Episode 9 Helicopter Heroes

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

your life is in real danger.

He's complaining of severe pain.

Mid-30s. Been ejected from a vehicle.

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

Roger. Helimed 99 is en route. Over.

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

-'Tell me what's happened.'

-'A small child has been run over.'

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

Let's find a suitable landing site.

Welcome to the life and death world

of the Helicopter Heroes.

Today on Helicopter Heroes:

A Good Samaritan is fighting for his life after he tries to flag down a 38-tonne lorry.

Ten minutes, Dave, and we'll have you out.

2,000 feet up in the Peak District,

the team fight to save the victim of a heart attack.

He seems to be stable, but these patients can go off very quickly.

A 20-stone patient presents his rescuers with a weighty problem.

He's a big lump to get through that door.

And the team track down a patient who doesn't know where she is herself.

We'll get you out.

There's something about extreme weather that brings out the best in people.

Especially here in the countryside.

Everyone knows it could be them stuck in the snow

or a broken-down car.

But one day in North Yorkshire, a Good Samaritan paid a terrible price

for his kindness.

Even at one inch to the square mile,

Yorkshire is a big place.

The map covers most of the Helimed crew room wall.

-'Is it a pedestrian?'

-'Yep.'

-Somebody's been hit?

-'It sounds like it.'

Today, pilot Chris and paramedic Darren face the problems

presented by the outsize local geography.

Taking off from Leeds Bradford airport, it's cold but with clear skies.

30 miles and 15 minutes later,

and Helimed 99 is in the depths of winter.

We're going to an incident where a patient's been run over by a lorry.

Not sure about injuries, but due to the severity of the mechanism

we're going to see what assistance we can give.

'An update. The patient is now in respiratory arrest.'

Roger. All received.

The ambulance is just coming under the bridge.

COMMUNICATIONS INDISTINCT

Black ice on the road. There's been a bump. A gentleman's flagging the traffic down.

The articulated lorry's come along, skidded on ice and wiped the man out.

He's stuck between a tree and the wagon.

In sub-zero temperatures, a man is fighting for his life.

Hiya, Dave. How you doing? I'm James, with the helicopter.

Dave Jackson is a Good Samaritan whose good turn may yet cost him his life.

Gentleman's been trying to slow traffic and it's gone straight through him. GCS 15, at the moment.

We'll just mess about with you for ten minutes, Dave, then we'll have you out.

He's trapped beneath the wheels of a 38-tonne truck

that he tried to flag down at the scene of an earlier accident.

Obviously Fire and Rescue are trying to jack this thing up.

Trying to make sure it doesn't move and trap him even worse.

He's fully conscious and obviously in a lot of pain.

-More morphine!

-Another ten?

Dave's in agony. Despite earlier reports, he's breathing but his pelvis is shattered

and fire-fighters are struggling to release him.

Dave, there'll be a wee scratch in your arm.

-Yeah.

-OK?

Can I have ten of morph, please.

-That's two lots for that patient.

-He's not had that second lot.

As soon as we take him out, he'll need it.

Dave had just dug this car out of a snow drift for a passing motorist

when he tried to warn the lorry driver that it was blocking the road.

The truck skidded on black ice.

The driver was being assisted by a member of the public to get the car back on the road.

Then the goods vehicle came and got into trouble on the same black ice

and has ended up running into the first collision.

Paramedic James knows this is serious.

Crush injuries are devastating and very difficult to treat.

I'm worried as soon as we take this tyre off...

James knows that when the fire brigade release the weight on Dave's legs,

he could go into cardiac arrest.

Many accident victims have died like this.

Can I have that bag of fluid, chaps?

Before we move him out, I want a bag of fluid, please.

I want some fluid just before we move him.

-Got some warmth for him?

-That's warm air.

He's determined to make sure there's enough saline being pumped into Dave

to make up for the sudden drop in blood pressure he'll suffer when he's freed.

In a few moments, fire-fighters will try to lift the truck.

Will Dave's heart be able to cope as the toxins building up in his crushed legs are released

and his blood pressure plunges?

The team must be prepared.

There's a fantastic reward when you reach the top of a hill like this.

Just look at that view.

But the sheer physical effort of reaching the top of the peaks and fells

can take a terrible toll on your body.

