Episode 10 Helicopter Heroes

If you are critically ill or seriously injured, seconds count.

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 mph,

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

saved by a highly skilled team of doctors and paramedics.

-Stand clear, everybody.

-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.

Just behind you, Tim.

Every day the Helimed team's skill, speed and courage is saving lives.

Today on Helicopter Heroes...

Two trucks collide on the High Street, and one driver is trapped.

There's not a lot of room inside, as you can see.

You're going to have to get through that door

and lower yourself down onto it.

Winter comes to the Yorkshire Wolds,

and paramedic James is worried about a teenage sledger.

She's complaining about back pain,

so we'll just err on the side of caution.

Sammy's patient's been shot.

-Nothing's actually gone into his head?

-We're not sure.

Can the team save his sight?

And high in the Dales

an amateur medic responds to a remote emergency.

She didn't seem to know who she was.

Many of the roads in the Pennines were built for pack-horses,

500 years ago, not for modern traffic.

Steep hills and sharp bends make driving challenging,

especially for truckers.

The village of Haworth is world famous thanks to

the Bronte Sisters, who were inspired by the Wuthering Heights

overlooking the parsonage where they lived with their father.

But for paramedic Paul Kilner,

the country lanes of West Yorkshire present some very modern hazards.

Haworth's a very touristy destination.

It's known as the Bronte Country.

Yorkshire has many hilly areas. When these roads were first built,

they weren't designed for a lot of traffic.

One in four gradients are not uncommon.

Today the landscape's not a problem for Paul he's flying with

the Helimed team.

But the hills of Bronte Country have caught out another driver.

In the heart of the village of Denholme notorious for its heavy

traffic - two trucks have collided head-on and a driver is trapped.

He's still in there. He's conscious and breathing.

Yeah, he's conscious and breathing.

-What we plan on doing is pulling the windscreen out.

-OK, mate.

Amazingly, the driver of the other lorry has walked away

from the accident.

I'm local.

I come round here all the time so I were...I saw him coming,

so I'd slowed down.

When we got to the bend here he...he's went over.

I hit the brakes. I was still where I am now.

He slid into me where he is now.

And the residents of Mount Pleasant are lucky to be alive.

This car, parked up at the local dealership, stopped the lorry

demolishing the corner house.

I'm just glad that I were going...

steady. If I'd have been further round the bend,

he'd have hit my front side, and it would have been a lot worse.

Firefighters are struggling to get at the lorry driver who is

trapped in his upturned cab. He's badly injured.

It's just a bit difficult to get access to him without

sort of jumping on to top.

There's not a lot of room inside.

You're going to have to get through that door

and lower yourself down onto it.

Two members of the public have clambered in to help him.

There's an ambulance technician is there with him

who says he's quite comfortable and stable.

He's sustained some injuries to his arm and possibly his pelvis.

At this moment in time we're just waiting

get this windscreen out, then we can take him out from there.

The fire brigade can't just cut out the windscreen.

It's under massive pressure, which if released could injure

the lorry driver and his rescuers. They must take it out in one piece.

At last they can see their patient.

54-year-old Martin Hocking was on a routine delivery

run when his truck overturned. Now he's trapped.

And moving him is going to be a difficult, dangerous process.

The Yorkshire Wolds is one of the UK's newest tourist

attractions. It was put on the map by artist David Hockney,

who lives there. His landscapes attract thousands of visitors to its

rolling hills. But in winter the Wolds have a different

appeal for the locals.

It's January, and on the hills above the market town of Driffield,

the snowploughs are out trying to keep the roads of the Wolds open.

A sledging incident.

Not many details on it,

other than it's about five miles south-east of Walton.

On the map it looks like a very rural area.

This patient is immobile through their injury.

They're going to get cold very quickly.

But Glen can certainly relate to those out enjoying the snow.

He's no stranger to sledging accidents himself.

That's going back a couple of years, I've broke my scaphoid,

which is a small bone in your wrist.

It's still actually broken cos it never healed up.

As we all get a bit older, you don't realise how fragile you are.

So often when I get sledging accidents,

it's usually an adult that's trying to act like a child.

As I was.

But this time their patient is a teenage girl.

Her dad actually filmed the moment his daughter

crashed on his mobile phone.

The impact might not look much,

but 16-year-old Brydie Brigham hasn't been able to move

since her high-speed race down this hill ended in agony.

-Is this the position you ended up in?

-Yeah.

-OK. Have you got any pain anywhere?

-In my back.

-All right.

We were just sledging, having a lovely time.

We were coming down three together down the slope and Brydie

was in front and she just hit this pile of snow - we'd done it before

and nobody got hurt.

She just hit it wrong and she's damaged her back and cheek.

She just can't move her back.

-Feel me doing that?

-Yeah.

-OK.

Glen needs to know exactly where Brydie's pain is.

-Did you hear anything or feel anything go pop?

-No.

Sledging is surprisingly dangerous and the Helimed team has been

called to at least one fatal accident in the snow.

Brydie was using a plastic sack instead of a sledge leaving

her back vulnerable to concealed objects beneath the white stuff.

Glen fears a serious injury.

-Tell me if there's any pain.

-Argh.

-There? OK.

Drawing on a patient may look bizarre, but this will help the

surgeons find the exact injury when Brydie eventually gets to hospital.

What are we like further up?

-Is that OK?

-It hurts.

-Not as painful as it was there?

-Argh!

-OK.

Brydie's symptoms are worrying.

Glen thinks she's almost certainly broken a bone in her back.

Any sudden movements now could leave her totally paralysed.

What we're going to do is roll over to my right-hand side on "roll". OK?

Everybody happy? OK. Ready, steady, roll - just nice and steady.

She's doing remarkably well. She's obviously quite cold.

A degree of exposure.

She's complaining of quite severe back pain,

so we'll just err on the side of caution.

Immobilise and take her off to hospital.

But one of the big problems the paramedics face with sledging

accidents is that they always tend to happen on steep hills.

It means finding a safe spot to load their patient can be tricky.

But now pilot Chris Atrill is going to attempt to bring

the three-tonne chopper from the top of the hill to the bottom.

-All right, Brydie, is that pain still there?

-Yeah.

-Was it a lot worse when we were moving you around?

-Yeah.

-OK.

-Have you got any numbness anywhere?

-No.

Brydie and her family are out sledging

because her friend Demi is visiting.

And as she lives in Corfu,

all this white stuff is completely new to her.

Well, we get it in some places,

but because I live in a really small island, it doesn't really snow.

Never been sledging before, have you?

We had a few good runs before disaster struck.

She'd had back problems before, like.

When she was little.

Maybe just brought that back to the surface.

Towards you a little bit before.

We're clear there.

Now wrapped up in two sleeping bags and inside the helicopter,

Brydie's body temperature is recovering.

But her back injury needs an urgent assessment.

Only when she gets to hospital will the true damage be revealed.

Gunshot wounds are among the rarest injuries paramedics can be

asked to treat. Many work a whole career and never see one, but

when someone is shot they need specialist medical help.

Quickly.

GUNFIRE

It's a sport that's changed very little in hundreds of years.

GUNFIRE

But now shooting trips like these are big business.

Across Yorkshire game birds are bred

and reared just to become the flying targets for shooting parties.

But days like these bring obvious risks.

And today the Helimed paramedics have been called to what's

sounding like an extremely serious accident.

We've got reports of somebody who's been out shooting.

I believe to have been shot in the face or the head...

by a 12-bore shotgun.

He is unconscious. Sounds very time-critical.

Apart from a dramatic effect of lots of little

bits of shot as opposed to just one bullet wound.

Armed police are also heading to the field in North Yorkshire.

With shooting incidents like this,

the crew's safety is the top priority.

BEEPING

99, Roger, move, thanks.

It's safe to land. Repeat. It's safe to land. Over.

-This side of the built-up area.

-Yup.

INDISTINCT VOICE ON RADIO

-Hello, sir.

-He's conscious. He knows exactly what's going on.

-Hello.

-It apparently entered here. He's got no pains in his neck.

-Fantastic.

Erm...he's a little bit...

-..agitated.

-Not surprised, eh?

It's obvious Darren's been shot,

but far from obvious how it's happened.

So he's walked through there? All right.

-Darren was here.

-Yeah.

-And he fell here.

-Right. OK.

-It was from over.

-After the shot he's walked to here?

-No.

Darren was here when he was shot.

His friends think it was a ricochet from his own gun that hit him.

The pheasant is flying over...

at reasonable height.

The person fired.

The pellets ricochet, hitting Darren, who fell on the floor.

-I'm confused to what's actually happened.

-He remembers shooting.

It's had a ricochet effect, because the pheasants move so fast.

So whether it's a portion of the blast that's clipped his nose...

Establishing the angle from which the pellets entered Darren's face

is vital. It could help them work out

whether this is just a flesh wound or something much more serious.

He's not been shot direct.

-Nothing actually gone into his head?

-We're not sure.

Although the wounds to his face are small,

the pellets from the gun could have penetrated much deeper.

What sort of size of gun is it? Could you describe it to me?

-12-bore shotgun. Gram 6s.

-Right. 32 gram 6s. Thank you.

About two and a half mil.

This shoot had been taking place

just a short drive from York's hospital.

And then come back. Ooh, you're making me feel cold.

So as the weather starts to deteriorate,

it's decided Darren would be best going there by road.

Right, should we go into the land ambulance?

The bits of bullet lead have come back in the wind

and hit him on his face and his head.

Everybody heard the bang and seen him fall,

and obviously put two and two and come up with five.

He's fairly stable for the moment.

While the police begin their investigation into the shooting,

Darren is taken to hospital.

Very scary situation. It's knocked him to the floor.

But he's not been KO'd. He's now travelling to York by road.

It turns out his injuries are much

more significant than first appeared.

He's lucky to be alive.

After he arrives at York District Hospital,

this is what surgeons find -

three gunshot pellets embedded in parts of his face and skull.

Darren has been very lucky.

Thankfully for himself, it's not been too bad. But...

if one of the shots was maybe an inch lower,

then he could quite easily have lost his sight.

We took Darren to theatre.

We had the CT scans up on the theatre screen,

which showed whereabouts they were.

From that point it's literally trial and error, trying to find them.

You make a small incision over the top of where you believe them to be.

Then you have to do a blunt

dissection down to where the pellet should be.

It's just a matter there of trying to gently tease them out.

Three weeks after the shooting,

Darren's healing well, but the scars are still obvious.

I got a pellet that has gone up my nose...

onto the roof of my mouth, near my brain.

I got another pellet in my eyebrow...

which fractured me skull. And another pellet down this side...

which went in near me jaw.

I've got three holes in me leg, where pellets have gone in.

Today he's returned to the field where his shooting trip

went so badly wrong.

I heard the gun go off.

I could feel pain. I could feel pain in me head and me leg...

..down side of me face.

It took me off my feet and I thought, "I've been shot."

It's an accident.

It's an accident.

A bad cartridge, deflection off a bird, wind - we don't know.

Now let's return to the High Street where two lorries

have collided, sparking a major rescue operation.

The 30-tonne HGV tipped over as it came down the hill

and around a sharp bend, narrowly missing a row of

terraced cottages - much to the relief of the occupants.

Just a really big bang for about five or ten seconds.

Rumbling.

Hi, Martin. I'm Paul and this is Daz.

It's just a case of getting you out of this predicament. All right?

Martin Hocking has been looked after by a local ambulance

technician and two members of the public who clambered into the lorry

immediately after the accident.

Watch yourself, mate, as you come out.

-They've done a great job.

-Well done, that man.

The lorry driver is in great pain.

He were coming this way, then it slid into that car

and then that wagon's come in...

-Right...

-Head-on, head-on with the wagon.

It's tipped as it come round the corner...

Just going to pop on this face mask, Martin. All right, bud?

A little bit of oxygen to help with your dizziness.

His immediate need is some pain relief -

morphine - and then they can think about getting him out.

It's the right stuff - it's clear -

and there's no bread floating about in it.

-He's had morphine before. He's not allergic.

-Has he?

-Yes.

-Bring it on.

-Bring it on.

His legs are trapped under the steering wheel.

We're nearly done, Martin. All right, pal?

Then we'll get you out best way we can.

News travels fast in these Pennine towns, and a local GP, Dr Ben Wyatt,

who sometimes flies with the air ambulance, has turned out to assist.

We're going to try and take the steering wheel off to give us

room to get him out...

carefully, rather than just yank him out.

But firefighters spot a problem.

Can you ask him if this truck's got an airbag anywhere?

Has your truck got an airbag anywhere, pal?

"SRS airbag" it says on it.

If they accidentally triggered the airbag it could significantly

add to Martin's list of injuries.

Obviously, airbags are not deployed on this vehicle,

so fire and rescue service are going to make the airbag secure.

If it happens to go off

while we're in there, no-one is going to get injured by it.

The paramedics are going to have to come up with another plan to

get their patient out.

