with the clouds and the birds, just flying along.

'It just chills me out. It's my chill-out zone,

'and I just want that freedom back again.'

Anyone can have a freak accident, and that includes the Helimed team.

Today, pilot Tim Taylor's waiting to take off

on another emergency, when something very unexpected happens.

CLICKING SOUND

The landing skid of Helimed 98 has collapsed.

"Helimed 98, after the landing Ryanair just touching down now,

runway three-two, clear lift."

"Set course across the runway, on track."

Roger. Helimed 98. We're just shutting down.

We've got a technical problem.

If this had happened on rough terrain,

it could have resulted in serious injuries or death.

Luckily the only harm it did was to Tim's heart-rate.

Another helicopter will rescue the patient.

Just thankful, really, it happened here.

We were just on our way to an incident in the middle of nowhere,

so if it had happened there, it would have been a lot more difficult to retrieve.

But it will be weeks before 98's ready to rescue anyone else.

Corrosion inside the skid is blamed, but it'll mean a major repair -

something no-one could have predicted.

Animals do the funniest things.

But if you're in the wrong place at the wrong time,

they can also land you in A&E.

They're cute, cuddly, and could hardly be described

as dangerous creatures. But what happens if you cross one of these

with one of these?

-Left leg, possible pelvis.

-Oh, we'll take him in.

Today on a road high up on the West Yorkshire moors,

a biker has just been dragged out of a ditch

after coming off at speed -

and, yes, he says a rabbit was to blame.

I found a young man facedown in a ditch

with his motorbike about ten yards away from him.

The story was, he'd been doing about 50 miles an hour,

swerved to avoid a rabbit, and gone over straight into the ditch.

Deep breath, buddy.

OK.

Anthony Watkins was left facedown in here,

with serious and very painful injuries.

OK, buddy? HE GROANS

Relax, relax.

We'll go over to the aircraft, mate. We'll have him onto the aircraft

and sort him out on there. All right. OK.

But that aircraft is a new one for the Helimed team.

While theirs is off for repair, they're in a hire vehicle -

a spare air ambulance that's come just at the right time for Anthony.

Everybody just reshuffle, OK?

Ready? One, two, three.

There he goes. Keep going. Keep going.

-Agh! Shoulder!

-All right, bud.

We're going to get you some pain relief.

Helping people who've come off their motorbikes

is an almost-daily duty for these paramedics.

But the cause of today's crash is certainly more unusual.

-How long was you in the ditch for? Can you remember?

-No.

-20 minutes, maybe. OK.

-All right.

Can you remember what's happened?

Er, I was doing 50, about 50 miles an hour.

-Right.

-Came round the bend. Rabbit or something jumped out at me.

Went into the ditch.

His story is, he's swerved to avoid a rabbit in the road

and ended up in a ditch, and been facedown for quite a time

prior to anyone finding him.

So, er, from initial observations,

there's no major injuries we can see,

but that sort of mechanism and history,

we'll obviously be very cautious and take him through to LGI,

and he'll have a full trauma scan there

and determine what injuries he's got.

-And is that painful when I feel there?

-No.

No? Good lad. All right. OK. Can you bend this left knee?

-What about in there?

-That's OK.

-Painful there?

-No.

-And there?

-No.

-No?

Anthony is soon heading off to hospital,

where it's discovered he has several collapsed vertebrae

and a dislocated shoulder.

Quite a price to pay after swerving to avoid a bunny!

The bizarre cases that make up the Helimed team's workload,

and I'm pleased to say all our victims are on the road to recovery.

Now let's return to the rescue of Rhys Proud,

the disabled teenager trapped when a car careered into his home.

Trapped for more than an hour, 13-year-old Rhys Proud

has been caught up in a bizarre crash.

He'd been in his wheelchair, using his laptop,

when this car shot off the road into his bedroom,

trapping him underneath.

Medics have been predicting he's got serious traumatic injuries,

and he's been taken to the specialist children's hospital in Sheffield.

Well done. All right? First flight in a helicopter?

It's a place he knows well,

as it's also the base for the specialists

who care for his spina bifida.

But now they'll be joined by trauma doctors

to find out exactly what damage has been done.

Because of Rhys's disability,

assessing his condition takes longer than usual.

He has little feeling below the waist.

Meanwhile, back at Royston near Barnsley,

Rhys's mum is having to start rebuilding their family home.

That were the window, and it were that size.

But all down here got ripped out.

There were no brickwork at all here. It's all just come out.

When I first come up here to start sorting it out,

my legs were just knocking together even when I walked in,

and I'm an adult.

But despite the devastation to the bricks and mortar,

incredibly, Rhys, it seems, has been much more resilient,

and less than a week later, he's back to see the damage,

with just a broken leg to show for a crash

few thought he'd survive.

How does it feel now, coming back?

Um, quite strange, but I suppose I'll get used to it.

'It is quite shocking to see all that it's done to my room and that,

'and that I got out quite well to say what happened.'

I were just on my laptop. I didn't have any chance to think about it.

All I know is, one minute I were there, the next minute over there.

The first initial bang, I just thought, "What they broke?"

But as soon as it continued, I knew summat weren't right,

and that's why I went running through.

But not on my life did I think I were going to see summat like that.

My face were, like, smack next to the inside of the wheel,

and the only part that were poking out of the car were my hand.

It were awful, cos I thought he were going to die.

I thought he only had seconds left. I couldn't see him.

I didn't know what state he were in. All I could see were his arm.

But, as he was knocked over as the car came through,

medics think it could actually have been his wheelchair

that took the force of the impact and saved Rhys.

Well, I did shout for my mum,

but because all the weight were on my chest, my voice were very deep,

so it took my mum a while to realise it were me in there.

None of us knew what state he were in at all.

They had to lift the car to actually see what state he were in.

But I thought he only had seconds to live.

They thought he were in a really, really bad way,

but everything were trashed in that room.

That car were totally in that room.

I don't think any of them thought he had a chance at all.

But now he's home and back to his usual teenage ways.

But this is certainly an image the emergency crews of Yorkshire,

and Rhys, will never forget.

Real lucky! I could've got out a lot worse, or not got out at all.

I'm pleased to say Rhys has now been given a new bedroom and furniture

to replace the bed and wardrobe smashed to pieces in the crash.

His mum's moved into his old room,

so her son can sleep more soundly from now on.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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