Sightseeing doesn't come easily in the Derbyshire Peak District.

If you can't afford a helicopter, the only way to take in views like this

is to use muscle power.

Every weekend, thousands are happy to take on the local terrain.

But when a medical emergency overtakes you,

the isolation of this magnificent National Park

can threaten your life.

Today, Helimed 99 has touched down 2,000 feet up a tricky footpath called Jacob's Ladder.

Mountain biker Ashley Bailey is suffering from severe chest pains.

We set off early. He had a bit of chest pain.

It eased off when he relaxed. Went into his back, got tingling down his arms.

Pain score five out of ten.

Pulse rate about 62, breaths slightly up at 24.

The chopper's ECG heart monitor will help them diagnose Ashley's condition.

Paramedics Lee and Glen know Ashley's life is in real danger.

Can I just pop that on your chest?

If anything changes, Ashley, tell us.

If the pain gets worse or you feel nauseous.

Ashley and his biking mates were nearing the top of Kinder Scout,

one of the biggest of the Derbyshire peaks, when he had to stop.

Obviously quite a lot of pain. Struggling to breathe.

I phoned Mountain Rescue pretty soon after that.

You wonder if you're over-reacting but it's not worth the risk.

I just took the call and phoned in.

-All the leads plugged in?

-Yep.

-54-year-old.

Nice and still. Stay like that for me. Takes about 30 seconds.

No talking, no moving.

We're doing an ECG, an electrical image of his heart.

We're doing a 12-lead one. It means 12 different views,

which you need to do with anybody with chest pain.

This gives us a 95% diagnostic accuracy on what's going on with his heart.

One of the blood vessels feeding his heart is blocked

and he could go into cardiac arrest at any moment.

Ashley should be in a coronary care unit,

but he's stranded 2,000 feet up.

What I'll do, if you're happy, we'll get the aircraft ready.

-We'll bring him to you.

-You bring the de-fib up.

-Are you familiar with the de-fib?

-Yes.

OK, great.

The ECG is showing anterior sectal elevation.

So we've diagnosed that this gentleman is having an M.I.

-We'll meet you at the top.

-All right, mate.

-Brilliant.

Ashley's life is now in the hands of the local mountain rescue team.

Reaching Helimed 99 is going to be a struggle for them.

We've got a good team. Some local paramedics that are part of Mountain Rescue.

They've come from Sheffield, so we work closely with them.

They're bringing him up now

and we'll take him to Sheffield and get him sorted out from there.

This path wasn't made for a stretcher,

especially one carrying a patient who's critically ill.

A fall up here could be just as fatal as a heart attack.

At the moment he seems to be stable

but with these patients, as we know,

they can go off very, very quickly.

Farmers go to work in the great outdoors and get to enjoy the landscape like no-one else.

But every year in the UK, around 40 die

and 2,500 are injured at work.

The average farm tractor doesn't look like a dangerous vehicle.

You'd struggle to break a speed limit.

But with no seatbelts or airbags, even a low-speed collision

can be lethal.

This accident has left a 67-year-old farm worker seriously injured.

His tractor left the road in East Yorkshire

and crashed through a hedge.

Which is where Helimed 98 comes in.

It's a possible spine injury given the mechanisms of injury.

A doctor on scene has given him some pain relief and the ambulance are with him now.

We're trying to find the best way to extricate him from the tractor.

Ray Longhorne has now been trapped for more than an hour.

Local paramedics and a fire and rescue team are already hard at work.

The medics want to assess his condition

before the firemen release him from the tractor's cab that's become his prison.

There's little room for manoeuvre in the tiny cabin.

Paramedic Al Day straddles the bonnet to get a better view of his patient.

To be on the safe side, we'll treat him as a spinal.

We'll put him into a spinal extrication device

so that we can keep him still while we get him out of the tractor.

Ray is a well-known and popular local character.

Concerned friends gather as the rescue continues.

I was talking to him this morning on the phone.

He said he had a couple of new jobs.

That was it. I came home and saw him parked up here.

Ray's injuries are made worse and his rescue more difficult

because he's a farmer who's enjoyed his share of the harvest.

He weighs in at over 20 stones!

I wonder if they're going to cut the cab off.

It's a big lump to get through that door when he's injured.

I don't know.

