Episode 1 Helicopter Heroes

If you're critically ill, or seriously injured, seconds count.

And in Britain's biggest county, you can be a long way from help.

-'Where's the patient?

-Stuck under the car.'

The Yorkshire Air Ambulance flies at 150 miles an hour and,

thanks to its speed, hundreds of patients are alive today -

saved by a highly skilled team of doctors and paramedics.

-Stand clear, everyone.

-Keep going, mate.

It covers some of the UK's most rugged landscapes,

turning roadsides into operating theatres...

We're going to pop him off to sleep with an emergency anaesthetic, OK?

..and town centres into helipads.

-OK on the left?

-Just behind you, Tim.

And every day, the helimed teams' skill, speed and courage

is saving lives.

Today on Helicopter Heroes...

Her husband's in cardiac arrest

but this woman is determined to give him the will to live...

Come on, darling. Come on, darling. You're fine.

..flying doctor Jez fights to save the biker who was wearing this helmet...

He's in a poorly way. He's in bad shape.

-How's that leg?

-I broke it.

..a French tourist falls on a cliff-top path,

but treatment is 500 miles away...

and a runaway truck brings devastation to a housing estate.

His breathing's not very good at the moment.

Meet my friend Annie. She doesn't say much but she's a life-saver.

She's helped thousands of emergency service workers around the world

learn CPR, or the kiss of life, as it used to be known.

I learned my first aid with Annie,

but now a new campaign to encourage all of us to have a go at CPR -

without any training at all - is having remarkable results.

There are times in life where being tough comes in handy.

Say some geezer collapses in front of you - what do you do?

We need a volunteer that ain't breathing.

It's been watched by more than one and a half million people on YouTube

and seen by many more on the TV.

You push hard and fast here on the sovereign, to Stayin' Alive.

# Ha, ha, ha, ha... #

This memorable ad is all about encouraging people

to do basic chest compressions

if they come across someone whose heart has stopped.

Push hard and fast to Stayin' Alive.

It's not as hard as it looks.

The idea is that this basic message will stay in people's heads,

just in case they ever need it.

And today in Ripon, one of the UK's smallest cities,

that's exactly what happened.

Have you got details on this job we're attending?

'98, yeah, roger. He's arrested again so they've gone back into CPR

'and there's a landing site right next to them in a park, over.'

Yeah, could be a multitude of things. Either road up,

-none of them's good, are they?

-No.

Paramedics Darren and Paul aren't optimistic

because they know the facts.

Out of every hundred people who have a cardiac arrest,

fewer than ten survive to leave hospital.

-Were you the first to find him...?

-I was the first to find him on the site.

Whether patients survive can be down to how soon someone starts CPR.

-Wasn't talking at all, no.

-When you first found him, he was unconscious?

-Yeah.

And today, 67-year-old Wyn Jones

has had his heart attack in front of the right people.

He's had four shots.

'We came round the corner and saw that, er,

'you could see a bike hanging up in the road,'

so we stopped just to check that everything was OK -

if there was anything we could do to help.

And other cars had stopped, but other cars actually drove off in front of him

and left him, kind of, on the ground.

And then the guys started CPR and, obviously,

some soldiers were passing and they've stopped to help.

-Do you want to swap, mate, or are you all right?

-I'm...

-Are you sure?

So, three adrenaline, one amiodarone.

Two adrenaline.

Suzanne and her husband started doing chest compressions

before a group of soldiers from the local barracks took over -

and they knew what to do because of Vinnie Jones

and his life-saving commercial.

Nobody bothered with the breaths.

You know, the advert Vinnie Jones has done recently where you just press hard and fast -

literally, that's all they've done, until the ambulance crew got here.

Do you want me to come to that top end, bud, and we'll have a look at this tube?

-Yeah. It's all right.

-Wyn, your wife's here.

Wyn's wife has just arrived.

But her husband is still not responding.

-Are you all right sorting that, bud, for us? Nice one.

-I'm with you.

I'm with you, we're with you. We're going to Australia - don't you worry.

-Australia, Wyn - listen.

-Yeah, going to Australia, Wyn.

As well as the continuous chest compressions,

he's been given four high-voltage electric shocks

to try and knock his heart back into rhythm.

