Episode 4 Helicopter Heroes

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

your life is in real danger.

Complaining of severe pain.

Mid-thirties, been ejected from a vehicle.

The 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.

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

Tell me exactly what's happened.

A small child has been on a path. A wagon's cut the corner and 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 teenager's fighting for his life after a bizarre road accident.

You've got blood coming out of your ear, that's why you can't hear us.

High in the hills, a camping trip ends in a fall that could leave the victim in a wheelchair.

I think he's hit a rock or tree stump.

The longest day lives up to its name.

We're still not going to see the sun set by the time we get back.

And the team race the ton-up medic whose bike can outrun the chopper.

There's not a lot I can't do when I get to the scene.

When I was a copper, one of the hardest things I had to do

was tell someone their son or daughter had been seriously injured in a road accident.

But imagine being a parent who comes across their son

lying in the road just moments after the impact.

It's every mum's worst nightmare.

Marie has just witnessed a serious crash

and the critically injured patient is her own 16-year-old son.

SCREAMING

Just a few minutes ago, Drae Worth had bought this mini motorbike from a friend,

but on the short ride home he's been hit by a car

and now has a massive head injury.

INAUDIBLE RADIO MESSAGE

It's late in the afternoon and the crew of Helimed 99

are racing out of Leeds/Bradford International Airport,

squeezing their way between the holiday flights.

900 feet above us...

INAUDIBLE

At times like this, the helicopter is flown at its fastest,

and although these choppers are amongst the best maintained in the country,

things can occasionally go wrong.

-The main gear box is flickering again.

-Yes, watch it.

This is a warning no pilot ever wants to see.

It shows there's a serious problem with the helicopter's gearbox.

But they're just two minutes from where their patient is lying critically injured.

Pilot Andy Figg has to think fast.

Are we going to have to abort this mission?

Stand by.

Just stand by, we've got a caption light on, so we're just dealing with that initially.

The amber warning light has now turned red.

The problem's getting worse.

They need to get the helicopter on the ground.

Just coming back.

Right, we've got a red on the gearbox...

They know, if the gearbox seizes,

Helimed 99 will fall out of the sky.

We're going to the big field at 12 o'clock, all right?

-Yes, OK.

-Got 60% on the gearbox now.

The paramedics have just got through their own very real emergency.

But there's no time for relief.

Now they have to get on with dealing with another life or death situation.

Get Chris on line and tell him to get the police to the aircraft.

It's a busy high street and this crash is attracting a lot of attention.

Already two off-duty paramedics have been helping Drae,

who's just come round after being unconscious.

Let me go!

-Hiya. Come out, sweetheart.

-I need help. Help me, help me!

Hello mate, all right, nice and steady, just relax.

-Lift me up!

-Just relax, just relax.

Tell me what's...

He's out cold. Straight out cold. He wasn't moving anything.

-I thought he wasn't breathing.

-I'm from air ambulance, OK?

We've just come to help you a minute. I just want to speak to you.

-Can't I just get up?

-You can't get up yet.

-I just want to check you over, right? Make sure things are all right.

-I'm all right.

You've had an accident, OK? Listen to me.

You're not going anywhere, OK? You're not going anywhere.

-Right, let's go fast.

-You don't need to go anywhere, I want to help you.

16-year-old Drae wasn't wearing a helmet.

His head took the full force of the impact.

Fluid is leaking from his ear, a sign of a serious brain injury.

-Let go!

-We've got a collar on you Drae, OK?

The reason for that, is that you've had an accident, all right?

You've got blood coming out your ear, that's why you can't hear us.

-You're hurting my ear. Let me go!

-Just relax, mate.

Let me go because you're hurting my neck.

-Drae, you're not going anywhere.

-You're hurting my neck!

You're hurting my neck, let me go! You're hurting my neck, let me go!

-It's pointless me arguing.

-Excuse me, you're hurting my neck.

-You're not going to go anywhere.

-You're hitting my neck. You're hurting me here.

-Please, just let me stand up.

-Have you got any pain anywhere?

He's distressed and confused, yet more indications of a serious injury to Drae's brain.

Please, please, please, please, excuse me,

please, excuse me, please, excuse me!

Excuse me! Excuse me!

Lee knows he needs to get Drae to hospital quickly.

But with the helicopter out of action in the village park, they need a new plan.

Drae's confusion is getting worse.

His brain is swelling inside his skull.

If he doesn't get treatment soon, it could kill him.

A camping trip seems a pretty safe way to get out in the great outdoors.

But when you're in some of their UK's most rugged terrain,

just moving around is fraught with danger.

It's a hot afternoon on the North York Moors.

But high on a steep hillside, there's been a serious accident.

He's fallen half way down the cliff from the Captain Cook monument and can't walk.

There's five people with him, so you'll see a group of six there.

The Helimed team are on their way at 150 miles an hour.

18-year-old Stephen Baxter is in agony

after falling down this steep and isolated hillside.

I think he's hit a rock or a tree stump or something.

He was really panting, his back, he had all mud down his face.

He must have scraped down and in a bad way.

Although they're in a remote spot,

the crew of Helimed 99 have got a big landmark to aim for.

Right, there's the monument.

But finding their badly injured patient is proving tricky.

-Have you spotted the group of people with the patient?

-No, have you?

-No, not yet mate.

-He's fallen down a cliff.

-We have got some people down at 2 o'clock.

We've got a white van.

Volunteers from the local mountain rescue team have also been summoned to help.

The slope here's so steep, Steve has to land right at the top of the hill,

leaving paramedic, Tony Wilkes, with a long and tricky descent.

Yeah, we've landed.

We've identified where the patient is.

About halfway down this hillside.

Local rescue team has just turned up as well.

We'll get down, assess the patient

and get a plan as to how we're going to get him off this hillside.

Stephen Baxter has tumbled around 20 metres down this hillside.

It's so steep, even his rescuers are struggling to reach him.

Right, you've fallen from down there?

What happened? Did you slip?

I had my bag on my back and I just went down and couldn't stop.

-I just flipped over.

-Where did you land? Did to land like this?

'We were just camping and going back to the car.'

He had a big massive camping rucksack, the big massive ones.

He came down here and it's probably too heavy

and he tripped on one of the logs behind and went down on his back.

Stuff in the rucksack's made this effect.

-Right Stephen, where's your pain now?

-Down here.

-Like you said to these chaps, you've got no pain in your neck?

-No.

-No pain in your head?

-No.

-Chest feels OK?

-Yes, just tight.

Stephen hasn't been able to move since he fell

and Tony suspects he could have a very serious injury to his back.

He had a massive rucksack on.

I was walking ahead of him, I heard him tumble and shout.

And I thought, "Oh, heck!"

I laughed at first because I thought he only had a little tumble.

I got up and he was like, "I'm really hurt."

So we know how much pain you're in, if you were to score it out of 10,

0 being no pain, 10 being the worst.

-What are you?

-Eight or nine.

-About eight or nine.

Tony's going to give him morphine, the strongest painkiller he has.

But Stephen still can't move.

They're going to need a lot more help to be able to get him to hospital.

'Your additional manpower has just left my location heading towards you, over.'

Copy that.

-Oh God!

-All right, Stephen. Well done.

-Tell me if it hurts Stephen. Yes or no. Does that hurt?

-No.

-That hurt?

-Yes.

-That?

-Yes.

-OK.

Tony knows his patient could have done serious damage to his back

and urgently needs to be in hospital.

But the hillside is far too steep to land a helicopter here, so Tony needs another plan.

Roger, Steve. The fell rescue guys would like to relocate

towards the bottom of the hill, so they can carry down.

'To the left, at the bottom of the hill, next to a dry stone wall,

'there's a fell rescue chap with a red top on.

'He's going to indicate the best place he thinks you can land.'

But Steve's not convinced about the choice of landing site.

We'll just go where there's a little path by the wall.

-We'll try there initially.

-OK.

If he can't get the helicopter down here,

Stephen could face even longer on the hill.

Any little trees anywhere that might get in the way?

Whether he gets the flight to hospital he needs

is now down to whether pilot, Steve, can safely land

three tonnes of helicopter on this tiny patch of ground.

Horse riding's a risky business, even if you're an expert.

But if something spooks your horse, you're off

and sometimes that can happen in the most unfortunate place, at the most inconvenient time.

A horse rider has taken an unplanned bucking bronco ride.

She was thrown ten feet into the air and then crashed to the ground.

-Where are we going?

-Northallerton.

Helimed 98 is on its way from Sheffield

in the south of the UK's biggest county, to Northallerton, in the north.

The description that we've had with a neck problem

and the fact that she's got loss of sensation in her legs,

does point to the fact that she might have a spinal cord injury

which can be catastrophic.

You can become paraplegic or quadriplegic.

But it's not just the patient's injuries that are causing the crew concern.

Our challenge on this job is the fact that it's now 8.25 at night.

Although it is the longest day of the year,

we need to have aircraft and pilot back on base.

Not only have we got to refuel at some stage, we've got to pick up the patient,

hand them over, come back to the aircraft and do two flights.

If we carry, we'll need a refuel.

It only gives us about 10 minutes on the ground.

-OK, 10 minutes, I'll start my stopwatch.

-We're done.

She's landed on her left side, she's not heard a crack or anything. She's got central neck pain.

The crew have identified the fact that you've got some pain in your neck.

Have you still got some numbness or is that starting to fade off?

Steph Harrison's mum and dad have come to help,

but all they can do now is worry.

I think the horse went up over backwards

and she came off the back of it.

It reared and came over.

I'm not very good at hospitals, I don't go very often.

Good on you - me neither!

Wondering if we head off, fuel and time...

Paramedic Lee thinks he's found a way to buy a few vital extra minutes -

by heading for a hospital nearer fuel.

-Mum and Dad, are you happy with that?

-Yeah.

It is only four minutes difference.

When we're ready, on three. One, two, three.

She trains horses, this is it, this is what she does.

She schools youngsters and brings horses on for people.

So it is risky.

But this is our first incident in that sense.

We've never needed medical help before.

So it's good that everybody can get here, isn't it?

Everything all right, Steph? We can give an ETA of 9 o'clock, mate.

As Sammy keeps an eye on the patient, pilot Tim Taylor has his firmly on the clock.

I know, I know.

We'll just have to do our best.

Helimed 98 sets off with Steph and her mum, as the crew's deadline fast approaches.

Tim has to get his skids on the ground no more than 30 minutes after sunset.

The UK's air ambulances are among the world's safest

and strict legal limitations on night flying help keep it that way.

Tim knows that as the shadows get longer, time is running out.

We'll have to leave by ten past nine. Sorry to rush you, but the airport closes for fuel.

I will do my ultimate best.

Safely on the ground in Harrogate, and mum Myra

reveals she's a regular fundraiser for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance.

We were at the North Yorkshire County Show yesterday.

And all the proceeds, I was a steward, helping steward,

and all the proceeds from the schedule went to air ambulance.

So there's a lot goes on in the horsy world for these guys.

So like I say, we don't want to have to use them.

Seven minutes it is, I've got seven minutes to get down and back.

As Steph is led away for treatment, Tim gets Helimed 98 ready for a quick getaway.

We've come from Sheffield, right up to the top of Yorkshire

and we've not got enough fuel to get back to Sheffield.

So in that overtime we've got to factor in

an extra flight to Leeds Airport

for a re-fuel, which was lucky, because the airport closes at 10 o'clock,

so we wouldn't be able to get fuel after that.

Sammy's back and feeling the heat in a padded uniform not made for sprinting.

I've had to run back from the job.

This is the best air conditioning going!

The sun begins to set as Helimed 98 prepares to set down at Leeds/Bradford Airport.

The helicopter needs a fill-up for the last leg back to Sheffield.

Pilot Tim has an anxious wait as his tanks are topped up with the moon high in the sky.