But many hands make light of the heavy workload

and Ray is freed.

There you are, Ray. You're coming down.

With Ray finally out of the tractor, it's vital he's secured to a spinal board

to stop his injuries from being made worse.

Without the stability of this special stretcher,

any broken bones in his back could wear away at his spinal cord.

He rung me after he'd crashed. I'm only two miles up the road.

He said, "I'm in a bad way. I've crashed. Come and help me."

Ray's carefully boarded onto Helimed 98.

It's the first chance Al has to properly examine his patient.

Anyone who's had a traumatic accident like Ray

is checked on both sides of their body

to make sure their airways are clear.

I'm going to listen to your chest, Ray.

Deep breaths for me.

Breathing problems caused by internal bleeding are life-threatening.

Thankfully for Ray, his lungs are in good shape.

Damage to his back, neck and possibly spinal cord

means Ray will be in hospital for a long time once his flight is over.

But do those injuries also mean that his life will change for ever?

Ray was flown straight to the trauma unit at Hull Royal Infirmary.

Three weeks later, he's still there,

flat on his back.

I had four cracked ribs.

That, is it your sternum, it was cracked.

The second bone in my neck is cracked

or broken, I don't know.

And I've got eight bones in my back cracked on this side.

Everything's on the left side.

Ray's been told it could be a few months before he'll walk again.

I'm determined to walk out of here one day

and I'll walk the Humber Bridge for charity for them.

If this lot in this helicopter hadn't come and picked me up,

I wouldn't be here today.

Imagine being trapped beneath the wheels of an articulated truck.

That's the ordeal faced by a motorist

who stopped to help another driver who was stuck in the snow.

But the Helimed team are determined to get him out of it.

With snow blanketing much of North Yorkshire,

the Helimed team are involved in a desperate battle to free Good Samaritan Dave Jackson,

trapped beneath the wheels of a 38-tonne truck.

He was trying to flag down the lorry when it jack-knifed on black ice and hit him.

Lots of brambles. The chap has been sandwiched between the bramble hedge and the wheel.

He's trapped underneath the vehicle.

The difficulty for us, as it's soft ground, is how we're going to raise the lorry.

Dave's badly hurt but flying paramedic Darren Axe knows it's little less than a miracle

that he's still alive.

It's remarkably good, considering, not to have any major fractures.

But he's got a lot of contusions and crush injuries to one of his legs.

We can't take any chances.

Paramedic James Vine is concerned Dave's heart may stop

when the weight of the lorry is lifted off his legs.

It's a common but deadly problem for the victims of crush injuries.

-How are we going to get his wagon moved?

-We're not.

-OK.

-It's a lot of hassle to move it.

We're going to take these struts out, get more access,

and put some airbags down that corner so we can lift the vehicle.

Can we get this gentleman out

at the extent it is now?

Will he just pull out?

Everybody ready? On move. Ready, steady, move.

DAVE CRIES OUT IN PAIN

Beautiful. Gentlemen, let's just lift him out as we are.

Just go flat just over here.

Everybody get a wee bit. Keep hold of him as well.

Go flat down here and we'll get him boarded.

And Dave's free.

The fluid the team have pumped into his bloodstream

is limiting the effects on his heart.

But there's no time to waste. His condition could deteriorate at any second.

He's just ten minutes' flying time from the trauma unit at the James Cook Hospital.

But even that's too long for James and Darren.

The potential for what sort of things could be wrong with him after that is massive.

So we're not going to hang around with him.

Pilot Chris Attrill lives near the scene of the accident

and often drives down this road.

He's shocked by what he's seen today

but pilots must put their own feelings to one side

if they're to fly safely.

Helimed 99 will be at full throttle for this flight.

He seems remarkably well, phenomenally well,

for someone who's just been run over by a wagon

and been stuck under it for 40 minutes.

He just looks like he's got an isolated pelvic injury.

We'll get him to the James Cook specialists

and let them do their stuff up there.

Dave's not the only victim of black ice at the James Cook Hospital today.

But he's certainly the most serious.

Surgeons are standing by to operate on him.

They know there's a high risk that his injuries will cause internal bleeding.

He's been trapped under the lorry for approximately 60 minutes.

It's left hip and pelvis, isolated injuries.

Unbelievable.