All right, stand clear, everybody. Keep your hands off. Hands off.

Come on, boy.

But they've not worked.

-Yeah.

-Yeah, go for another shot. So it's his fifth shot, yeah?

Come on, darling. Come on. One more go, darling. One more go.

-Give it one more go.

-It's grade-four tube, is that.

-All right, stand clear, everybody.

-Keep your hands off. Hands off.

-Come on, boy.

-Good lad!

-Keep going, mate.

-Come on, mate.

-Come on, my boy. You're winning the race. You are.

Do a bit of CPR for us.

They say survival at times like this can be down to having the will to live

and, if encouragement is what Wyn needs, there's no shortage here.

-Come on, Wyn.

-Come on, darling, please. Just keep on.

-Just keep on, Wyn. You're fine.

-Come on, mate.

-You are wonderful.

You're going to survive. This is good. It's all right.

It's now been nearly 20 minutes since Wyn was first found on the roadside

and, still, his heart isn't beating.

And you're the lovely boy who looks after me. Just think about that. I need you to live.

Well done, pal. You're doing really well.

If he doesn't recover soon, the paramedics will have no choice

but to stop.

Come on, sweetheart.

Come on, darling. Come on, darling. You're fine.

You'll be amazed how small a space the helimed pilots can squeeze their helicopters into.

A large back garden will do at a pinch,

but there are some parts of the North where helipads are very hard to find.

The Derbyshire Peak District is one of the trickiest landscapes

the helimed pilots have to deal with.

It's more than a century since many of its valleys were flooded to form reservoirs.

Sometimes the villages swept away to feed the thirst of Sheffield reappear.

But when it comes to finding somewhere to land,

the helimed team often has to choose between a steep hillside, water or woodland.

Are we going to need to land on a road? Can we find out how serious it is, or not?

Unless they shut the road, I can't see an obvious place to land.

It looks like there's a bobby coming onto the far side of the bridge, to shut the road.

Yeah, there's a member of public stood there.

You've got low wires this side of the reservoir, Andy.

I'll just stay at ground idle till we know how bad it is, Graham, OK?

I'm just going to move it forward a bit so you've got...

Clear this side.

OK, you are clear out? Doors open.

Today, there's been a serious motorcycle accident on the A628,

the Woodhead Pass that carves its way through the Pennines.

High-speed round this bend. Into that sign there.

Flying Doctor Jez Pinnell, the helimed team's medical director,

has driven from his home near by.

His skills as a hospital anaesthetist

are about to come in very useful.

Head injuries, facial injuries,

injury around his neck. Chest injury.

Possible pelvis and lower-leg injuries. So he's in a poorly way.

He's in bad shape.

David O'Connor is very badly injured.

He's come off his high-powered Yamaha R1 racing bike,

capable of 186 miles per hour.

As it was going round the corner, his rear wheel locked up

and he hit the kerb, went over the handlebars

crashed into that sign there and rolled back down onto the road.

He wasn't responsive.

He was breathing very, very heavily, which was good, and there was a lot of blood coming from his face.

His helmet was all smashed open. But he was breathing, which is good.

David, nice and still.

'Luckily, there was a nurse in one of the cars nearby.'

She started trying to get him to respond -

she knew what she was doing.

And then a fireman came past and he helped and then...

Then a, er... And then there was a doctor.

-Just relax. David, just relax.

-David, something just to relax you.

Some medication there, just to take the edge off. That's it.

The A628 is the UK's fifth most dangerous road,

according to a recent survey.

Bikers like David are among its most numerous victim.

That'll be fantastic.

And do you want the traction splint on that?

There's a pelvic splint, as well.

Doctor Jez is concerned that the biker's head wound alone

could kill him.

Despite his helmet, he's showing all the signs of a brain injury.

That's my knee - sorry.

-OK?

-We're on.

That's definitely gone. This femur...

That femur's definitely gone.

Jez is a highly experienced anaesthetist

and he knows that to give David the best possible chance of survival,

he must put him to sleep here and now.

It will prevent pressure building up inside his skull.

Dave? Open your eyes, stick your tongue out for me.

It's a process known as RSI, or rapid sequence induction, and it's risky.

But it may be their patient's only hope -

and David is about to get a general anaesthetic in the middle of a Pennine road.