It's an odd one really, I've never worked this late all year

and it happens to be the longest day of the year,

so we're still not going to see the sun set by the time we get back.

The sky looks stunning, but Tim knows that twilight is the most dangerous time to fly a helicopter.

It's partly because of the pilot's fatigue at the end of a long day.

But also because obstacles in the air and on the ground

are harder to see in the fading light.

-We don't want to...

-Straight up and out, mate.

INDISTINCT SPEECH

All obstacles avoided, the crew beat the clock and get safely back on the ground in Sheffield.

So this is how dark it can get when we actually put the aircraft away

whilst the floodlights are on.

The longest shift on the longest day is finally over.

Helimed 98 is put to bed and the crew won't be far behind.

Their patient spent the night in Harrogate Hospital,

but she was soon allowed home and is now back in the saddle.

Now, on a busy road in South Yorkshire, the Helimed team are

fighting to say the teenage rider of a miniature motorbike

after a freak accident that's left him with a serious head injury.

It's a warm spring evening and teenager Drae Worth's first ride

on the bike has ended in a terrible accident.

Please, please!

Argh, me leg! Argh!

Relax, everything's going to be all right.

Two off-duty paramedics were the first to get to him, and found Drae with a massive head injury.

I ran down the street,

found a motorcyclist laid in the middle of the road

with fairly serious injuries.

It is difficult, because you have nothing to work with. It's just a case of until somebody

turns up with a first aid kit, you make do with what you've got.

There's just something triggers and you click into it.

Everyone here is having to think on their feet.

The air ambulance is grounded, after a gearbox warning light came on on the flight here.

So a land ambulance has been called to carry Drae to hospital.

-Did anybody see where all this has come from?

-He's got his hand up.

-OK, you're going to be going to hospital.

-Why?

Because you need to, because you're pouring blood out your ear.

That's why you can't hear anything.

-Let me go, just let me stand up.

-We're not going to let you go.

-Why?

Drae's confusion is a sure sign his head injury is getting worse.

-Let me stand up then.

-You're not going to stand up.

Yeah, I just want to stand up.

Paramedic James Vine needs to tell the doctors at Doncaster Hospital what to expect.

But also that they'll not be able to give him the life-saving flight he'd normally get.

It's broken unfortunately so we're bringing a young man to you via ambulance.

He is a 16-year-old male,

car versus like an off-road motorbike.

He's got bleeding from his right ear.

Obvious sort of head injury.

Police are with him at the moment and one of our paramedics,

we should be with you in the next five minutes or so.

Drae's mum was there just seconds after the crash,

but now she can do nothing but watch

as her critically injured teenage son is loaded into the land ambulance

for his life-saving journey to hospital.

He's got a significant head injury.

He's obviously not been wearing a helmet,

he's been hit at significant speed by another vehicle.

His head has come into collision with either the car or the pavement.

So obviously it's still very serious.

Undo me all this stuff, please.

-You need to go to hospital.

-Undo me all this stuff, please.

Drae's getting more and more confused.

-You've got to keep that on.

-I don't want a hair cut!

-No, you're not getting an haircut.

-I want to go home, I want to go home.

-Listen to me...

-I want to go home.

His pupils are getting bigger and his speech is getting more garbled.

This ten-mile trip to hospital needs to be over quickly for Drae to have the best chance of surviving.

-Can you get off please?

-No.

-Why?

DRAE SHOUTS

Coming up - the team's patient arrives in hospital and his mum finds out the doctors' verdict.

They just think they're invincible and nothing's going to happen.

And it just proves that it does.

Now, remember Stephen, the unlucky camper, who ended up falling down a steep hillside?

Let's catch up on his rescue.

It's a hot afternoon on the North York Moors, 18-year-old Stephen Baxter is in agony.

He hasn't moved a muscle and he's been there, the same position all the way.

Pilot Steve Cobb is determined to save his patient

from a long, painful walk down the hill.

He's trying to land on a tiny patch of level grass

surrounded by the stumps of trees.

But Steve pulls it off.

It's quite difficult to land around here, it's a very steep hillside,

as has been shown by the lad falling down it.

There are very few places.

The mountain rescue guys found somewhere for us,

which is not ideal, but there's enough space to get on.

If that had been not right, we'd have moved further forward where it's a bit flatter,

but it looked to be OK and it proved to be... Yes, it didn't fall off!

Prepare to lift. And...lift.

Well done, Stephen.

Paramedic Tony has serious concerns.

So Stephen is being put in a special vacuum mattress.

It will form a rigid splint, because he may have broken his back.

He's fallen down the hillside, probably 40 feet, head over tail,

and he's probably hit his back on one of these logs as he's landed.

So we've had to give him a bit of morphine for his pain relief.

Immobilised his spine, just in case he has done some damage.

And we just left it for the rescue experts to get him down the hill and I'll try and catch them up.

His friends hadn't just called 999 after the accident.

They'd also phoned Stephen's mum,

who's run nearly a mile up the hillside to see him.

All right.

Well, your mam isn't, she needs some oxygen...

Lift him up for me, guys. Just watch yourself on the doors and things.

He's just had some morphine for pain relief and he's fully immobilised.

So we're just going to be taking off in a couple of minutes,

so we'll be with you in about 10 minutes or so.

They're just minutes from James Cook Hospital, where Stephen will go straight for an X-ray.

This is Stephen.

Basically, he got a bit of speed up going down a steep hillside,

and then hasn't been able to stop.

Sort of down about 40 foot.

It must be sort of T1 through to 12.

I've had a look, nothing there that's obvious.

He has been scoring 8 to 9 out of 10 initially.

Stephen goes straight into A&E for a series of tests.

The next day, he's told the result.

I've had some scans.

They've told me I've broken a vertebra and I've fractured one.

So I can't work for two months

and I can't drive for up to three to four months,

so obviously it's going to affect me quite a bit.

So much so, Stephen will be in a wheelchair for the next few weeks.

All because of the way he fell at the end of that summer camping trip.

I just started walking down and I was picking up my pace

and then obviously, I lost me balance, fell,

rolled down the hill and hit my back off the stump.

And then that's when everything just went...wrong!

I couldn't really breathe or stand up.

I tried to get back up, but I couldn't get up,

so I knew something was wrong then.

His friends did all they could to help

and are still keeping him motivated.

They told me to get well soon. I'm a bit sick of it actually,

because I am not going to get well any sooner than that.

So I just hope I do get well a lot faster, so...

I hope everything's all right.

In the Ambulance Service,

only one thing approaches the Helimed choppers for speed.

And in the remote valleys of the North York Moors,

THIS is often a very welcome sight.

Out here, the local bike medic is a life-saver.

Jim Bryan is one of Yorkshire's two paramedic bikers.

He's based on the edge of the North York Moors,

one of the UK's most remote areas.

And when a 999 call comes in,

it's his job to get to a casualty first

and begin treatment immediately.

His patch includes 55 square miles of forest

around the hamlet of Dalby,

where a mountain biker's had an accident.

Can I just get there, ducks? Thank you.

Just going to go a bit tight around your arm, OK?

Such a nice day and all for having an accident!

The rider's dislocated his shoulder.

Jim's painkilling gas will help for now.

I went over the jump, misjudged it,

and then went flying over the handle bars

and then landed on my head, my head hit the floor

and then sort of rolled a bit.

Probably take him to Scarborough for X-ray

and then they can make sure there's is no underlying damage

to tendons and ligaments.

And then if everything's OK, they'll give him a bit of pain relief

and put him back in and send him home.

Sunny Sunday afternoon in North Yorkshire, this is what you expect -

loads and loads of traffic

and loads of people out enjoying themselves.

Unfortunately this chap isn't!

The rider's not badly hurt

and Jim and his local colleagues can easily deal with this case alone.

But when there's a serious injury in his massive patch,

Jim relies on the rapid back-up

he knows he can get from the Helimed team.

We're off to a farm,

to reports of a gentleman who's fallen

about 20 to 30 feet from a ladder.

That's a long ladder,

but even so, he's injured.

We're en route, and I believe there's a paramedic on a motorbike also en route.

On the twisting roads below, bike paramedic Jim is racing to the scene.

When lives are in danger speed is a priority.

Both Helimed 99 and Jim's bike

have potential top speeds in excess of 150mph.

-Beside the wood pile and the motorbike.

-OK, just don't blow the motorbike over!

Builder Richard Threlfall had a serious fall.

He was working in a barn when his ladder gave way.

Hello.

Hiya, we figured it would be you.

-Hello, sir.

-How you are doing?

Stop still there for us for a second.

Just stay nice and still.

Bike paramedic Jim knows his patch well.

His intimate knowledge of the area's back lanes

allowed him to get to the patient ahead of the chopper.

Today's response time was unusually quick, even for Jim.

Three minutes. I was around the corner when I got the job.

It has its advantages.

Richard has fallen a long way, but Jim and the ambulance paramedics

have immobilised him to prevent further injury.

So he's got no neck pain, not had a head injury

and he's not been knocked out at all.

We've just made him comfortable more than anything.

All the pain is sort of from there, down there.

And on the other side.

On your... Through your back. OK.

It soon becomes clear this isn't the first time he's hit the deck...hard.

-Have you ever hurt your back before?

-Wrestling.

-Wrestling?!

-Yeah.

-Oh! All righty.

'I were on the ladder doing some work, just put a bit of pipe up'

and I was ready to come down myself,

and I don't know, the ladder seemed to give way,

it just went sideways and just twisted.

And obviously, I went round...

I twisted with the ladder and I landed down...

Probably my legs and my back first,

then my head went back and banged the wall,

then the ladder landed on top of me, as usual.

-Ain't that the way?

-Ain't that the way?

Richard soon recovered from his injuries

and returned to work a few weeks later.

This is Helmsley, a mecca for bikers every weekend,

but if you have an accident here,

a trauma unit can be an hour away in any direction.

But thanks to the medical skills of its rider

and the life-saving equipment carried in its panniers,

the medic bike can bring vital parts of A&E direct to the patient.

-Jim, good morning.

-Morning.

-How do these wheels help you do your job?

Being in such a rural area, it's a lot easier to manoeuvre around

than use an RRV or an ambulance,

cos of the size and weight of them.

And some of the tracks I can get down the ambulance wouldn't be able to get down.

So I can get to patients a lot quicker, and I can start off definitive treatment

while we're waiting for the crew to arrive,

or the helicopter, if it's too remote for the ambulance to get to.

So your role is really to get there first and treat that patient

-before the land or air ambulance comes and takes over?

-Yeah.

And I carry virtually the same equipment

that the paramedic or the ambulance would carry,

so there's not a lot that I can't do when I get to the scene.

The market towns and villages of Ryedale

are a popular retirement area

and Jim's bike is a particularly welcome sight for many families.

This elderly lady in a care home has breathing difficulties.

Three medics, including Jim, were on her case within five minutes of the 999 call.

It just got progressively worse during my visit,

so I got quite concerned, cos she obviously couldn't breathe very well

and she was going blue.

Jim gets to know his rural patients. He's been here before.

I've been here a couple of times.

It's quite a regular thing.

With it being a residential home,

you do tend to get a lot of calls here.

When holiday traffic

brings the summer jams to North Yorkshire's tourist routes,

the medic bike gets through

when conventional ambulances can be delayed.

And today, the air ambulance crew

are about to find out that Jim and his two wheels

can beat their two jet engines.

INAUDIBLE SPEECH

68-year-old cyclist John Dunn was out for a ride with his friend

when things went seriously wrong.

-68 years of age.

-Right.

-Coming down a hill on a pushbike.

-Lost control, no helmet.

-OK.

-He came down here.

-Right.

-Unconscious, two or three minutes.

Bike just gave way on him. I didn't know what to do.

Jim knows John's very badly hurt. His skull is fractured.

His life's in real danger.

He's got a depression, right side of the skull here.

-That's a puncture wound.

-Right, OK.

The accident happened on a lonely country lane,

but John's cycling friend didn't have to go too far to find help.

Farm workers called 999 after the accident.

We were moving cows, bringing them in down here.

We were walking down here and so we found him,

so we rang the ambulance - these lads did.

So it was lucky that we decided to move them today.

It looks like he's got a depressed skull fracture,

so this is quite a significant wound.

But he's stable enough at the moment

so we're just making sure he's fully immobilised before we move him.

He's got some nasty injuries

so we want him in hospital as soon as we can, really.

One, two, three, lift.

John has also lost a lot of blood.

He'll be flown direct to the James Cook hospital in Middlesbrough,

where surgeons are waiting.

In ten minutes' time, we'll be at the hospital, so don't worry, OK?

Just try and relax, OK? We'll have you there in no time at all.

John never expected his bike ride to end like this,

but the paramedics have seen too many cyclists without helmets

end up in the back of Helimed 99.

It's no wonder the Helimed team

often find themselves beaten to a patient,

because in a straight line,

Jim's bike is faster than a £3 million chopper.

But there are days when going the way the crow flies,

leaves Jim struggling to keep up.

'The car hit the caravan head-on.

'Crew's nearly there,

'but it should be towards Castle Howard. Over.'

'Roger, Dave. I know where that is, so we'll keep a look-out.'

Castle Howard is one of the grandest stately homes in Britain

and, for tourists visiting Yorkshire,

it's a "must-see" attraction.

But on a road nearby, there's been a serious accident

involving several vehicles, including a caravan.

We've got to look at...weighing up who's the most seriously injured.

It's basically doing the most for the most.

And hopefully, your back-up land crews won't be far behind

to give you a hand.

Helimed 99's nearly there,

but Jim's been delayed by traffic and the winding local lanes.

Ouch! Looks like I've had a good smack.

On the road below,

a car has collided with a 4x4 towing a caravan.

I arrived literally seconds after it happened.

Everybody was still in the vehicles. Go around, check everybody's OK.

It was basically in the 4X4,

walking wounded,

and an old man in this car.

He's just trapped in the car,

he's not physically trapped, just can't get out.

And then just tried to block the road off,

because something has spilled something on the road,

which certainly hasn't helped in people maintaining control.

What we got, mate? What about our guys in the other car?

Yeah, there's a lot of occupants of this vehicle here.

We're talking mum, dad, three kids, one of them being a young baby.

'Fortunately, there are no life-threatening injuries,

'but the driver of the 4X4 towing the caravan

'is clearly shocked.'

We were just coming down the road,

looking forward to going in to the caravan, first time.

Got to this point, car just came round the corner,

on the opposite side of the road.

All I can say, just having a nice caravanning weekend

and unfortunately it's backfired.

Jim's still on the road

and the Helimed team have already assessed all their patients.

-You've got five people in there.

-I know. We can't take five. No way.

No. How many do you want to take, Simes?

Realistically, and we'll get you back up.

Paramedic Darren is a biker himself,

and he thinks he may have spotted the cause of the accident.

It's really odd, this road.

It looks like it's had a load of diesel tipped on it at some point,

so it's extremely slippy and treacherous under foot.

I don't know whether that's contributed to this accident or not,

but you can imagine, this is a popular area with motorcyclists as well.

If you come round here and you're not expecting this, you're coming off.

You're going to come off, because it's awful.

At last, Jim's bike catches up with the chopper.

But with seven patients to examine, he's still welcome.

You haven't got a dressing in your pocket, have you?

Apparently, the bend is notorious.

The locals are regularly disturbed by the sound of crunching metal and sirens.

Yeah, we got a letter from the council saying this road isn't dangerous, when it is.

Accidents happen here probably once a month.

Where's he hurting?

Just where the seatbelt...

His chest?

Bike medic Jim's lucky he didn't join the casualty list.

He stopped short of the diesel spill

He's only come off once, and that was the fault of a drunk driver.

It's like an ice rink, that.

You could run over a patch of it

and come off 100 metres up the road, because as soon as you turn your bike over...

Given the fact it's quite a bendy road,

but it's still quite a quick road...

it looks like, you know, doing maybe about 30mph,

impact, you know, which would be 60mph impact speed, with the combined speeds.

And to get away with what they have got away with,

they have been very, very lucky.

Plus, I was lucky the police were in front of me,

otherwise I might have been on the diesel spill

and following them off to hospital myself.

You know, again, it's not my first day.

I've done this once or twice in the past!

With most of the injuries minor

and ground paramedics transporting the patients to hospital,

it's time for Helimed 99 and Jim to return to base.

Yorkshire's fastest life-savers, ready for another emergency.

And I'm pleased to say all Jim's patients are now on the mend,

but he won't be treating many more because he plans to retire soon.

Now let's catch up on the case of the teenage rider

who crashed his new bike just minutes after buying it.

It's been a long trip to hospital for 16-year-old Drae Worth.

-My ear's bleeding.

-I know your ear's bleeding.

That's why we need to get you took to hospital.

Flying paramedic Lee Davison has had to take his patient by road

after the helicopter broke down.

But Drae's massive head injury is getting worse.

Finally, the crew arrive at Doncaster Hospital,

where a team of specialists have been called to treat Drae.

This is Drae Worth. He's 16 years of age. Been hit by a car.

Witnesses have seen that he's gone over the bonnet twice.

We've just been battling with him all the way in. OK?

With Lee going off in the ambulance,

James is left to work out what's going to happen with the faulty helicopter.

We just need to see what we're doing with the helicopter.

If not, I'll go to Doncaster and then we'll make our way back to Leeds from there.

Back on the local playing field, pilot Andy Figg

has been told it's safe to fly, but with only him in it.

Once it's sorted out, if it's fixed or whatever, then we'll see.

-What do you think it is?

-There's something -

a bit of a leak on the left-hand side there.

INAUDIBLE SPEECH

The chopper needs urgent repairs to its gearbox

at a base 20 miles away.

Pilot Andy knows it could fail at any time.

This will be a tense flight for Andy.

Though the risk is small, he's the only one allowed to take it.

For grounded paramedic James,

it's the welfare of his patient that's uppermost in his mind.

Did they put him straight to sleep?

But it's not sounding good.

A team of doctors have anaesthetised Drae.

They hope this will stop his brain swelling any more.

But how he does tonight will determine the rest of his life.

For Drae's mum it's been an ordeal.

She was with him when he picked up the bike

and was one of the first to find him lying in the road.

You blame it on yourself.

For days, I was blaming it on myself,

thinking it was my fault. I should have been more persistent

and told him to get back in the car and leave the bike where it was

until we went home and got his helmet.

They just think they're invincible and nothing's going to happen

and it just proves that it does.

After buying that bike,

Marie was following behind him

on what should have been a short ride home.

I could see a smashed car in the road

and I just knew instantly it was to do with Drae.

So I jumped out of the car...

and it was just... It was horrible.

It was awful.

You want to run over to him,

but I physically couldn't move

and I probably was about six feet away from him.

I could see him and I was wanting to get to him,

but my legs wouldn't move

and I can just remember screaming.

'He was just slipping in and out of consciousness.'

HE SCREAMS

'And I just thought he was going to die.'

Marie spends the next two days at his bedside in hospital.

And despite three fractures to his skull,

less than a week later, he's back home.

That's from Gareth, Michelle and kids. "Hope you get better soon".

But it's left him with a thumping headache

and no memories at all about the crash which so nearly killed him.

I thought I was dreaming.

It was weird.

I couldn't remember what had happened, so I woke up,

and then I think it was my mam that was at the side of me...

And it was just... It was weird. I don't know how to describe it.

I've got three fractures to my skull

and I think I've severed some blood vessels down my ear

and I'm lucky to be alive, really.

They just can't believe how lucky he is.

They've said that not many people come out of hospital alive

from having an accident like Drae's had.

We could've been having a funeral this week.

And you'll be pleased to hear

Drae's now well enough to go back to college

where he's learning to become a bricklayer.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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