Paramedic James knows the truck has caused injuries that could still kill Dave.

For their patient, the next hour will be critical.

Bit of a bump, Dave. That's it now. Nice warm hospital.

Now, back to the fight to save the life of a mountain biker

who's having a heart attack on top of a Derbyshire peak.

2,000 feet up in the Peak District,

a mountain rescue team has completed the delicate task

of carrying heart patient Ashley Bailey to Helimed 99.

He was riding his mountain bike when he experienced agonising chest pains.

Luckily, his rescuers had drugs to help him.

We've been able to give him some pain relief

and give him the primary treatment for a suspected heart attack

so he got aspirin and GTN as soon as we got here.

We gave him oxygen to help him.

That needs to be feet first on here.

We were at base doing some training when we got the call.

We were told about chest pains on Jacob's Ladder.

We deployed in the vehicles and were here in about 15 minutes.

They're taking no chances.

These pads will be used to deliver an electric shock to Ashley's heart

if it stops in flight.

Now paramedic Glen wants to get his patient to hospital as quickly as possible.

This is one of the highest points in the Peak District.

Do you want to pass me that shock cable?

Ease him in a little for us.

Without the air ambulance,

Ashley's survival would be in real doubt.

By air, Sheffield's Northern General Hospital is less than ten minutes.

Pilot Chris Attrill is an Aussie.

But it's not just in the outback that medical care is vital.

The Peaks are every bit as inaccessible

as some areas down under.

We were trying to find somewhere to park up.

This is the only bit of level ground.

The people sat here kindly got out the way for us.

Yes, it's somewhere I can close the aircraft down and stay nearby for the crew.

A good little spot and a cracking view!

When we're taking off and landing, we like to keep quiet. No talk.

If there's any increase in the pain or increase in difficulty breathing,

let us know.

Soon Ashley will be undergoing surgery.

A major blood vessel to his heart is blocked.

'Helimed 99, go ahead, over.'

We're lifting in one minute ten.

Are they ready for us at that end?

Family wants transport at the hospital.

Doctors will soon clear the clot and insert a stent to keep the artery open.

Angioplasty, as it's known, is a life saver.

Many patients report feeling better after their heart attack than they've felt for years!

Surgeons are already standing by for Helimed 99's arrival on the helipad.

He's being taken straight to the coronary care unit.

The Northern General's doctors find Ashley's been very lucky.

He was fit, but his heart was struggling to keep up

with the demands he put on it.

It was a very steep climb.

It's obviously knocked him to the ground, really,

the intensity of the pain.

He explained to me he was carrying his mountain bike up at the time because it was so steep.

He'd got the onset of pain and he had to stop there and then.

Lee likes to find out how his patients are faring.

We brought to you today a gentleman for PPCI.

Yeah. Ashley Bailey.

Just ringing to see how he is, really.

It's good news. But it turns out Ashley's survival

was a close thing.

Cheers, bye.

He's had three stents put in.

That's quite a lot

for what's happened.

But obviously making a good recovery.

He's back down on coronary care

and being moved to a different ward shortly.

24 hours later, Ashley is sitting up in bed.

He's surprised by his heart attack.

He takes exercise and eats sensibly.

I've never had any issues before and it did come as a bit of a shock

when it happened.

But it turns out he has one pastime that makes him a candidate for a coronary.

I do smoke a bit and my wife's always saying if you don't stop smoking you'll have a heart attack.

I've been trying to stop smoking

and I've cut down, but I guess they're right at the end of the day.

So I won't be smoking any more.

And also there's some history on my father's side of heart disease

and I may have inherited that as well.

Ashley's now on the mend and determined to get back on his bike.

But not before he's given up the fags!

Thanks to these, dialling 999 is a lot easier than it used to be.

But not all emergency calls are straightforward, especially if you're in a remote place

and the information you give can make the difference between life and death.

It's the worst day of this mum's life.

But 999 operators are trained to hear through the stress

and get the information they need.

The details she's given the controller have been passed to Helimed 99.

It's a life-threatening condition and we need to get the child to hospital.

In the circumstances, that will be LGI for this particular patient.

The boy was playing near his house in Ripon, North Yorkshire.

Helimed 99 now hovering over the scene. Over.