It's amazing how much closer to the rest of Europe we are now.

You can catch a train to France,

get a job in Germany or collect your pension in Spain.

But when it comes to health,

it's not just the language barrier that makes life difficult.

Whitby is one of the UK's most picturesque seaside towns.

Visitors from all over the world come for the history -

and the fish and chips.

But really adventurous holiday-makers bring their boots,

to experience the spectacular cliff-top path to nearby Robin Hood's Bay.

This is a wild coastline.

Get into trouble here and you're a long way from help,

which is why Helimed 99 is heading to the seaside today.

I'd rather you pick that green sloping ground, if you would...

-Yeah, I think we will.

-..rather than this grey stuff.

-Yeah, sure.

OK, slowing everything down.

Escape to the left, then, away from the rocks.

Emmanuelle Giora is an artist who lives in Paris.

She was spending a few days in England with a friend

when she slipped and fell.

Now she's two miles from the nearest road - and in need of help.

-Hi, Emmanuelle.

-Hi.

-How we doing?

-I'm OK.

-How's that leg?

-I broke it.

-Sore?

-Yeah.

-OK.

What we're going to do is just get some nice, strong medication on board

-and then we'll work out how we're going to get you out of here.

-All right.

-OK?

We were just, er, walking down, going to Robin Hood's and...

And she slipped on the mud, so she slipped and twisted her ankle.

Emmanuelle's ankle is badly broken.

Local paramedics have hiked along the cliffs to reach her,

but they decided the only safe way to get her to hospital is by air.

-How far do you think it is to walk there? It looks a lot closer than it probably is.

-About 200 metres?

-200 metres.

-It looks a lot easier to your chopper.

A lot easier, a lot straighter, to your chopper.

Once we got over the fence...

Emmanuelle's fracture is not life-threatening -

but this is the kind of place where even a trivial injury is serious.

This is an exposed footpath, and little used in January.

Luckily, other walkers came to the rescue.

I sent my wife to... To continue with this lady.

I went to the foghorn station

to inform the emergency services from that point.

Which were a good response time, as well. I'm impressed.

No-one is charged for a flight in Helimed 99,

but Emmanuelle has a problem.

She has no travel insurance,

nor has she an EU health card that would give her free treatment on the NHS.

If she needs surgery, she may have to pay.

OK, pre-take off...

For pilot Steve Waudby, this is a tricky take off.

Updraughts from the 400-foot-high cliffs will buffet Helimed 99.

We'll just slowly trickle forward into winds.

-I don't fancy doing a backward take off over the cliffs.

-No!

-Just some more wires and then t'next field.

-Er, yep.

But 25 years flying helicopters -

including a spell in the RAF -

mean Emmanuelle's unaware of the risks.

The flight to Scarborough Hospital

takes Emmanuelle over the fishing village of Robin Hood's Bay - the end of her cliff-top walk.

She'll have to save this destination for her next visit.

Nice and steady, lads.

That's it - beautiful. Feet round this way, I think.

She'll soon be undergoing X-rays on her ankle.

Fractures like this can be minor or require surgery.

Sadly, Emmanuelle needs an operation.

She feared she would.

As soon as my, er, feet touched the ground,

it twisted, like this, and I heard two big cracks.

So I, er... I understood that it was very bad, so...

My friend screamed, just behind me, and said, "Oh, my God. Oh, my God!"

And then I saw my feet - you know - it was like...

only attached with the flesh and the bones

because I couldn't put the foot on the ground.

Europe has done little to remove the barriers between doctors.

Scarborough surgeons decide Emmanuelle needs metal rods

inserted into her broken bones.

The trouble is, the nuts and bolts the NHS uses to secure them

are a different size from their French counterparts.

So Emmanuelle must go home for her operation.

I have discussed with the surgeon

and he told me that it was better if I was doing the surgery in France.

It was better to be there than here.

After three days in an English hospital,

it's time for Emmanuelle to begin the long journey home -

500 miles via the Channel Tunnel with her ankle still broken.

As Emmanuelle makes her way back to France, doctors in Scarborough

send her X-rays to the medics in her local hospital in Paris.

It was an uncomfortable journey home.

It took all night, actually.

We drove from Scarborough to Dover,

then we took the ferry

and then we drove from Calais to Paris.