Paul? What about...

put boarding on that side and drop him on to his back

and slide him up here?

That's what I'm thinking - moving that.

That way Zoe can sort of, like, go in here and pull him up here.

Like putting a slant like that.

There are no instructions for paramedics in situations

like this they have to figure it out as they go along.

Very cramped. Awkward to get in. I'd to climb on a wheelie bin...

..just, erm, lots of glass.

Been trapped in cars but not in a lorry.

It's really hard to get in and really hard...

to get equipment down and things like that.

Important to get fire service and get the screen out.

Right, we're going to take him up.

Whoever is going to stand here is going to have to straddle.

As we lift him up, that board's got to come in underneath,

between your legs, OK?

Trucker Martin has already survived a major impact as his lorry

overturned and crashed.

The team fears he has undiagnosed internal injuries

and moving him is a big risk.

But it's one that must be taken. The next few minutes will be

critical for their patient.

Where's that hurting, Martin?

Where's it hurting?

Spinal injuries are among the most difficult for paramedics to

treat but the problems aren't over when the patient reaches hospital.

Sometimes, the only treatment is staying immobile, often for months.

It's been an action-packed day of sledging -

but for the Brigham family, this is their last run.

The impact might not look much,

but it's left 16-year-old Brydie with a suspected broken back.

Your first time sledging this year?

And last.

Paramedics Glen and James have done all they can to keep her still,

but they have concerns there could be serious damage.

That's it. You stand in behind me. That's lovely. Everybody happy?

Now safely at Scarborough hospital, it's time for a full examination.

And the need for Brydie to face the painful reality.

SEAGULLS SQUAWK

I've broken one vertebrae and I've compressed another one.

I heard my back crack when it happened and...

..straight away, if I moved it, it just hurt about ten times more.

So I asked my mum not to move me,

because I knew if I did move it would make my back worse.

I knew the second that my back cracked that something was not right.

We knew there was something very wrong.

Because of the way she reacted, the way she screamed.

Erm...and the way she swore.

And we knew it was her back cos she just kept screaming,

"Don't move me, it's my back.

"My back hurts."

The family have gone over and over this footage.

It's hard to imagine that just one bump at the end caused

so much agony.

You wouldn't believe that this bit of footage is how it happened.

She literally fell off a sledge and twisted, and that was it.

She broke her back.

OK, so are you all right just to pop your arm up for me?

And this device will help her recover.

You don't want this area here to be too high,

and you don't want it to be sort of underneath your chin.

I have to wear it for two months.

I can only take it off when I go to bed

and apart from that I have to wear it all the time.

The road to recovery is going to be a long one and a slow one,

but it could've been so much worse.

She could've lost the movement in her legs,

she could've lost the movement in her arms.

She hasn't. She will be fine.

It's just positive thinking and a recovery - a slow recovery -

but a recovery all the same.

When you dial 999 you expect a trained medic within minutes, but

in a remote part of a county like Yorkshire, that's not always easy

to achieve, so the local ambulance service has had to improvise.

What's the problem? Tell me exactly what's happened.

With 2,000 emergency calls a day to deal with

and only 500 ambulances at their disposal, getting a paramedic

to a patient quickly is a massive task for Yorkshire's 999 dispatchers.

We will be there as quickly as possible.

Can I take your name, please?

The county cover 6,000 square miles, and the air ambulance means

none of its six million people is more than 15 minutes from a hospital.

But the fastest response to a 999 call here in the Dales

is likely to come from a neighbour.

More than 1,000 community responders -

ordinary people with some medical skills -

have been recruited to save lives in remote areas and

today at a school in Wharfedale, the latest recruits are being trained.

Because they're already in that community, they're already there,

if you like - they can be through the door in a matter of minutes

and be able to deliver gold-standard patient care from the outset.

Any jewellery, anything that's hanging down,

don't take it off because it becomes your responsibility.

Alan Davis is a retired engineer.

He's on a refresher course, having already done his training

and put it to good use.

I've been next door to one neighbour

and had arrived before the phone had been put down.

If it's a very serious emergency such as a cardiac arrest or

a serious breathing problem, or an asthma attack,

then we can get the patient under treatment within a few minutes.

It's in remote villages like this in Wharfedale that the responders

can become lifesavers.

Yet another service available from the corner shop.

I've been in the shop now 17 years, so it's quite a long time.

Opted out of being a finance director and came

and ran a village shop instead.

-That one.

-The Copper Dragon?

-Yes, and...

-Is it bitter he likes?

-Yes.

-It's a shop that sells just about everything.

-Cheddar salad.

White or brown?

But since Doug McLellan signed up for the first responder scheme,

this shop could also save your life.

Yes, it enables me to give something back to the community

and this just seemed a great idea.

When they advertised about ten years ago for volunteers

and I took it up and I think Kettlewell was one of the first

teams in the Yorkshire Dales to be set up.

£6.54. Stick it in there.

The only clue here to Doug's double role is this -

the emergency mobile - cunningly hidden amongst the wine bottles.

There are very few places you get a signal

and that is the best place for a signal.

If I move it to the other end of the wine shelf the signal disappears,

so that's the best place for it.

Over the last 10 years, Doug and the other Kettlewell responders

have been to nearly 300 calls, and today that phone has alerted them

to another, and it's so serious the air ambulance is also on its way.

Got the ambulance. Let's find where we can put it down.

-Where am I looking, mate?

-This end of the village.

-Oh, yeah, I got it.

Just behind that row of houses.

Verina Bishop is being well looked after

and the first response to her came from the village shop.

We were called at 11:25 for chest pains - within the village,

so we were there within a minute or two.

-Did it come on suddenly or did it build up gradually?

-It built up.

It built up.

Oh, they're terrific. Rang 999 and within five minutes they were up.

It's a great advantage of having first responders in the village.

People that you know day by day and very efficient.

You get a buzz out of it, yeah.

You're giving something back to the community, so it's good fun.

It is good.

We think it might be left pulmonary branch block which

is where the electrical pathway comes down the heart

and it gets a little bit blocked.

So we're going to take her to Airedale Hospital.

-I just want you to know that's where we're going.

-Right.

It's a hospital Verina's been to before, but never like this.

She's flown straight in for tests to work out exactly what's going on.

This time the chest pains turn out not to be a heart attack.

And after a few days under observation,

she's able to head home, back to the quiet Yorkshire Dales village

and the community who did so much to help her.

We'd scarcely put the phone down when the first responders

were on the doorstep.

They were here very, very quickly.

Well, I knew them both so it was reassuring

and I knew what they were capable of and they put an oxygen mask on me

and I had very quick, good treatment.

Everybody in the village we know

and we know quite a few in the other villages, and yes,

when we got the call we knew whose house we were going to.

Ambulance control gave us the basic...you know,

"This is a potential heart attack."

So we drop everything and go

and we were with Verina within 90 seconds of getting the phone call, so

that's the way the system is supposed to work, so it was pretty good.

In Nidderdale villages are few and far between and today,

so are ambulances, which is bad news for a woman who is reported to

be choking in a country pub.

RADIO: Cleared for take-off...

Just ten miles from Helimed headquarters,

Sunday lunch has ended in a life or death drama.

An elderly lady having a meal with her husband is fighting for breath.

Time is critical.

We're going to an 80-year-old female who's choking.

It's not a job usually go to in the helicopter,

but we've not got many resources nearby

and we're the closest double-man crew, so we're going.

RADIO: Just looking at the new information...

It's still coming through as ineffective breathing

and complete obstruction.

Still 26, 2-6 minutes. Over.

Paramedics Glen and John are expecting their patient to be in

serious trouble, but Patricia Kirby is recovering from her close shave

with a little help from community responder Helen Dickinson.

She managed to clear the obstruction in her windpipe.

Have you choked on anything before?

-Yes, this is the third time in two years.

-Is it?

Helen's a driving instructor who was paged from her home nearby

and arrived in time to provide her patient with some medical help

and a lot of reassurance.

She was quite OK in as much as she was talking.

She obviously wasn't choking,

so she seemed to be OK from that point of view.

Just a little bit distressed.

Responders have to make themselves available in their villages

for all of a 24-hour period.

Often they're not needed,

but today Helen could've saved Patricia's life.

And when a call like this comes in,

their statistics are on the computer at control, and if they're

the nearest resource to a job that may be life-threatening -

a cardiac arrest - which choking falls into, then they'll be sent to that detail.

Patricia's off for a check-up in nearby Harrogate by road,

but her 999 call certainly received a speedy response.

This community responder in this case was only four minutes away,

whereas the ambulance was 29 minutes away.

The reason for that is because we're in a fairly rural location.

Fortunately it looks like the patient has cleared the obstruction

herself, so no life-saving techniques were needed from the

community responder, but had that not been the situation, then the fact that there

was somebody here within four minutes could well have saved that lady's life.

Back in Wharfedale a new team of local responders is being put

through its paces.

KNOCK ON DOOR

Hello? Hello, ambulance. Hello?

Volunteers must pass background checks

and a demanding first-aid test.

My name's Emma. I'm the responder. There's an ambulance on its way...

Wherever their patients may be and whatever's happened to them,

these volunteers have the skills to give that vital first treatment.

I'm struggling to breathe and it's really, really difficult.

OK, no response there. Hello? Hello, can you hear me?

Head tilt, check in the airway. OK, that looks clear.

It might make your mouth feel a bit dry. That's perfectly normal, OK.

I understand what it's like to be with someone who is

suffering from heart pain, chest pain, breathing difficulties,

and not knowing what to do, and how five minutes

waiting for an ambulance can actually feel like half an hour.

It's in the remote areas of the Dales that

responders are at their most useful.

Malham Cove is a major tourist attraction where the local

population is tiny.

Today a woman's collapsed on a riverside path close to

a waterfall called Janet's Foss.

She's a mile from the nearest road.

Vera, who is 71 years old, she doesn't remember what happened.

She was found on the path.

Apparently she was always conscious

although she can't remember the event at all.

I don't know whether she's just fallen or whether she's collapsed.

Local cafe owner Vera Sharpe left home to walk her dog.

A group of ramblers found her lying in the path

and the ambulance service scrambled local responder, Margaret Rand.

Together, they've kept Vera warm.

She was conscious when we got here,

but some people thought she might have been unconscious when

she was first found, but it was about 20 minutes by the time we got here

and she was talking but she didn't seem to know who she was, though.

She knows her name and she was more worried about the dog,

but she doesn't know what's happened.

-What, were you out just walking then?

-Yeah.

-Yeah? Do you walk quite a bit?

-Every day.

-Every day, do you? And have you hurt yourself anywhere?

-No.

You've no pain in your head, no pain in your back, your neck, your legs?

-No, I'm just cold.

-You're cold, are you? Do you feel dizzy still at all?

No, not now.

There was a little bit of blood coming out of her mouth and her

breathing was fairly laboured, but by the time the first responders

got to her and by the time I'd made the call to the rescue people, they

had her sitting up and her breathing was a lot easier and she was starting

to remember who she was, etcetera, so she looked a lot better by then.

It sounds like Vera may have suffered a stroke,

but she's not showing any of the usual symptoms.

Whatever has caused her collapse,

they need to get her to an ambulance quickly.

The temperature's close to freezing

and their patient's chilled to the bone.

But Janet's Foss is very remote

and the journey out of the river gorge is risky.

We've done what's called the FAST test, where you're looking

for facial weakness, speech problems, arm weakness and leg weakness, and

she's a negative or she's not showing any positive signs of a stroke.

And the cause of Vera's collapse remains a mystery.

Hospital tests are inconclusive and a few days later she's well

enough to invite volunteer helper Margaret to her

cafe for a cup of tea.

Margaret's husband, Roger, who also turned out to help, is coming too.

-Hello! How lovely to see you.

-How are you?

-In better circumstances.

-Yeah, absolutely, and you're looking so well.

-Hello, Margaret.

-Nice to see you.

-How are you?

-I'm absolutely fine.

-Good.

It's nice to see you again.

What happened?

I was taking my dog, Flash, onto Janet's Foss on his usual walk.

It was a little covering of snow and ice and I was in Janet's Foss

and I don't remember any more.

I don't know what happened.

When I regained consciousness, there was Margaret and Roger around -

familiar faces - which I was very grateful for.

You'd been quite well looked after by the walkers.

I have to say that because they'd wrapped you up in

space blankets and all sorts...

I didn't know anything about it. I was fortunate that day.

But it was lovely to see faces that I knew.

The first responders have another advantage in communities

like Malham.

They often know the area and local place names better than

the emergency services who may have been called from further afield.

Well, it was an opportunity to give something back to the village

and because we're local we can often arrive before the ambulance

and offer some first aid.

I was very, very well looked after and I think...you know,

I realise now how important the first responders are.

What we did, clearly, Vera found reassuring

and it's lovely to see her looking well and so on and remembering it

as an occasion where she was grateful that we were able to be there.

Back at the responders training school, they're facing their final test -

CPR and the use of a defibrillator that will be part of their kit

from now on.

All in a rather inconvenient setting.

Unfortunately the bathroom is a common place for people

who are ill to go to, so it's not uncommon that you'd find

somebody in a cramped space, in a toilet or a bathroom.

More than 60 villages and towns in Yorkshire now have a responder team.

It's reckoned they've already saved more than 100 lives

and that life-saving figure is increasing every week.

And I'm pleased to say that thanks to their unpaid helpers,

both the patients you saw there are now fully recovered, but what about

the lorry driver trapped in his cab after a major smash in Bronte Country?

Truck driver Martin Hocking has been wedged in his upturned

cab for over an hour.

He was driving his truck down a hill in the town of Denham when he lost control

and it turned over, feet from a row of terraced cottages.

Now the Helimed team fears Martin has serious internal injuries.

Two, three and move.

That's it. Relax, that's it. Have a little rest there. One, two, three.

The cab's cramped conditions are making it very

difficult for the rescue team.

Can we have another member of ambulance staff to come

and take his head over from us?

-Come down this side of the fireman, please.

-You all right, Rob?

-Just to get outside, mate.

-But finally the driver is out.

His observations are all within limits

and we're quite happy with that.

He doesn't look to be bleeding anywhere,

he doesn't look to have any major long-bone fractures, although

we've immobilised his pelvis just to make sure that if it is

unstable that it's not going to move around and cause us any problems.

The mechanism of this vehicle turning over -

he's been really lucky.

But maybe not lucky when we get him off to hospital.

The crews are exhausted. They've been on site for nearly two hours.

The residents of Mount Pleasant have seen accidents on this

corner before, but never on this scale.

RADIO: This is Helimed 99 Alpha. Just left the scene.

on route to LGI.

The main pain he's complaining of is his right hip.

That is the side he's been leaning on

but also the cab fell on that side, so we've checked him out

potentially for a pelvis injury and treated him for that.

We've applied a pelvic splint.

We've just got some fluids going through him

at this moment in time, but he's stable with his blood pressure

so at the moment everything looks good,

but until we get him to hospital and potentially have an X-ray on that

and check it out then I think we were wise to do what we did.

As Helimed 98 touches down on the Leeds General Infirmary,

five floors below, the scanner team await a trucker who's undoubtedly

got several seriously broken bones, and nobody knows which ones.

The X-rays reveal that Martin's pelvis has come apart.

He immediately goes in for the first operation in a programme of surgery

that is going to last several weeks and involve a lot of metalwork.

I'm going to be laid up a good six weeks at least.

To be honest I thought, "I wonder if I'm going to die?"

But you don't panic in these situations

because there's not a lot you can do about it.

I'm there, sideways, strapped into a seat looking up at...

It's another big one bearing down on me, sliding, with no control,

and I thought, "What can I do?"

I thought this might be it, you know.

The first people to clamber into Martin's upturned lorry were not

the emergency services, but two people who lived nearby.

They kept him going at the worst of times.

They managed to get into the cab and support my head and try

and stem the bleeding some.

At this point I had begun to shiver and go into shock and at that

point I was just in and out of consciousness and one of the young

men were trying to keep me focused and keep me awake and everything.

Martin has never met his rescuer, Chris Bartle,

who lives in the terrace of houses that his lorry nearly demolished.

Chris heard the crash and responded instinctively,

despite the obvious danger to himself.

If I was in that situation I would want to know someone was going

to help me, and I think the more people that are willing to just jump

in and not think about it, you know, humanity will be a better place.

I had a bit of light banter with him.

I told him that it's one way of getting himself a new wagon.

I just tried to keep him occupied

so he didn't think about what was actually wrong with him.

Right, we're just going to bob a little bit of oxygen on, pal.

And then I heard, "You all right, mate, the cavalry's here."

And I thought, "Great stuff."

Yeah, and then the next minute I was surround by fireman

and the air ambulance.

Just breathe normally, pal, all right.

You don't have to do anything different. Well done.

I've never been so pleased to get into a helicopter in my life,

honestly.

Away from the cold and everything and then once I were aboard I just

felt safe and cosy and everything and the guys were brilliant.

-You're doing really well, Martin.

-Fantastic work, it was.

And I'm pleased to tell you Martin is now

back at work behind the wheel, after a nasty reminder of the risks

of descending the wuthering heights of Bronte Country.

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