Thanks to the 999 operator,

and then more information passed on from the road ambulance,

paramedics Tony Wilkes and Colin Jones know what they're facing.

He was halfway across the road,

a guy was coming at about 40 miles an hour.

Heavily braked. He thinks he scrubbed about 20 mph off it.

Probably impacted at 20.

The six-year-old, called William, is critically ill.

William, hello. Can you open your eyes for me?

Can you open them? Let's see what colour they are. I say!

His eyes aren't responding as they should.

There's been a heavy impact on the back of his skull

and he's bleeding from a head wound.

He's breathing OK.

I'm sorry, little love.

There we are.

Can you get rid of these?

Just rest him on that side.

William's mother, Karen, made the 999 call.

She's going to come with her son to hospital.

Do you want to sit on there, sweetheart? We'll put William with mum.

William's moaning sounds alarming

but it's reassuring for the paramedics.

It means he's conscious and breathing.

When it stops, that means there's a problem.

He's gone quiet. Is he all right?

William. William?

-He has gone quiet.

-Can we just reassess?

William? William?

-He's blinking, isn't he?

-He's having a moan, now. Good lad!

-He's got a nice radial pulse.

-Good.

-Yeah.

Mum's here, so we should be all right.

Can you just take this side?

-Keep talking to him.

-You're going in a helicopter! It's bright yellow!

-Bright yellow.

William's mum does a fantastic job,

reassuring him with kind, familiar words.

-I'm here. I'm going to be right by you.

-You are, yes.

His heart rate is going quite quickly. We need to get him to hospital as soon as we can.

He's got a cut on his head that needs looking at urgently.

The quicker we go, the better.

There are nearer hospitals to William's home than the Leeds General Infirmary.

But the ambulance crew made a good call when they asked Helimed to take him to the head injuries base.

All right. Mum's here.

You can hold onto him if you want.

Less than an hour after she called the ambulance,

Mum Karen is on the hospital rooftop helipad.

She's never left her son's side.

William had a fractured skull and a lacerated liver.

But he made a full recovery and remarkably, within a couple of weeks, he was back at school.

There are few places more remote than the windswept fells at the top of Wharfedale.

You can tramp miles across the moors without seeing a soul.

You may be surprised to know that 999 operators

can track the position of your phone by homing in on the signal it puts out.

Today, emergency services have already plotted the position of one woman's mobile.

Just got a call to say a gentleman's got a chest pain

up in the hills, Whernside way.

His friend's already walked an hour off the hillside to get help.

We've just got a rough grid that we're heading for.

Mountain Rescue have been mobilised so we're heading in that direction to see what we can do.

999 operators have plotted the caller's position

using tell-tale signals from her mobile.

Many houses up here are holiday homes

and in winter, locals can go weeks without seeing anyone.

With chest pains, if it's cardiac related,

the longer it's left, the more damage it can do.

The quicker we get there and get back to definitive care, the better.

Today's emergency call has come from a walker who's trekked miles to get through.

Her friend has angina and he's exhausted.

He's three miles and 2,000 feet from the nearest road.

We've landed in the middle of nowhere here.

We're really on our own.

Ray Woodcraft is 67, but his stamina would shame a man half his age.

Is it yourself or your friend that's called us?

Each week, he and a friend set off on an 18-mile hike.

But today his medical condition has got the better of him.

I was having to stop every five minutes, at the end.

Normally I'm OK. I have a bit of angina but I didn't feel anything today. It's more my legs.

-You were getting pain in your legs?

-I just felt I couldn't walk.

-OK.

Ray sheltered in a survival bag for more than two hours as his walking companion tried to get help.

You'll need to go for a visit to the hospital.

Because of your condition, there are certain things we need to do.

You've had no chest pain, but we're unsure as to what's causing the dizziness.

We need to stay on the side of caution and just look after you.

He's currently got no chest pain.

He just felt dizzy and weak so we'll treat him as cardiac

cos he's got a history of a cardiac problem.

I'm just doing some observations, then we'll go from there.

We're just going to take a steady plod down the hillside and see how we get on.

And then see how we're going to negotiate this little brook!

Lee's puzzled by Ray's symptoms. He's not in pain.

Eventually, he decides it's not the angina but his medication that made him ill.

Taking your puffer spray, OK, without any chest pain,

will make you feel weak and dizzy.