Lying on an ambulance trolley for such a long time isn't ideal,

but the paramedic travelling with her

made her as comfortable as possible.

It was OK because I was lying on the bed

and my leg was well fixed in plaster.

During the operation, metal pins were inserted into her ankle

to hold the broken bones together.

Three weeks later, near Montmartre in the north of Paris,

Emmanuelle is back at her favourite cafe.

It's not so difficult to walk with the crutches, but, actually,

as I can't move and I have to have my leg laid down most of the time,

I didn't go out a lot.

Maybe it's the fourth or fifth time out of the apartment.

Merci. Merci beaucoup. C'est gentil.

I read a lot, listened to the radio, watched movies,

and...

I started to play the mouth organ, actually.

Although her holiday took an unexpected and painful turn...

-I broke it.

-..Emmanuelle hasn't been put off returning to England.

'We both heard that Yorkshire was a nice place,'

and that's why we went there.

But, for sure, I'd like to go back there to finish the trip, you know.

And she says she won't forget the help

that she got from her rescuers that day.

Of course, the helicopters,

I would really, really like to thank them again.

Because they took me really, really quickly to the hospital

and I'm really, really grateful for all the care I had in England.

Now let's return to the battle to save the life of Wyn,

the victim of a heart attack who was cared for

by a remarkable bunch of amateur life-savers in North Yorkshire.

Come on, my darling, you can do this. I know you can do this.

Come on, Wyn.

Wyn Jones isn't breathing and has no pulse.

CPR and high-voltage electric shocks

are now the only ways to restart his heart.

Can you just move that hand for us, darling? Just move back a moment.

-Yes.

-Let us test his rhythm.

Four shocks had little effect.

But after the fifth, things are starting to change.

-It feels like he's got a pulse.

-He's got a radial.

-Do you want to see if we get blood pressure?

And while he's on the floor, we'll just do a... We've got a radial.

Wyn now has a weak pulse and shallow breathing.

What he needs now is urgent treatment in a specialist hospital.

What we're going to do now - we've got an output,

we'll put him on to the stretcher,

we'll put him straight in the aircraft,

-and we've got the scope to lift him straight into the machine.

-OK.

'He seems to be breathing on his own now.

'They were going for 15 minutes,'

so, yeah, hopefully, the outcome will be good.

Fingers crossed.

-He's breathing.

-Come on, darling.

-Come on, Wyn, good lad.

-Come on, darling, going to keep you warm.

-Keep fighting, son.

-I'm here, sweetheart. I'm here.

Wyn's wife Jenny has been by his side

through all the resuscitation attempts...

Can you just guide this side?

..and she's not leaving him now.

Come on, darling, I'm running with you.

ME running! Can you believe it?

Just take us time. Ready, steady, lift.

Normally, everyone stays fully strapped in these helicopters.

But not today.

42 resps he's got.

A bit of movement but I'm happy with that CO2 there. It's showing 15.

I had it about 16-ish.

Paramedics Daz and Paul are so concerned about Wyn,

they're continuing to monitor every aspect of his condition.

-Did he have a bit of movement, then?

-Yeah, he did. He's posturing, mate.

He is, isn't he?

-You keep batting away, old lad.

-Well done, pal.

You're doing really, really well.

This is where they're heading.

The Leeds General Infirmary is one of the country's top hospitals

for heart-attack patients.

It's all right, pal, you're all right.

You're doing really, really well.

WYN GROANS

Wyn's now just minutes from being in intensive care.

His groaning is a sign he's starting to recover.

You got it? You all right?

We've got a male of unknown age found by a passer-by.

Moaning and groaning when they got there initially.

Sounds like he's then gone into cardiac arrest,

-bystanders started CPR.

-Right.

First ambulance on scene arrived there,

said he stayed in VF three times.

Since that last adrenaline went in at 10.07,

at ten past he got a pulse back.

Everyone ready? Ready, steady...

I think he's possibly had a heart attack, and that's the reason for the fall.

There was nothing to suggest that a traumatic incident occurred.

We think he's had a heart attack

that's caused him to have the collapse off the bike

as the passer-by found him.

Initially, he was moving about and then he's gone into cardiac arrest.

They started CPR and obviously called 999.

He's had an MI, he's come off his bike.

Whether anything has hit him... Yeah, it sounds more like this.

'He's obviously called the cardiologist'

to speak about the heart attack and they'll obviously do some bloods

and further tests and take it from there.

It's clear Wyn is now in the best place if he is to recover.

The combination of CPR from the passers-by,

advanced life support from the paramedics

and expert care here means he's got the best chance of survival.

Wyn, open your eyes for me, Wyn. Open your eyes.

You're in hospital.

But with the statistics so stacked against him,

the next few hours will be critical.

Scenery like this brings millions of people out into the hills -

but if you're hurt out here,

the landscape itself can threaten your survival.

The motorcyclist who was wearing this helmet

is fighting for his life.

But biker David O'Connor did have some luck on his side today.

His accident was witnessed by several people

with the medical skills to keep him alive

until the helimed team arrived.

Two nurses, a firefighter and myself just drove past in the instant it all happened.

I don't know what the odds are of that.

He was unconscious, his helmet had been smashed by the impact.

We were just holding his head still and keeping his C-spine immobilised

and just made sure his breathing had bilateral air entry

and his lungs weren't too smashed up and trying to make sure his airway was OK.

David has multiple injuries after he was thrown

from his motorcycle on the A628 and hit a road sign.

Now he's losing consciousness as powerful drugs paralyse him.

Then a tube will be carefully inserted into his windpipe

and his rescuers will take over breathing for him.

Yeah, that's it.

David's injured brain is swelling.

Eventually the build-up of pressure inside his skull would have killed him.

I'm just using this traction splint

to draw up some more morphine for him in flight,

just to keep him a bit more sedated.

But it's not a very clean area.

Now he's unconscious, his blood pressure will drop

and his confused brain can rest.

'He's got serious injuries.'

Looking at the speed he's probably been going at

and the damage he's done to the sign,

he's probably done some serious mischief somewhere.

Until we get him through the scanner, it's going to be difficult to exactly say...

-Is it touch and go?

-Yeah. Potentially, he might not survive this, definitely.

As well as his head wound, David has serious facial injuries,

a shattered pelvis and a fractured femur.

His case will demand all the skills of doctors and surgeons

at Leeds General Infirmary.

You're the nearest neurosurgical centre that we can fly to,

so you're going to be the quickest.

He's just over the border in Derbyshire.

We're just leaving from Woodhead Pass. I'll be routing back towards the LGI.

DISPATCH RADIO RESPONDS

Pressure's down. His pressure's coming down.

There are signs for optimism

but they're dashed soon after Helimed 99's arrival in Leeds.

MRI scans reveal the extent of his major head injury.

For several weeks,

he lies unconscious in an artificially induced coma.

When he wakes up, the mental scars are obvious.

He was in a very confused state when he first arrived on the ward.

He also had problems with his speech

so he was struggling to express himself clearly

and make his needs known.

That, in turn, led to a few difficulties with his behaviour.

Sometimes he would become quite agitated as a result of that.

Three months on,

David's been transferred to a hospital nearer his home.

But his injuries mean it's been a traumatic time

for his wife Edith, too.

When he first came round, her husband didn't even recognise her.

'He didn't know where the heck he was

'and trying to keep him from pulling tubes out from everywhere, you know.

'He was all over the place, really.'

He didn't know what was happening to him

cos the last thing he remembers is going out for a ride on his bike.

We've had a struggle sometimes, haven't we,

trying to understand what you're saying?

-But, yeah, it's coming back now, isn't it?

-My writing's better now.

Oh, it's a lot better.

'He has been in post-traumatic amnesia for quite some time.

'I would say it's only the last two to three weeks

'that he's come out of that, and as he's come out of that,'

he's suddenly become aware of everything around him,

wanting to do this, wanting to do that, coming home.

Because before that, it was all...

..talking and not making sense of what was around him.

David went on to recover enough to return home,

but he will live with the effects of the head injury

this collision caused for the rest of his life.

And he's unlikely ever again to enjoy a ride on his bike

in the Peak District.

If you think handling a car is difficult enough on our roads,

try being a trucker.

You're in charge of a vehicle that weighs as much as a house

and it travels at up to 56 miles an hour.

Almost everything we buy and everything we own

has ended up in the back of one of these.

Haulage is the lifeblood of the country -

lorries travelling hundreds of miles a day to keep the goods flowing.

Many of these trucks are now coming from abroad.

Every year, there are one and a half million trips to the UK

by foreign-registered lorries.

But today, one of them has had a serious accident,

overturning at a busy intersection.

OK, mate, this is it in front of us.

The road is on the far side of the village, mate.

With the lorry coming to rest on the side of the roundabout,

there's just one obvious landing site for pilot Chris Attrill.

-That roundabout looks ever so good to me, mate.

-It does, doesn't it?

-Yeah.

-We've still got traffic moving, that's the problem.

Just at the rear of this, you've just got two concrete posts,

like the ones that are at your two o'clock.

-Yeah.

-Clear of them now. Tail's clear of them on my side, mate.

-So are the blades.

-No worries.

All right. We're in the middle.

We've got a gentleman, unknown age, unknown name.

-We're having difficulties with the lungs at the moment.

-OK.

Obviously, as you can see, he's overturned his truck on the roundabout.

Going approximately 30 miles an hour at most.

The position we're in, he was squat down,

-we've not managed to get a collar on him.

-So the language barrier as well?

Yes, there is a translator about somewhere.

-OK.

-Can you just ask for his full recollection of what happened?

Can he remember everything that happened?

HE SPEAKS POLISH

OK.

Has he any pain anywhere now?

HE SPEAKS POLISH

-He's only feeling pain on the left hand.

-Left hand?

-Arm and hand.

Basically, we've made the HGV safe.

We've got rid of the glass, allowed the paramedics inside

to treat the pain and we've been led by the paramedics

and just extricated using the extrication board.

Pilots have lots of criteria when looking for

a safe place to land and, odd as this one might look,

this roundabout actually ticked all the right boxes.

It's nice and big and right next door

to where the incident actually was.

So, yeah, you've got everything there on hand

and it's plenty big enough and the police kindly stopped all the traffic

for us, so, yeah, it's a nice little spot to land.

They can see that this large heavy goods vehicle's

laid on its side here, a bit like a dead dinosaur.

Erm, the patient's been extricated from the vehicle

prior to our arrival and sustained some arm injury.

They're just assessing the level of that at the moment.

The likelihood is that once we've got a set of stable observations,

he'll be transported to Pinderfields by ground vehicle

and our colleagues will look after him en route.

So it appears this Polish driver has escaped with just an arm injury.

But now police attention is turning to what could have caused

this huge lorry to topple over.

A recent report showed that nearly half of all foreign-registered vehicles

stopped by inspectors here had dangerous defects,

so this lorry will be getting a full examination.

One imagines it's probably been at a fairly low speed,

though it's difficult to gauge exactly,

but it's a large lorry and it's been going round this roundabout.

So we're always happy to come out and have a look

and help out if we can, but in this case,

it doesn't require any further intervention at the moment.

Despite air brakes, up to 12 heavy-duty tyres

and steering rear axles, hazards that motorists take in their stride

often catch out truckers - and steep hills are among the most deadly.

'Good morning, Helimed 99 on for multiplied central standing for up link.'

'Helimed 99, good morning and your stance approved.'

It's market day in the small town of Otley, only a few miles

from the airport, but today, this quiet corner of Yorkshire

has been disturbed by a dramatic accident.

Louise thought the house was falling down.

She heard the bang as she came down to put the kettle on

and heard this almighty bang. She thought the house was falling down

or the roof had come off or something.

Never expecting...to see all this.

A lorry carrying cement has overturned on a steep hill

and less than five minutes after the first 999 call,

the helimed team is arriving on the scene.

He's done well not to go down there.

Unable to stop, the driver has ploughed through concrete, wood and metal fencing,

narrowly avoiding a steep drop into a back garden.

Fortunately for the trucker,

a nurse was passing on her way to work.

I was first on the scene, but I didn't actually see the accident.

I just arrived as the lorry had gone over

so, luckily, I was able to assist this gentleman straightaway.

He is conscious, but he's not looking too good.

His breathing's not very good at the moment.

Quite scary, yes.

For local residents, today's accident has been a shock,

but not necessarily a surprise.

I'm absolutely amazed that this hasn't happened before

because I've seen lorries come down here,

erm, with the brakes smoking.

Cos they're braking all the way down from the top.

Now, whether his brakes have faded or, with it being a cement mixer,

the load has shifted and he's not been able to handle it.

The driver of the lorry is quickly loaded

into the air ambulance.

Within minutes, he will be in the accident and emergency department

of the Leeds General Infirmary.

Helimed 99, we have lifted. En route - LGI.

Call's been placed. 99, over.

He has sustained very serious injuries,

but for local residents, it's been a lucky escape.

Why it's flipped there, though, seems strange.

Thankfully his course...

The line here, if you look at the tyres,

is again heading for my drive.

A mother and grandmother are left surrounded by debris

but, for them, the damage could have been infinitely worse.

My first thought was, "Thank God they weren't out in the garden."

Then when I got here and saw it all,

it doesn't bear thinking about.

Sadly, the driver of the truck later died in hospital.

The accident has sparked a campaign in the town to stop heavy lorries

using the road where the crash occurred.

Truckers are highly trained and haulage companies heavily regulated,

but an articulated lorry can carry a load of up to 30 tons

and that can make unloading a risky business too.

Helimed 98 is circling the former mill town of Eland where a worker's

been seriously injured while unloading a truckload of glass.

-I'm just looking for wires.

-All I can see is glass at the moment.

OK, clear to the right.

The pressure's on pilot Tim Taylor to find a landing site

in the tightly packed town centre.

-All good on the left side.

-Your tail is clear of the building behind us.

You've got an RV beneath us.

This is not an ideal helipad.

The factory is surrounded by buildings, car parks and open roads.

-All clear right.

-Vehicle just behind you, Tim.

Vehicle close to the tail.

-How close?

-Ambulance responder.

-We're clear of it just now.

-OK.

Tail's clear right.

Helimed 98 is down in the factory yard

with a little help from Tim's crew.

Can you turn the radio off, please?

Airwaves on.

Aaron Joyce was working in the back of a container lorry

when two boxes of glass fell on him. He's in severe pain.

BP's 144/73.

Seems OK. Airway's fine, breathing's fine,

he's got chest moving bilaterally.

His tummy's not sore and he's not landed on his pelvis.

It seems mainly on this lower leg.

I've just, basically, I've got him on some oxygen,

done an ABC assessment, done his base obs and got an IV access in.

His workmates are upset.

He's been pulling this off the back of the container

and it's, obviously, it's further in so where having to drag it

I didn't know he'd gone behind the middle of it,

I was trying to drag it and suddenly

I saw another one on top all the way and went backwards,

just toppled onto him.

That's 750 kilos of weight and there was one on top

so it was like a ton and a half that's gone down.

Local paramedics have examined Aaron and they fear he may have

a serious internal injury.

Might be a case of getting that forklift truck up.

Flying doctor Steve Rowe is a hospital anaesthetist.

He can see Aaron's leg is badly broken.

The accident shattered his femur, the biggest bone in the body.

What we're going to do, Aaron, cos it's so sore,

I'm going to do an injection in the top of the leg that's going to turn your leg numb.

Dr Steve knows that once they move Aaron,

their patient's pain will be unbearable.

He's going to give him a nerve block -

a cocktail of drugs to block the signals

being sent from his broken leg to his brain.

Therefore cancelling all the pain

and the patient will be very comfortable

so we can manipulate the leg and put a traction splint on.

I'm going to give you some more strong painkiller here, OK.

He is also giving ketamine, a powerful anaesthetic

that will not only help reduce his pain,

but also ensure he remembers little of his ordeal.

OK, that's 50 of ketamine at 10.07.

Traumatic injury as a result of a heavy cardboard box,

estimated weight, a ton.

In urban areas like this, paramedics

often have to decide how best to get their patients to hospital.

Got him out just now and we'll run him into Huddersfield.

It's only two miles down the road, so rather than take him by air,

it's much quicker to take him to Huddersfield.

Aaron was driven to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary

where his broken leg was set by surgeons.

Happily, he was allowed home a few days later.

The dangers of working with lorries there,

but what about Wyn, the cyclist struck down by a sudden heart attack

near his home in Ripon? Let's catch up on his case.

Here at the Leeds General Infirmary,

doctors are fighting to save the life of Wyn Jones.

Less than an hour ago,

he was here lying on the side of the road,

having suffered a massive heart attack.

-That's it. You can fight.

-Come on, Wyn!

-You can fight, my love.

The quick thinking of those who came across him

certainly gave him the best chance of survival.

And it's clear some of their knowledge

had come from this 30 seconds of TV.

Push hard and fast to Stayin' Alive.

Hands only CPR...

it's not as hard as it looks.

I was just impressed with the helicopter.

Within, what, less than 10 minutes after we got there?

That's what you said, wasn't it? And where it landed.

It's now three weeks since Wyn collapsed and here at the airport,

it's a chance for all those who helped to meet again.

It's good that the ambulance service were just down the road.

From professional medics to army sergeants

and others just happy to help out,

this is an ordinary bunch of people who took on

an extraordinarily job.

We just came across him when we were driving down the road.

Spotted Wyn in the middle of the road so we pulled over.

Then, literally, the three of us just went down on one knee,

just went straight into trying to conduct CPR.

We were on the scene so quickly and we saw those guys

doing absolutely fantastic CPR.

They were remarkable. They were quite amazing.

When I saw him the first time, he wasn't a very healthy colour.

Also, I remember looking at his face and that stuck with me

and that stuck with both me and my husband

for at least a couple of days afterwards.

And just felt for his wife.

But all these people aren't just here to see each other -

there's someone else they've not seen since that day on the roadside.

These ladies and gentlemen are the team that made your chest ache.

So you were the lads that were there that morning?

Wonderful.

They tell me that it was just a chance that you were there.

'We've all been shocked when Wyn came out of the hangar.'

To see how well he looked, erm, is just phenomenal.

in such a short space of time. You know, like you said,

it's been three weeks and he looks almost as if nothing ever happened.

it's a great feeling to see Wyn back here with us today.

It proves that, again, that a massive team effort can sometimes

change the day in your favour and we couldn't have wished for better

than we had on that day.

The bystanders walking by, the good citizens who got involved

and tried to sort of change things.

Then we had the British Army involved - they did fantastic work.

The ambulance crew from the Yorkshire Ambulance Service

were fantastic and did work that is second to none.

And then we turned up and gave a little bit of a hand

and got him into the LGI.

It couldn't have happened any better for us.

It's been very emotional, really, you know, meeting people

and things like that and getting to where I am now,

three weeks on, like.

I'm very grateful to everybody, really.

That's all I can say, really.

It's wonderful to be here.

But one of the main memories from that day was how Wyn's wife Jenny

handled such an unthinkable situation.

Come on, sweetheart. Come on, darling.

Come on, darling, you're fine.

She was marvellous.

She was calm and controlled and she spoke to him.

She was so positive throughout and, you know, you could just see that,

after all those years, she loved him so much.

Come on, darling. Come on, darling.

Come on, darling. Come on, darling, you're fine.

'My job, I saw,'

was to talk to Wyn. To talk to him about things that we shared,

we knew, so if he could hear, he could connect with it.

Come on, my darling, I love you.

'It didn't mean I wasn't upset, otherwise all you could think to yourself,'

"My husband's dying in front of me," and you collapse

and I don't think you can afford to do that.

You've got too many other things to do.

And, while all these people clearly had the will to save Wyn,

there was also that bit of knowledge from a now-famous

advertising campaign.

I've seen the adverts about three times on television now

and I think it's very important just to have an idea of what to do

if you come along and find somebody in that position.

# Stayin' alive, stayin' alive... #

Push down five or six centimetres...

My boys think it's absolutely hilarious. They watch it and think it's funny.

Even they know, all you do is pump the heart to Stayin' Alive

I did wonder at the time if it was something from that

that had picked up...subconsciously picked it up from seeing it on TV.

'Everyone did a little bit that helped and I think,

'if people just stop and help and everybody works together

'it can have an amazing outcome at the end of the day.'

He seems, you know, massively grateful.

That's a good thing. We would all want him to move on.

We would all want him to get on with his life. He's got a second chance

and, you know, not everybody gets that.

And you'll be delighted to hear that Wyn and his wife

are planning on jetting off on that delayed holiday to Australia.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd