Episode 8 Helicopter Heroes

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

your life is in real danger.

Complaining of severe pain.

Mid-30s, been ejected from a vehicle.

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

Roger. Helimed 99's en route. Over.

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

-'What happened?

-A wagon has run over a small child.'

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

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

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

Today on Helicopter Heroes...

A teenage worker is badly injured.

Can flying doctor Anil save him from life in a wheelchair?

I want to look at how big and how heavy the forks were. If some sort of load impacted on his shoulders...

The Helimed team travel back in time to rescue a wounded GI.

-It's gone over his abdomen.

-Dragged under the wheels of the gun carriage.

A teenage holiday-maker is lucky to be alive after he plunges 30 feet.

He is a bit, um...adventurous.

And paramedic Al tackles the language barrier.

Bonjour, Rene. Ca va?

No-one forgets their first job, even if the best thing about it was the wage cheque.

But younger workers are at greater risk of having an accident,

especially if they're working with machinery.

A whole industry is carved out of Yorkshire's stone quarries

and working with heavy machines like this is all in a day's work for thousands of people,

but when accidents happen, the injuries, like the consequences, can be devastating.

Today, paramedic Sammy Wills and flying doctor Anil Hormis are on their way

to a stone-breaking yard in West Yorkshire.

A worker has been injured,

but this is no ordinary industrial accident.

The teenage employee's symptoms could not be more serious.

He's got some pain in his neck. This is where the forklift came down on to him.

-I'm Anil, one of the doctors.

-Right.

-You can remember what happened? You weren't knocked out?

-No.

Chris Syme is 18. His job is physical and demanding.

He's strong and fit, but from the chest down, he has little or no feeling.

-Can you wiggle your toes?

-No.

-No?

Chris was working near this forklift tractor when the accident happened.

Are your legs hurting?

-Chris, are your legs hurting?

-I can't feel them.

-You can't feel them, OK.

I can't breathe with it.

-You can't breathe with what? With the pain?

-No, that neck thing.

He was putting a bag on to it to strap it on and it just collapsed.

His legs are warm, his veins are bulging and he's breathing low in his abdomen,

all signs of a serious spinal injury.

It looks like Chris has broken his back.

Any movement could worsen his injury.

But they must strap him down to a spinal board to protect his back.

He's surrounded by boulders that will make the job harder. They'll have to be moved.

Chris, we're trying to work out how to get you off all this rock,

so we've got this hard board that will come in from your left side.

We're going to need to roll you a little bit, slide this hard board under you, then get you on to it.

Right, Chris, just bear with us.

Chris, tell me if it hurts when I'm pressing on here, OK?

Yeah? Call out a bit, Chris, so the doc can hear you.

-That's hurting there, is it?

-Yeah.

Chris took the full weight of the steel forks on his shoulder, then he fell on to rocks.

Dr Anil must painstakingly piece together the sequence of events that led to the injury.

You can get a lot of information from what caused the accident.

I want to look at how big and heavy the forks were.

If some sort of load impacted on his shoulders, he may have a spinal injury,

so we're just having a look to see if there's any other damage to it.

I've got what I need from that now, so we'll get him into the helicopter and get him to Leeds.

Chris is lying less than 100 metres from Helimed 98,

but getting him to the chopper will be difficult and dangerous.

There is something about wearing a uniform that makes you feel good.

Maybe that's why I signed up to wear two of them in my time, but I can't imagine wearing one as a hobby.

The British Army recruits one in ten of its soldiers from Yorkshire

and this is certainly where I did my square-bashing.

Today, the north's love affair with all things military is going to keep Helimed 99 busy.

'217925.'

EXCHANGE OF RADIO MESSAGES

It's been scrambled to the victim of an unusual accident.

At a wartime theme weekend, a man's been crushed by a field gun.

It all depends where he's crushed.

If he's crushed one of his limbs, it's one set of problems.

If he's crushed his torso, it's something different, none of it good.

This is the area where the Hollywood film Yanks was shot.

It's a long time since Richard Gere left town,

but he's left behind a band of enthusiasts who love to dress up as GIs.

He's conscious. Lovely.

59-year-old Michael Andrews is badly injured.

The field gun, weighing three-quarters of a ton, has run right over him.

Ground paramedics fear he has serious internal injuries.

-The gun barrel caught him in the back.

-Yeah.

-It dragged him under and the whole of that...

-Went over him.

-Rolled over his left side.

-OK.

Plus the head injury as well.

Michael and his mates were on their way to a war weekend in Huddersfield when the accident happened.

The vehicle came to a stop, so we both got off, me and Peter, to get the ladder down.

We put the ladder down and the vehicle started to move again.

Basically, it was just positioning for parking

and unfortunately, as the truck moved off again, he got dragged underneath the wheels of the gun carriage.

In the position he's in, no pain, but when we start to move him...

-Chest sounds are clear.

-It's gone over his abdomen.

-As he's lying, it's gone over him.

-Right.

Is there any reason we can't move this now?

Weekend GIs pride themselves on the authenticity of their uniforms and equipment.

And today, Michael is showing some wartime grit despite his injuries.

Is your arm giving you any pain?

-It's a bit achy.

-That sounds all right to me.

-How's that collar? Not bad, is it?

-No.

-So we were in that position...

Paramedic Kate Coughlin knows that it will take a body scan to fully identify Michael's injuries.

Until then, she's playing it safe.

-Is that still hurting?

-Yeah, that hurts.

-All right. We'll have a listen in a minute.

Michael's girlfriend Angela Goddard saw the accident happen.

They might keep me in and it means you're going to have to get back.

-Pete said he'd pick me up.

-Right.

He's more worried about her than he is about himself.

I don't want you standing at the hospital.

-Right, shall we have a steady...

-We'll worry about you first.

Michael's body took the full weight of the massive gun and he remembers it all.

I was putting the ladder on the back of the truck to get people out of the truck.

The driver didn't see me. He carried on going and the barrel of the gun hit me in the back,

knocked me down and then it's gone over me.

When it went over my head, the tyre went over my head... I didn't like that.

The possibility is he's perhaps fractured some ribs,

which, when you take a deep breath in, can be very painful.

We've just given him some morphine to take the edge off.

-'OK?

-Yeah, clear.'

Badly injured in action, Michael is leaving his GI buddies behind.

His partner Angela is at least getting a flight to hospital.

'5.9 miles. Zero-six-two.'

With unknown and unseen crush injuries,

it could be a long time before this weekend soldier will be back on parade.

The UK is full of great places to visit,

but the National Trust doesn't have many attractions that visitors are allowed to climb.

Formed in the Ice Age and a top tourist attraction today,

Brimham Rocks in Nidderdale is one of nature's adventure playgrounds.

Thousands of holidaymakers visit every year for the magnificent views and the opportunity

for the children to explore the weird rock formations.

We've got a reported fall from about 20 feet at Brimham Rocks.

It's quite a substantial fall.

There's no land crew on the scene at the moment, but we've taken the decision

to get there as soon as we can as there will be a land access problem.

OK, good luck, everybody.

The trouble is, everyone is now running towards the helicopter.

For the visitors at Brimham, Helimed 99's arrival is about to become the main event of the day.

The rain on the windscreen is a clue as to how this accident could have happened.

Basically, he fell from the top of that right down there.

What's your name?

-Michael Beadle.

-All right, Michael.

-Can you remember it all happening?

-Yeah.

-Whereabouts did you come from, would you say?

-About 30 feet up.

-About 30 feet up. So you weren't knocked out at all?

-No.

Amazingly, Michael has no visible injuries,

but paramedic Lee is worried about the invisible ones.

Michael, it will be uncomfortable, but this is the idea with these things.

-They keep you really nice and still. OK, mate?

-Right.

-Good man.

-Did you just lose your footing, Michael?

-No, I tried to jump from one bit to another.

-OK.

-Big mistake.

-Nice and still.

Michael's family are from Essex

and were visiting Brimham as part of their summer holiday in Yorkshire.

Nice, deep breath in and out.

Good man. And again.

-Good man. No pain down here, Michael?

-No, not at all.

-Nothing at all?

-No.

-Good, good.

His dad was enjoying the views nearby when his son fell.

We didn't even know.

We were sitting over the other side while he was exploring,

then we saw a lot of activity

and realised somebody had fallen and...

Yeah, and guessed it was him.

We just guessed.

Paramedic Lee is worried Michael could have a spinal injury.

What we're going to do in a minute is roll you on to one side,

then we slide that awkward board in underneath you,

roll you back, then you're nice and flat on that board and we can carry you down.

Working in such a confined space is proving a problem though.

-So what do you reckon the plan is? Just we ease him up as the board eases in?

-Yeah.

OK, ready, steady, move.

OK...

-That's fine.

-Relax them legs for me, Michael. Are you high enough up?

Just remember, Michael, nice and relaxed. Let yourself go floppy.

The accident is pulling the crowds and the spectacular rocks make for a good viewing platform.

Bit awkward now, but don't worry. We'll just go nice and slow.

He doesn't fall very often, but he is a bit, um...adventurous.

Michael's mother has been watching on anxiously.

She didn't expect their family day out to end with a trip in a helicopter.

He's been really lucky. He's got an injury at the back of his head, but we can't find anything else.

We're going to fly him to Harrogate because of how high he's fallen.

He's really alert, orientated, so don't worry yourselves, all right?

-Are you up from London?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-Welcome to Yorkshire!

-It's a lovely place.

The short flight to Harrogate Hospital from Brimham Rocks will take minutes.

Michael will spend far longer in A&E being examined top to toe for injuries.

Back in Essex and Michael and his mother have had words.

Do you remember me taking this photo, Mike?

This is when I allowed you to go up to the top. I wish I hadn't.

So you went up there. I took a photo.

Life was good then. No problems.

He fell from the top of that rock down there.

I thought it's Michael and he's dead because you couldn't possibly think

that he'll be all right, having fallen that distance.

Michael had been very lucky.

His 30-foot tumble ended with nothing more than bad bruising.

Nice, deep breath in and out.

His fall was broken by him bouncing from side to side on the way down the gap in the rocks.

I just fell backwards and forwards between the two rock faces,

then landed in a sandy bit in the middle.

It could have been a lot worse, but I'm just really surprised that I didn't get injured.

Now I know what to do in future.

I'm not going to jump any more crevices between rocks,

especially not 30-foot ones.

Let's return to the case of the teenage labourer,

badly injured in a terrible accident at the stone yard where he worked.

A freak accident involving a forklift tractor

has left teenage labourer Chris Syme seriously injured.

He's told flying doctor Anil Hormis that he's lost feeling in his legs and abdomen.

Chris, it's Anil, the doctor again.

Can you try and move your left foot for me?

-OK, all right. Are you trying?

-Yeah.

-OK, fine.

Anil fears Chris has fractured his spine.

By finding out what his patient can feel and what he can't,

he can pin down the position where the injury has occurred.

How does it feel when I touch you here? Does it feel the same as your face?

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

-What about here?

-Does it feel less or more?

-Less.

-Less.

The higher up the back, the worse the injury and the more serious its effects.

-Again, does that feel normal?

-Yeah.

-Yeah, OK.

-And does that feel normal?

-No.

-It feels less, does it?

-Yeah.

-OK, fine.

-How does your tummy feel?

-I can feel my arm.

-OK. What about your tummy?

Anil completes his examination.

Chris can't feel anything below his chest.

Right, Chris, you look like you've got a bit of an injury to your spine,

so we'll need to take you to the hospital in Leeds to get you looked at by the doctors there.

We're going to get ready and get off in the helicopter.

The team has decided to bypass the local hospital

and fly Chris direct to the trauma unit at Leeds General Infirmary.

-Chris, are you hurting anywhere?

-He has no motor or sensory sensation in his legs or from lower chest.

Surgeons there may be able to save Chris from a life in a wheelchair.

He's got a lack of sensation in the lower extremities,

so he has no sensation or movement in his legs.

Sometimes that's due to pressure from swelling around the spinal cord.

In the worst scenario, he's actually got a fracture there.

Helimed 98 Alpha, we've just lifted south of Dewsbury, heading to the LGI.

'Helimed 98 Alpha, understood.'

'Continue above 1,500 feet.

'QNH 1012.'

Anil and paramedic Sammy are clinging to the hope that Chris has a condition called spinal shock.

It has similar symptoms to a facture, but unlike a broken back, it can cure itself in time.

'Helimed 98 Alpha now landing at LGI.'

A team of consultants have already been called to the Resus Room at Leeds General Infirmary.

Less than an hour after the accident,

doctors are already working out how best to minimise its effects on Chris.

We didn't spend too much time at the scene.

We knew this was a serious injury and wanted to get him here as quickly as possible.

-We suspect he's got a spinal injury and probably a collapsed lung on the right side.

-Hi.

In this hospital, they're used to dealing with the most serious cases

that happen in a county of five million people. This morning,

all the LGI's experience and knowledge is focused on one 18-year-old patient.

Unable to move his legs. He's been able to move his hands as normal.

Injuries from top to toe. He's got some abrasions on his left shoulder.

In the next hour, Chris and his family will know if he is likely to walk out of this hospital

or face the rest of his life in a wheelchair.

Coming up... X-rays reveal the full extent of Chris's injury.

And his family discovers it's even worse than feared.

-They talked about switching off his life support machine.

-The fight is on to save their son.

The Helimed team don't just care for their patients. They like to ease the trauma for their relatives too,

as the partner of a man injured in a bizarre accident is finding out today 2,000 feet above the Pennines.

OK at the back, Angela? We're doing about 130 miles an hour.

Oh, brilliant. I could do this again!

Helimed 99's passenger is trying to enjoy the flight to Huddersfield Hospital.

Her partner Michael Andrews just wants to get to A&E.

He's been hit by the barrel of a field gun and crushed by its wheel.

-Clear of the goalposts.

-Clear.

-Nothing blowing around. No wires.

The gun that ran Michael over weighs the best part of one ton.

Up to chest height if you can, just to take the weight off.

Off we go.

He was laughing and trying to get off the truck.

He put the ladder on the truck, the truck moved forward

and the gun just hit him and he went down.

I've never seen that before with anyone, but to be my partner is just...horrendous.

Wartime enthusiasts Michael and Angela will be spending this '40s style weekend in a hospital.

Only a body scan will determine whether he will make it back on parade any time soon.

That's what he lives for. He's spent a fortune on the clothes and the equipment. He loves it. We all do.

For several days, Michael gets the very best a modern hospital can offer.

Sadly, his vintage uniform is a casualty of the accident.

Nurses have to cut it off.

A few weeks later and this is the big parade.

Every year in the North Yorkshire market town of Pickering,

up to 15,000 people come to pay their respects and remember the war years.

For those who love all things '40s, it's an occasion to be seen at.

Michael and Angela have made it too.

Basically, it's a good excuse for a dance,

meet up with your friends, dress up if you like that kind of thing. It's fantastic.

And the last time Michael saw a gun like this, it was a bit too close for comfort

-and left him with significant battle scars.

-I could hear the crunching.

It was scary. It did scare me.

It damaged the ligaments in my leg. That was totally bruised, the full leg.

Also three broken ribs to the left side and my broken radial, I think they call it, radial arm bone.

That was broke. And lacerations to my face as it was a gravel surface.

When I was at the hospital, they said another inch over and I'd not have walked again. That frightened me.

# The blushing bride She looks divine The bridegroom, he is doing fine

# I'd rather have his job than mine When I'm cleaning windows... #

When we got in the helicopter and they were going through safety checks, I was in so much pain.

"Let's hope we don't have an accident in this!" They got me there quickly.

Michael and his GI brigade have said they want to raise funds for the Air Ambulance.

This even is the highlight of their year and Michael's very grateful he's here to see it.

My grandson said to me, "Stay away from big guns!" That was his advice.

Of course I'm going. Nothing would stop me.

I'm sure they went through more during WWII than I did.

# When I'm cleaning windows! #

Every day, thousands of people walk, drive or fly into Yorkshire's busy ports or airports.

Some are on holiday, others on business, but for an unlucky few

they find themselves ill or injured a long way from home.

It's a summer's morning on the Humber and the North Sea ferries are in. Today's shipload of visitors

are getting used to driving on the left and translating an unfamiliar language

to find their destination. Within a few hours of leaving the dock, one biker's holiday is in ruins.

There's an ambulance crew on scene. They suspect a spinal injury.

As they've got an ambulance here, I'll put it in the right-hand field.

-There's a gate to the right-hand side.

-Yeah.

-Top left corner.

-That do for us?

-Yeah.

-How are we doing?

-This is Rene, 55-year-old male...

Rene Barquet has come off his bike after a collision with a car.

It's certainly a mess and its rider doesn't speak English.

He got trapped between car and kerb, came off the bike and has hit the kerb, we're estimating,

at 40 miles an hour.

Rene's only been in the UK for three hours. He's one of a party of 60 bikers on an organised holiday.

I'm from Belgium and we go to Dumfries in Scotland to... make a bike trip.

We like very much the English roads.

They are made for motorcycles.

It's a little crash with one bike.

He go out off the road

and he have pain on his back.

Al's a highly-qualified paramedic, but his French isn't up to much.

Bonjour, Rene. Ca va?

HE MURMURS

Nous avons coupe votre blouson.

There's more pain for Rene.

As any biker will tell you, a good set of leathers hurt your wallet

and watching them being cut off is agony itself.

Can you ask him how much it hurts?

-Luckily, one of the Belgian bikers does speak English.

-SPEAKS FRENCH

Is it very, very painful? TRANSLATED

When he stay like that, it's OK.

But when he move, he have pain.

He's stable. He's been immobilised. He's got pain in his back and flanks.

He's relatively comfortable. We'll pop him off to Scarborough.

The accident's happened barely 30 miles from Hull's ferry terminal.

Now Rene's adding an unexpected destination to his itinerary.

Scarborough's nice, but perhaps no substitute for Scotland.

We're just about managing to communicate, I think.

It's surprising how much you can get across with just a few little pigeon phrases,

when necessary.

We have access to a translation service.

If we really need specific information, we can use that.

But generally you can get the message across with most... most of the time, you know.

In a few minutes, Rene will undergo X-rays on his back.

The good news is he's not seriously injured,

but sadly he's in too much pain to continue with his holiday.

Most overseas visitors enjoy the same free treatment on the NHS as the rest of us

and usually it doesn't matter how they have hurt themselves.

A million foreign tourists come to Yorkshire every year

The Peak District's a top attraction for people looking for adventure.

Today it's a climber from France who needs help from the air.

He's a climber that's fallen. He's got back and head injuries.

From here to Sheffield there's quite a lot of good climbing areas.

With the mild weather we're having, people like to get out. They're making the most of it.

-Anyone know the French for "tight"?

-Axel Denier is a French student studying in Sheffield.

He's fallen around 12 feet and is being treated by Mountain Rescue.

His only way to hospital will be by helicopter.

-First, pilot Andy Lister needs somewhere to land.

-Over here, Andy.

He thinks I can land it over there?

-The local Mountain Rescue team are trained to identify landing sites.

-Left-hand side of it.

-That's not a suitable landing site.

-But pilot Andy reckons something's been lost in translation.

People quite often have an optimistic idea of where you can and cannot land a helicopter.

Unfortunately, in this circumstance, there's too many rocks around

to get very near the casualty. But when you've got MRT there,

it's not too much of an issue to bring him to the helicopter.

But Andy's choice of parking space means a very long walk up the hill for Pete and Paul.

We're just having a walk up to the crag where the patient's fallen.

Quite a distance away because of the hillside,

So we're joining the sheep up here.

Also joining in is a familiar face.

Flying Doctor Steve Rowe today is volunteering with the rescue team.

He's a French student at Sheffield. He's fallen off there

and landed on an ankle that was previously injured. It hurts again now.

-OK.

-It's not open. There's some swelling. It's in a box splint.

I was climbing in this way and I fall the last move.

I didn't feel good, so...I fall down. And it is no good for my ankle.

Axel and his friend Nathan have both come to the UK to improve their English

as well as their climbing. Both are learning new terms today.

SPEAKS FRENCH

-OK now?

-Yeah.

-'He jump.'

And he fell on his ankle and his ankle was a little bit weak because he has already broke it.

So it just crack like that and it's finished for him.

More than a dozen Mountain Rescue volunteers have come out to help.

They've now got the tricky job of carrying Axel down the steep slope.

He's got fairly minor injuries. MRT are taking him to the aircraft.

Then it's Sheffield Northern General.

He was in good humour. He's fallen about 6-8 foot and he's injured his ankle

which he's injured previously. He wasn't complaining of any neck or back pain.

I was able to examine his neck and clear that on scene,

so he can be carried off in a sitting position.

Prepare to lower...and lower.

Climbers are very protective of their equipment, but Pete's not convinced about Axel's rucksack.

It's a little bit large for hand luggage. It might go in the hold!

It takes just four minutes to fly Axel to hospital,

but his broken ankle means it's four months before he's back climbing.

Our roads are among the busiest in Europe and these guys are about to drive straight onto them.

For them, everything's changed. Sitting on the left-hand side of their truck,

driving on the left-hand side of the road. It's not easy.

Every year, more than 9,000 accidents on UK roads involve foreign-registered lorries

and 30 people are killed in them.

-Often the visiting drivers are not to blame.

-We're slightly left of track.

Today Helimed 99 has been scrambled to an accident that's depressingly familiar to Lee Davison.

He's trapped by his lower legs.

Paramedic's just asked for some morphine. I'm going to get some

and see if we need to transport.

The Bulgarian driver of a Spanish truck has collided head-on with a van near Selby.

The van driver's trapped and badly injured.

-Can we get anything to help you?

-Just get me out.

We'll get you out in a minute.

Geoff Crossley is trapped by his legs. He has a nasty head wound,

but he's lucky to be alive. His van took the full force of the impact with the 38-tonne truck.

The blue van was coming down the A19.

Er, the wagon just... started turning into the road and smashed straight into him.

-Its driver is under arrest.

-He speaks Spanish. We've not got much yet.

He was unhurt, but Geoff's in a bad way.

Deep breath for me.

Deep breath. Is that hurting on your right? Where my right hand is?

He's so badly trapped, fire fighters decide they must remove him through the back of his van.

The front is so distorted by the collision, taking him out through his door is impossible.

We put two relief cuts in the side and lift the dashboard off him, to remove him to the back.

We'll look after you, OK? Don't panic, all right?

There'll be a little bit of inconvenience while we get you out.

Research has shown that having to drive on what for them is the wrong side of the road

makes foreign drivers slower to react to emergencies.

Geoff is finding out what a simple error of judgment can lead to.

Relax that leg down for me, Geoff.

Geoff, just put this leg down for me. Good lad. That's it.

He's got multiple injuries concurrent with the accident - head injury from the steering wheel,

and his chest where the door's encroached into his chest. I'm worried about his liver there.

He's complaining round about his pelvis, but when we got him out,

both lower legs had submarined under the steering wheel. He's got nasty lacerations there.

Their patient is being flown to hospital in York.

He'll need emergency surgery.

The Bulgarian trucker faces a night in the cells before an appearance before magistrates in Selby.

24 hours after the crash, he pleads guilty to a driving offence

and is banned from driving in the UK for a year.

But what happens if foreign visitors find themselves in a medical emergency?

Here in the UK, you can now dial 112, the European equivalent of 999,

and still get an emergency operator.

Yorkshire's vast number of tourist attractions brings in visitors from around the world,

all here to experience the history and the scenery.

But when faced with an emergency, where you come from is irrelevant.

It's all about what you can do to help.

There's something in his back pants. Maybe he has got a wallet? You might want to check it.

Today, two overseas visitors - a German doctor and an American tourist -

find themselves fighting to save the life of an elderly cyclist in the grounds of Bolton Abbey.

Just hang on for me a minute. Hold on, buddy.

Helimed 9, southbound for Bolton Abbey.

RADIO RESPONSE

A 70-year-old has come off his bike. Initial reports were he was unconscious,

but they believe he's injured his eye and it may be out of the socket.

That's it. In-between the wood and the water.

The grounds of Bolton Abbey cover more than 30,000 acres.

They know he is somewhere on a back road below them,

-but on a sunny Sunday afternoon it can be difficult to spot.

-That's an ice cream van.

There's cars down here.

There we are. Just down at my ten o'clock.

This gentleman's an MD from Germany. He was assisting me, wanting an IV and to put some fluids in.

The 78-year-old cyclist is being well looked after. The first to find him was an American tourist

on his first trip to Yorkshire.

We just happened upon this gentleman. He'd had a bicycle accident.

We just tried to comfort him until we could get some help here.

He had some level of head injury, but was moving all his extremities.

As well as the American tourist, there's Tim Nebelsiek, a German doctor,

meaning there's an international team giving him the best possible chance of survival.

We don't know how long he's been lying here. We think it's about 20 minutes he's been lying here,

so I don't know.

The head injury is making him agitated and he's becoming less responsive.

-You've taken the oxygen off as well?

-Yeah, he's fighting everything.

OK, ready, steady, go.

He needs to be more awake than he is now.

Coming from abroad, the team on the road were in good position to help.

In America, first aid is taught in primary schools and many European countries, including Germany,

are known for having much higher levels of emergency medical knowledge than here in the UK.

We have a 78-year-old male, cycling without a helmet.

Found in the middle of the road. Believed to have been unconscious. He's now agitated.

He might have had some serious head injury. You can't really tell.

He needs a CAT scan and then might need to intubate him to keep his head pressure down.

The good news is he was breathing on his own, somewhat laboured,

but I think with proper medical attention, we'll pray good things.

We'll be about ten minutes.

It's a nervous flight to hospital for Paramedics Pete and Kay.

Unusually, both made the journey in the back as their patient's condition is deteriorating.

Despite the great work of the team who stopped to help, the outlook doesn't look good.

Sadly, cyclist Dennis Peace doesn't recover,

but he was given the best possible chance by the actions of an American tourist and a German doctor,

a truly international team who did all they possibly could to help.

The overseas visitors who received first-hand experience of the NHS.

Now let's return to a patient who was critically injured just a few miles from his home.

Teenager Chris Syme is fighting for his life.

Chris was lucky to survive a freak accident involving a forklift tractor at the stonebreaking yard.

But within hours of arriving at Leeds General Infirmary with serious back injuries,

his condition deteriorates.

An X-ray confirms his spine is broken and his lungs have been badly damaged.

He's put on a life support machine.

When people have problems with ventilation

as a result of a spinal chord injury,

they develop other organ system failures.

That was close to being fatal for him.

For several days, Chris responds to treatment, but then his condition deteriorates again.

He's fighting for his life.

He was in a coma and...

he had...paralysis.

It just seemed...you'd think it couldn't get any worse and it kept getting worse and worse.

Three weeks in, they talked to us about switching off his life support machine

and that was when it really sunk in that that was it.

'It's never an easy conversation to have and it requires a lot of time and patience.

'We had to have quite an open and frank discussion with Chris's family, next of kin,'

to explain what was happening to him.

And explain that the likely outcome was that Chris was very unlikely to ever be able to walk

after he recovered from this, if he was able to recover from it.

One of the consultants said, "We're not prepared to give up on Chris

"and we're going to give him another 48 hours, but it's up to Chris. We've done all that we can do."

But Chris is young and fit. After four months in the LGI's High Dependency Unit,

he finally pulls through.

People talk about miracles and talk about people fighting,

but it's true. It sounds like a cliche, but it happens and that's what Chris did.

The doctors said it was up to Chris and he did it.

Chris is transferred to a specialist spinal unit nearer his home.

His fractured spine is now held together with titanium.

Although now forced to use a wheelchair, he's determined that one day he will walk again.

I don't think my lifestyle will change. It won't be as easy,

but I'll still give it a good go, driving machines and what have you.

Everything can be adapted nowadays.

For his family, Chris has all but come back from the dead.

His mum knows few people recover from injuries as serious as her son's.

When the doctors did discuss switching Chris off,

I did actually say that I...I'd had enough of watching him suffer.

And I didn't want it to keep going if it wasn't going to get him any better.

I'd resigned myself to the fact that he was going to die and that was it.

The fact that we've still got him, I just... He's alive.

He's doing remarkably well from what we learn, that he's able to use his arms.

And is able to function in a wheelchair.

It's a delight to see him surviving through what he's been through.

I'm pleased to say Chris is now back at home and learning to drive.

He says he's determined to live life to the full.

Subtitles by Subtext for Red Bee Media Ltd - 2011

Email subtitling@bbc.co.uk