When you get chest pain, that's when the arteries have narrowed

and it expands them to allow more oxygen through.

-So I should wait until I actually feel something?

-Yes. Wait till you've got pain

-before you take it. You don't need to take it before a hill.

-Right.

Nearly three hours after the onset of his illness,

Ray's at last on his way to hospital.

He'll be released after a check-up. But it could easily have been more serious.

No wonder some walkers now take satellite phones when they set off into the dales.

The trouble with mobiles is, just when you want them to work, they won't.

And it's the same with the triangulation technique 999 op use to track them down.

Especially if your signal is weak.

Today's patient doesn't know exactly where she is. But the crew of Helimed 98 already have a good idea.

Using the few local place names she's given,

and an electronic map, ambulance controllers believe they've narrowed down the area

to these woods.

She may be able to hear them, but finding her is a different matter.

Down at the bottom, on your right, there's a bridge.

It's the other side of the bridge, apparently.

Luckily,

a ground ambulance crew has narrowed down the area where she's lying.

Cheers. Thank you for everything.

-What's happened?

-Basically, me and horse have parted company.

-I've tried to stand up and hold that, but I can't stand on it.

-OK.

-Where is it sore when you stand on it?

-My knee.

-Just your knee?

Gill Stevenson was out for a ride when her horse bucked at the sight of some logs and threw her.

She's in severe pain,

but still chatty despite more than half an hour on the phone to 999.

I just came out for a nice ride and we parted company.

Basically.

-Good place to do it!

-No.

I've landed on my kneecap and it's gone cracked.

The woods cover several square miles.

It's lucky she had her mobile with her. She could have lain here for hours undiscovered.

I tried to ring friends but my phone wouldn't let me. It would only give me 999 calls.

It was only when Gill's horse arrived back at the stables without her

that her riding friends realised something was wrong.

So have you actually landed on the knee?

We parted company

and I've literally come down and my knee's gone...

And I felt it go.

-This leg's OK?

-Absolutely fine. Look.

I think what we'll do is get a splint on that leg

and it's just going to be getting you out of here.

James fears Gill's leg is broken.

And all because of a small pile of logs that spooked her horse.

Just lift this leg up for us. There we are. That's it.

-Oh, they're bringing a stretcher.

-They're on their way.

-Smashing.

-The trolley will go down there?

-It's quite flat and you go over the bridge.

Even better.

Despite her injury, Gill is still thinking about the welfare of her horse.

I've made feeds up for the horses.

Don't worry about them. They'll get sorted.

There's only one way out of the woods. This time, the ambulance team is providing the horse power!

Which way were you going on the horse? We'll do one lap and pop you round!

Fancy a round.

Their patient's injury is painful, but not life-threatening.

So she'll go to hospital by road.

If it hadn't been for smart work by 999 operators, she could still be waiting for help.

Ambulance. What's the address? What's the emergency?

What part of his body is injured?

If you dial 999 these days, they'll expect you to become a medic.

Thanks to a very advanced computer system, controllers will take you through the first aid

your patient needs.

Helimed 99 is on the way to the Dalby Forest in North Yorkshire,

30 miles from its base.

The emergency caller is still on the line.

SCREAMS IN PAIN

While he's still talking to the control room,

the chopper is already circling over the mountain bike track.

Hello!

How we doing?

This track has claimed many victims.

It's used in world class mountain bike events.

It's the ambulance service. Tell them to keep it running.

Finally, the man who made the emergency call can hand over to the paramedics.

We're on scene. If you could leave the ambulance running while we assess the patient.

We'll keep you updated.

Ten-year-old Dylan Bridges has launched himself over a jump,

off his bike and face-first into the dirt track.

He was just playing with other kids and it was an accident.

-Least he's stopped himself crying.

-You're doing really well, OK?

He's in a bad way, but in good hands.

-I'm an A&E consultant from York.

-We've met before, sir!

-Have we?

The mountain biker that stopped to help him

is an Accident & Emergency consultant.

-Is it hurting when I'm touching you, Dylan?

-Yes!

Take a nice deep breath for me.

-Take a nice deep breath again.

-I don't like it!

We're not doing anything, mate. Take it nice and easy.

Consultant Mike Williams has already examined Dylan.

Your head seems OK. I think you've smacked your face more than anything.

He's ruled out spinal damage

and knows that his injuries are restricted to his face.

No pain in your belly?

Lovely.

Stay where you are now.

Paramedic Darren Axe's diagnosis pulls no punches.

You've busted your nose, mate!

It's a very traumatic situation for a ten-year-old.

Listen, mate. You've banged your head and bit your lip.

We need to go to hospital to let the doctor have a look.

-All right?

-Yeah.

-I'm coming with you, darling.

Because his patient's jaw took much of the impact,

Darren's worried he might need a trip to the dentist

after he's been to A&E.

Can you open your mouth? I want you to.

-Open your mouth.

-No.

Your teeth don't feel loose with your tongue, do they?

No.

Dylan's younger brother has watched it all.

Understandably, he, too, is getting upset.

Come on, buddy.

I'm glad you had the helmet on.

We're nearly there, mate. Nearly there.

He's got a little laceration to his top and bottom lip.

He's busted his nose. He's not been unconscious at any time.

He's not very happy because he's cold and he's wet.

We've popped him into the nice warm ambulance.

Our colleagues will take him to hospital to get checked over.

Dylan's going to hospital by road. He's soon feeling better, as is his brother.

It's a successful outcome to one of 2,000 emergency calls made in Yorkshire today.

-Feeling better now?

-Yeah.

-That's good.

If you're ever dialling 999,

remember to keep calm.

Ambulance service. What's the address of the emergency?

Thanks to someone's cool thinking, the air ambulance got to an accident near North Allerton

within minutes of the impact.

But the survival of a pedestrian knocked down by a truck is in real doubt.

Dave Jackson survived being crushed by a 38-tonne lorry carrying animal feed

after it skidded on black ice in North Yorkshire.

That's it, now. Nice warm hospital.

Now, after a desperate half-hour operation to free him,

he's arrived at the trauma unit of the James Cook Hospital in Middlesbrough.

Surgeons will spend the next 24 hours trying to piece together Dave's shattered pelvis.

For several hours, it's touch and go, but finally Dave pulls through.

Pelvis. Not a lot left, apparently.

And there's a big break in the middle.

And the sockets, on one side, one's there, and one's sort of there on the other side.

And it's all pinned together with a plate across the front

and two screws.

For a man crushed by an articulated truck, he's been very lucky.

But for an act of kindness, he might never have been injured.

He was driving to work when he came across a female motorist who'd skidded into a snow drift.

I thought I was dead when that wagon hit me.

Yeah.

I mean, I hadn't even tried to keep running.

I was not going to let that wagon hit me backwards.

Maybe that is what saved my life.

Dave faces a long and painful three months in bed

as his shattered pelvis heals.

Even then, doctors have warned him he may still face difficulty walking.

No matter how much we do for patients,

if they don't want to rehab and get themselves up and walk again

they won't do it. We can't work miracles.

The patient's outlook is probably the most important single factor in everything we do.

It doesn't matter how much we can do with clever plates and screws,

if we don't have the co-operation of the patient, they won't get better.

The doctors say, "You can walk out of here."

But it's only my effort to do the work

that's actually going to make that happen.

12 weeks later and Dave is mobile.

Soon as I got the wheelchair, I jumped straight in it!

Well, I got Health and Physio to show me how to do it without falling over!

But I was straight in and moving around.

He can't walk yet as one half of his pelvis isn't strong enough to take any weight.

This was the one that was disconnected from my pelvis and shoved into my rib cage.

But it's a lot better than it was.

The driver who Dave went to help before the truck hit him has been to visit several times.

Dave knows seeing him like this has taken its toll on her, too.

She wanted to see that I was all right and getting better.

I think she did feel sort of a bit responsible.

Which she wasn't, but fair enough, she felt that way.

So she was happy that I'm getting better

and she gets in contact to make sure I'm OK.

Dave's had several months to dwell on the accident.

He knows that he's been lucky to survive.

And despite his injuries, he's determined that he will walk out of hospital.

Talking about it is sometimes hard work.

But when I'm not thinking about it, it's not a problem.

I just get on with it.

I mean, you know, it's tough it's happened.

You've got a choice. You can either get depressed about it or just get on with it.

The great news is that David is now not only back on his feet,

but back at home.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd