Episode 27 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 150mph

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

saved by a highly-skilled team of doctors and paramedics.

-Stay clear, everybody.

-Keep going, mate!

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

turning roadsides into operating theatres.

Put him off to sleep with an emergency anaesthetic, OK?

-And town centres into helipads.

-Good on the left?

-Just behind you, Tim.

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

Today, on Helicopter Heroes -

A high-speed police chase ends in a busy shopping street.

We just heard police cars flying around and then

I just heard an almighty bang, because I was serving.

A roofer slips and falls headfirst to the ground.

He's hit that on his way through. And then landed feet, then back.

A horse rider is ambushed by a pheasant.

She just couldn't move, she twisted her shoulder

and the horses just shot off.

And a worker is crushed in an industrial accident.

-Where's your main pain, mate?

-In my lower back.

-Your lower back.

Having been in a few myself,

I can tell you police pursuits are dangerous for everyone involved.

And when something goes wrong, the consequences can be devastating.

Helimed 99 is on its way to South Yorkshire.

Reports are coming in of a police pursuit in the village

of Stainforth, near Doncaster.

We've come outside with the sirens and it was all over...

I saw three and they stopped up at the corner here,

when the red car shot over the road, straight into the tractor.

The car, which was stolen, hit the tractor head-on.

In the Helimed team today is Dr James Milligan,

an A&E consultant who is trained to bring the skills you'd

find in a trauma unit direct to the scene of an accident.

We're going to a gentleman who has been stuck in his car.

He sounds like he's very poorly.

Just going to draw up a few

drugs in preparation, so that we don't have to mess around

too much on the ground, and get things moving as quickly as possible.

The passenger in the car is critically injured.

The crash happened across the road from a supermarket

and was witnessed by many out shopping.

How we doing?

Obviously, in the car, hit the tractor, no seatbelt.

-Passenger, sorry. Passenger in this side here, you can see the impact.

-Yeah, yeah.

Got a GCS of three, so that's at 100%.

Medics use the Glasgow Coma Scale as shorthand for how

seriously ill a patient is.

So, his GCS is three out of fifteen when we got here.

A GCS of three is critical.

Poor ventilation.

So, this guy appears to have a serious head injury.

And we're going to be taking him to the nearest surgical unit.

The nearest one for us is Leeds.

19-year-old Scott Stobbs was not wearing a seatbelt

and the impact threw him into the windscreen.

We just heard police cars flying around

and then the red car went flying over

and I just heard an almighty bang and then we looked out

and the car was over there and the tractor wheel was hanging off.

Police were everywhere and it were mayhem.

Scott has a serious head injury and Dr James must carry out

a procedure that is complicated even in a sterile hospital.

Has everybody got the piece that they need to get? Yeah?

On lifting, ready, steady, lift.

The teenager's brain is swelling inside his skull.

If the pressure is not reduced or released, he will stop breathing.

-Just confirm which hospital...

-LGI.

Yeah, LGI, we're going to RSI this patient.

Dr James is about to anaesthetise his patient.

He'll insert a tube through which they'll take over his breathing.

So, we popped this chap off to sleep.

And we just need to make sure we got some drugs to

keep him asleep now and to protect his head as best we can.

Dave, can I give you the drugs?

It's going to be five of that, followed by three of that.

At last, Scott is unconscious - his brain can now begin to recover.

-But there's another problem.

-OK, can someone have a quick listen for us?

Scott's chest has taken much of the impact of the crash.

He could be bleeding internally and his lungs aren't working properly.

-Left side's congested, right side's good.

-OK.

Dr James must release the pressure - by cutting a hole in his chest.

Yes, please, can do.

We're just going to decompress this side of his chest.

If someone could grab some gauze, that'd be grand.

It's basic, but it works.

-Ready to move?

-Yeah.

Everything emergency medics can do at the roadside has now been done

for Scott. A helicopter to hospital is now his best chance of survival.

He's got significant head injuries and left-side-of-his-chest injuries.

We decided to incubate him, ventilate him, to protect his brain from further injury.

And we've also had to put a hole in his chest to decompress a lung which was deflated.

And we'll get him to the nearest surgical unit ASAP.

The human brain is the most complex structure known to science

and it's very vulnerable.

That's why a head injury is always a top priority for the Helimed team.

Helimed 99 is needed urgently in the town of Mexborough,

where a man has fallen headfirst from a roof.

It sounds like he's got a head injury because someone said,

"He's very agitated, badly injured." Depending how agitated he is, depends on whether we can fly him

or not. He could be like that just because of his head injury,

so what he might need is to put him to sleep.

Often, a patient with a serious head injury needs to be

put into a coma to protect the brain from further damage.

But to do this, paramedics Tony Wilkes and Andy Armitage will need back up.

Only a doctor can administer such powerful drugs.

OK, that's that bit of water there, so...

INDISTINCT

We'll be back there in ten minutes.

-Oh, we're there, so it's...

-At three o'clock, over there.

Three o'clock, yeah, that's it.

They are stopping off at a police helipad to pick up Dr Dave Macklin,

a senior A&E consultant now working for the Ambulance Service.

What's the plan of action, then, if his head injury...? And he's a bit agitated?

Ketamine. Just enough to get him in the aircraft.

And then get him out of there.

The closest pilot Steve Cobb can get to the patient is

a playing field two streets away. It's still some distance,

so paramedic Andy and Dr Macklin need to be quick.

INDISTINCT DISCUSSION

The accident happened at a house under renovation

and it's a workman who has fallen from the very top of the roof

and hit the ground.

He's hit that on his way through. And then landed feet, then back.

I think he's actually taken his strap in after moving his ladder

-and that's where he's gone.

-From up there, down here.

-The patient is 48-year-old Neil Ashton.

-Neil, open your eyes for me.

-His head injury, mainly. Airway has been clear.

-Chest clear?

Chest clear, nice air entry.

Good radial pulse. Has that been his constant pulse throughout, that 58?

-Yes.

-It's not been slower than that or faster?

-No.

-28 rest.

I mean, he's got good air entry both sides.

Ground paramedics have already packaged Neil

and prepared him for flight.

Since initial reports of being very agitated,

Neil seems to have calmed down.

But he is in and out of consciousness

and has a very serious head injury.

-You all right then, mate?

-Can't really do much...

There is not much more the Helimed team can do, other than get him

onboard the chopper and off to the Northern General Hospital

in Sheffield, as quickly as possible.

We've not got normal injuries identified, just head injury.

Neil has blood behind his eyes - a sign of bleeding on the brain.

Erm, hypertensive, stats are OK, no other meds, he's got bilateral lines in.

Everybody happy?

Ready, steady, lift.

'The people who he's working for, one of them's a nurse

'and she recognised that he wasn't breathing.'

She worked on him for a minute or two and got him breathing.

And from that he was very agitated,

so we had to hold him down until we could get more people here.

Put a collar on, and stabilise him.

Neil, open your eyes for me.

Neil is slipping in and out of consciousness.

And right now, his head injury is so serious, it is not known

if he will survive.

Brain surgeons in Sheffield have been alerted to expect a very

seriously injured patient.

Cleared the houses.

Within minutes, they arrive at the Northern General

and Neil is becoming increasingly agitated.

But once in hospital,

he is put into an induced coma to allow surgeons to operate.

It will be nearly three months before Neil finally regains consciousness.

When he comes to, he's confused, barely recognises his family and

is prone to outbursts of temper - common effects of a head injury.

At home, it has been an agonising wait for his wife, Debbie.

The accident happened only ten days after they got married.

The weeks after their wedding day could not have been any worse.

It were a beautiful day, 1st of September, it was sunny.

We had friends and family there, it was absolutely wonderful.

Couldn't wish for a better day.

Some days, I haven't coped, some days I've gone on autopilot.

My main focus has just been trying to keep this family

together as best I can.

Erm, and it's probably

one of the hardest jobs.

Five months after the accident and Neil is finally home.

He still has brain damage and recovery is very slow.

Like many victims of serious accidents,

he recalls very little of what happened that day.

I was taking a chimney out for a customer of mine

and I got to roof it in.

Neil was on his way down for a tea break when he slipped.

He shouted up to me to say, "I've made me a drink." Do I want a drink?

And I said, "Yeah, I'll come down."

And when I actually went down to get the drink,

because I had moved my ladders around from the bottom...

I'd not tied them back on and I fell.

As I fell, I hit the wall with me head.

And then I was unconscious and they brought me back to life.

It was the quick thinking of the homeowner who found Neil

which may have saved his life.

The people that own the property

won't let anybody work on it without them being there.

Which is a stroke of luck, really, because Bev is a nurse

so she knew exactly what to do when Neil fell.

Neil had bleeding on both sides of the brain,

fractured bones in his back and broken ribs.

I'd be better off once I've had my eyes sorted out,

so my eyes can see blood removing from behind my eyes.

Which has been a hold-up, which has been a problem.

And I've got to learn everything that I used to know before.

Because of my brain injury.

He gets frustrated because he can't draw and he can't read.

And having to deal with that, and getting the boys to understand

that he's still their dad, he's just a bit different at the minute.

Neil's now enjoying being home from hospital. His priority,

though, is to get his health back and start enjoying married life.

I know full well I am never going to be able to climb a ladder

and be a roofer again. I've got to look at being something different

-once I'm better.

-And Debbie, once more, has plans for the future.

Spending a lot more quality time together as a family,

Neil getting stronger and stronger every day. And just enjoying life.

And keeping an eye on him, so he doesn't climb any more ladders.

Yorkshire's famous Moors have been celebrated in fiction

and poetry since the days of the Bronte sisters.

But these wuthering heights are home to a major industry.

This moorland may look barren, but it's carefully

managed by landowners to be the perfect habitat for game birds.

Sportsmen and women pay millions every year to

hunt game on country estates - from grouse to pheasant.

And hundreds of local people rely on country sports for a living,

especially the army of beaters who frighten

birds into the line of fire.

Helimed 98 is heading for the Studley Royal Estate near Ripon,

in North Yorkshire.

But the weather is getting in the way.

This is 98, we are airborne, we are currently low and slow.

We are trying our best, but we can't guarantee

that our current ETA stands at five minutes, over.

Pilot Ian Mousette flew all over the world with the army

and he knows Britain's weather rarely cooperates.

But finally he finds a way through.

Stephen was working as a beater,

when he tried to climb over a fence, slipped and broke his leg.

Right then, let's get you concentrated

up off of this floor, eh?

We were pheasant-beating today, so in these rural spots, you know,

thankfully we've got you lads to come and get him, because we're stuck.

Pheasants are farmed on estates like this.

Driving them in the right direction is a skilled job.

Stephen was trying to head off a number of birds flying

away from the guns. His accident was witnessed by his brother.

He had to walk across this field here, to stop

the birds coming over this fence. So we were beating them back this way.

And there were a load of us across here, flagging them all

to the shooters at the other end and as we've come into these

fields, to follow the birds, he's climbed over,

he's got one foot stuck in barbed wire, so he's, like, jumped off the

top of the fence, landed on one leg and obviously gone over his ankle

and done this to himself.

-Your knee's absolutely fine. Is that OK?

-Yeah.

-Yeah?

OK, I'm not going to ask you to move it.

Just going to cut through your shoe, is that OK?

Sorry, mate, I'm just trying to support your ankle,

while we get your boot off, mate.

Good lad, keep breathing on that. You can have as much as you like.

A local paramedic has been treating Stephen's injury,

but it's very serious.

Bone is protruding from his ankle -

she realised carrying him to the nearest road would be agonising.

Stay still, bud.

Is that going to happen or not?

Another go.

Paramedic Sammy Wills

and Tony Wilkes want to straighten Stephen's leg to restore

proper blood flow to his foot, but it's proving too difficult.

Well done, bud, all we're doing is cutting around your shoe, all right?

'Bringing the pheasants in for shoot days, you know.'

So we bring in all this ground and all this wood

and these fields to this point.

And he's gone down here, I'm afraid.

How you feeling, bud?

OK, then. What we're going to do... If you stay nice and still.

-Is that all right?

-Yeah, it's all right.

-Stay still, bud.

Removing Stephen's boot is painful, but necessary.

-I've got his leg.

-Yeah, ready.

Good lad.

Good lad. That's it.

He has an open tib and fib fracture.

With foot displacement.

We've been unable to realign.

Quite a large portion of his bone is protruding.

It's not very comfortable for him. We've been unable to

realign his foot over it, because his calf muscles are all tense.

So, we've done the best, we've dressed it in the position we found it

and thankfully he has got a good distal pulse, good capillary refill

to all his foot. But, nonetheless, he's in a lot of pain.

INDISTINCT DISCUSSION

Fly him in 500ft. We're inbound...

Even the flight to hospital will be painful for Stephen.

A road journey would have been unbearable.

It's just that beginning bit where it shakes a bit, OK?

I'm sorry about that.

It's all good, just relax.

-Heater's on.

-Thank you. We've put the heating on for you.

He's flown direct to Harrogate,

where his leg is repaired by orthopaedic surgeons.

The break is complicated

and he's unlikely to be working as a beater again for months.

Shooting is a rather one-sided sport,

with game birds in the firing line.

But, occasionally, there is a human casualty caused by a bird.

Helimed 98 is off to a farm 15 miles north of Harrogate.

A horse rider has been thrown to the ground and she can't move.

Just received some information from control,

about a female who's apparently had a fall.

Shoulder injury. There's a responder on scene who has requested us

because of the access problems.

It's a typical summer's day, a mix of sunshine and heavy showers,

and reports from the ground are that their patient is getting wet.

One ambulance is there, isn't it? So it's a hop, skip and a jump.

I'm going to put it in the crops, actually, guys.

SPEECH DROWNED OUT

Humerus is intact, it's just here, it's out of position here,

so whether it's fractured and dislocated or it's just dislocated...

-I don't know - it's clearly one or the other.

-Yeah, absolutely.

Riding down this track and a pheasant jumped out

and spooked the horses. Horse bolted off and Lorna fell over

and banged her head and then she just couldn't move.

She twisted her shoulder and the horse has just shot off.

-Hello, love.

-Hello.

-Nice to meet you. Sorry it's like this.

Lorna Butterworth has a fractured, dislocated shoulder -

-a very painful injury.

-Do you think we can try and move this arm?

I know if it starts hurting straight away, then obviously let us know.

We're just going to see if we've got any kind of movement in it at all.

Lorna's arm is out of joint and immovable.

If it had been her right arm,

it might have prevented her flying in the air ambulance -

-so tight is the space for the stretcher.

-Where's the pain?

-If I have a feel around there, is that where it is?

-No.

-Up here?

-Yeah.

-In there.

-Yeah.

In this part of the farm there are swarms of flies,

and Lorna has been lying here in the mud for over half an hour.

She is in so much pain, she's scared to move.

-One, two, three, roll. Well done, darling, well done.

-Well done.

Lorna is being given gas and air,

but this may still be a painful journey.

The team will handle her as gently as possible,

but even the slightest movement is agonising.

-Can we get the four corners?

-Yeah, sounds like a plan.

One, two, three, lift.

-Ow.

-Sorry, love.

I'll just walk backwards because I can turn around that way.

This is an awkward case for Lorna's rescuers.

Her arm must be supported until she reaches A&E.

Right, Lorna, you're going to go up in the air little bit now.

Pass it through to Chris.

Nice, take big deep breaths, darling. Well done. Big deep breaths.

Lorna's being flown to hospital in Harrogate.

The team knows her injury is not a simple one.

Fractured dislocations often require

extensive surgery and months of physio

if the patient is to regain full movement of the arm.

When she reaches surgery,

Lorna's arm will be popped back into its joint.

Surgeons then must reinforce her fractured shoulder with steel pins

to stop it dislocating again.

Right, so we'll just pop this off your arm

and then you can have your limbs back.

You can't move it at all, then, Lorna?

We'll take this.

SHE WHIMPERS

Hold it there. Are you all right there, Paul?

Cool, let's go the rest of the way.

Right, sweetheart, do you want to take that?

There's some gas and air for you. Just grab that sleeping bag, mate.

-OK, Lorna.

-Lorna will be in hospital for over a week,

and it's four and a half months before she can return to work.

She's told not to ride again for a further seven months.

Many of the doctors who fly on the UK's air ambulances are volunteers,

working extra hours to improve their skills,

and their knowledge saves lives.

Sheffield is still the UK's steel city,

a place where engineering drives the economy

and many people still work with heavy machinery.

Charlie Orford is one of them.

He was helping repair a drainage culvert,

when he was hit by a steel pile.

He has serious chest injuries, a broken leg,

and his pelvis is fractured.

But it's shock that could kill him.

That's why ground paramedics have called in the Helimed team.

He stood up and he's been cracked by this, it fell on him.

The right shaft of femur - multiple fractures by the look of it.

His left hip is splayed, so he is complaining of pain up at the top.

It's a culvert that's collapsed underground

that we've just been digging out and replacing.

Been pulling piles out of the ground

and it's come off the machine

and come over and hit Charlie as it's landed.

Flying doctor Jez Pinnell is the man who could save Charlie's life.

He's bleeding internally

and his heart is struggling to pump oxygen around his body.

If the team can't increase his blood pressure

and slow his heart, he may die.

Let's have a look in your eyes.

-Where's your main pain, mate?

-Lower back.

-Your lower back, is it?

-Right leg, right leg.

-And your right leg. How's your breathing feel?

Seems easier to breathe with the mask off.

Does your chest feel OK, mate? Have a little feel of your chest.

Dr Jez is used to thinking fast and appearing relaxed.

In hospital, that's what's expected of a senior anaesthetist.

But here he must turn detective,

working out how his patient's injury occurred.

He was underneath that, was he?

No, it's knocked him on the side and he's fell away from it.

-So, he's not actually been trapped under it.

-No.

-Right.

Dr Jez is giving his patient ketamine,

a powerful anaesthetic that not only kills pain,

but also gives patients temporary amnesia.

Charlie will remember little of his treatment from now on.

You may start to feel a bit strange.

It sometimes makes you hallucinate a little, Charlie, all right?

-So, we want some TXA as well, yeah?

-I'd give him some TXA, mate, yeah.

Charlie is also given TXA,

a blood-thickening drug developed in war zones.

In places where surgery is not possible,

the drug helps clot the blood to stop internal bleeding.

The blood pressure I'm looking at now on the monitor says 115/80.

He's had some fluid, not sure how much fluid he has.

He looks hypovolemic.

But he's not kind of grossly unstable, as we speak.

He's tacky, but not terrible.

After consulting with colleagues in A&E,

Jez decides it's safe to set off for hospital,

even though he's concerned about Charlie's lowered blood pressure.

I think this is safer than going across there, but that's moving.

The site was too unsafe for the air ambulance to land close enough,

so it's quicker and safer for the patient to be taken by road.

He's conscious and talking to us at the moment,

but he's got some injuries to his chest.

He's a bit tender in his abdomen, he's got some leg injuries

and we're obviously concerned he might have some pelvic injuries

and some back injuries. So, he's had some analgesia,

we'll put a splint onto his pelvis in case he's injured his pelvis,

mobilise his leg.

We've given him some tranexamic acid

just to hopefully prevent him bleeding too much more.

Charlie's undergoing treatment within 20 minutes,

but his recovery is to take much longer.

Six months later,

he's still yet to return to work in the construction industry.

The family car is part of life for many of us,

but when there's an accident, the effects can be doubly difficult

if relatives are injured together.

On our way to Halifax,

just north of Halifax. Another road-traffic.

There's child involved, with a leg injury.

The crew on scene has requested our attendance.

Two cars have collided on a busy road.

In one car, a man is trapped.

His ten-year-old son has just been freed.

Two people in the second car were not seriously injured.

While firefighters try to free the father,

paramedics are treating his son.

Children with traumatic injuries pose special problems.

They're not small adults,

their physiology is completely different to that of adults,

so we have to be much more suspicious

because they tend to compensate for injuries much better than adults do

and then suddenly deteriorate quite rapidly.

So a child that looks OK may actually be quite severely injured

and then suddenly will deteriorate

and you have a very unwell child on your hands.

The ambulance is on the right side of the accident, you see the red...

It's going to be a tricky landing.

The crash scene is in a built-up area on the side of a steep hill.

Kamran Aurrani is trapped behind the wheel

and will have to be cut out.

Paramedics Andy and Graham land at the bottom of the hill

and it's a long walk to the scene, but help is on its way.

Yeah, go on.

Passers-by have been caring for the victims of the crash,

but they've discovered what most paramedics know -

that people behave unpredictably after an accident.

There was a young lad on the floor at the time

with another lady, like myself, who is first-aid trained,

who was stabilised by that lady.

The other young man was hobbling around.

I told him to stop doing so. He was wandering around the scene,

he wouldn't stay still.

Later on, he was going to get a cigarette

and I said, "You must not smoke because you could kill us all."

For one, there's going to be petrol on the road, so please do not smoke.

Cheers, thanks.

There's two in that car that are trapped,

and these two were out of the vehicle.

The crew's more worried about the child.

They just managed to get him out.

Sort of lower-leg injuries, and maybe abdominal.

-What do you need, Ben?

-Well, this is a young lad of ten.

He was in the vehicle, I don't know if he was in the front or the back.

It looks as if he's got broken...both sides, lower legs,

so that's the urgency at the moment.

I think he will be going in the aircraft.

He's got feeling and sensation present in both legs.

This is more serious than the Helimed team suspected.

It looks likes Kamran and his son Siavash will need to be airlifted.

Dave, can you activate 98 to this incident, as well, please?

'Roger, will do.'

His father's in the car, they're only just getting him out now,

so we've called the other helicopter in, 98,

to deal with the father.

By the time they've got down here, they'll have extracted his father.

Whilst we're doing that, we're going to take the child

and go down to our aircraft and we'll head off to the LGI

and they'll meet us down at the LGI as well.

While paramedics prepare Siavash for flight,

other local kids have turned up.

It's unwanted attention in an emergency.

Move away from me now. Mind, mind, mind.

Yorkshire's second air ambulance is on its way.

This is 98, can you give ETA, 1547.

Hospital selection, please, over.

Roger, 99, haven't left yet.

They're going to go to LGI with the child.

Open your eyes for me. What's your name, young man?

-Siavash. How you doing?

-OK.

-OK? All right, then.

Listen, we're going to get you off of here,

we're going to take you down and get a flight in a helicopter.

Unfortunately, you won't see much. OK.

Siavash's mother turns up on the scene,

just as they manage to free Kamran from the car.

The boy and his mum will go to Leeds General Infirmary.

Right, sweetheart. Do you want to go and get on that ambulance there?

It will take a few minutes to get Dad ready for flight,

so Siavash is the first to be transported to Helimed 99,

on stand-by further down the hill.

Reinforcements are now seconds away -

Helimed 98 is on final approach.

Siavash is the priority here. He has two very badly broken legs.

These sorts of fractures can even be fatal

if broken bones cut main arteries.

That's the other helicopter, coming for your dad.

Helimed 98 is now ready to airlift Kamran.

It's another occupant, a male occupant from another vehicle.

What we did is got another vehicle to bring ours down.

-You're going to LGI?

-Yep.

But priorities are changing -

the LGI helipad can only take one helicopter.

Kamran will reach treatment faster

if he goes by road to the local hospital.

The father was driving.

It looked as if he would be going by aircraft as well,

but he's going by vehicle.

Helimed 98 is stood down.

On board Helimed 99,

Siavash and his mother are on their way to Leeds General Infirmary.

Siavash took the full force of the impact,

but his dad, too, is badly hurt.

It's more than a week before father and son are reunited.

Back at home in Bradford,

father and son are still recovering from their leg injuries.

It will take them months to recover.

We were driving back from Halifax, just driving back as normal,

about 2:30-ish in the afternoon.

Siavash got the worst of it.

In a split second, I just didn't hear him.

And that's the worst thing, I think.

I remember thinking, "Oh, God, please no, not him,

"let it be me than him."

Then when he cried, at least I knew he was breathing.

I think the thought of him still crying was enough to keep me going,

and I thought "Well, he's OK."

He's been brave, considering what he's been through,

he's been really brave. Proud of him.

I thought, maybe I'll be OK,

then I couldn't feel the bottom of my back and I thought,

"Please, God." That's your worst nightmare, isn't it?"

Siavash is still off school and Kamran is still off work,

their injuries a painful reminder of that terrible day.

The initial impact were a few cuts and bruises on his left leg,

but this was the worst.

It got shattered in five places, the femur,

from top to bottom.

So that's in pieces,

they put a nail through it, a rod, like scaffolding, like a shoestring.

I remember them cutting the roof off

and that it was a matter of how quickly they could get...

I didn't have an idea about the helicopters.

I think when you're in there,

you don't appreciate what's going on around you,

it's only afterwards when people tell you.

There were so many people there

and my son and I really appreciate that and thank God they were there.

And I'm pleased to tell you

that father and son are continuing their recovery.

But the outlook for Scott Stobbs,

critically injured when a stolen car crashed, is less positive.

Flying doctor James Milligan knows his patient is critically ill.

The trauma team at Leeds General Infirmary is his only hope.

So, this is Scott,

he's a 19-year-old gentleman

who's been involved in an RTC in a stolen car.

He was a front-seat passenger,

they've clipped a tractor and then T-boned straight on into the tractor.

They're preparing to take this gentleman round for a CT scan.

They'll CT his head

all the way down past his pelvis

to check that there are no other significant injuries,

and work the rest out from there.

Police accident investigators are now on the case

and the driver is under arrest.

It's discovered that Scott was probably hiding in the foot well

to avoid being recognised, when the impact occurred.

With no seat belt or airbag to protect him,

this probably worsened his injuries.

Scott's family live close to the scene of the crash.

A friend told his mother what had happened.

There was a knock on the window and it was Scott's friend

and he just said, "Gail, there's been an accident,

"Scott's involved in it." Me first words were, "Is it bad?"

But something told me it was anyway.

When we got there it was a big shock,

because it was all cordoned off and we weren't allowed to see him.

And then somebody must have told the police officer

that I was actually his mum.

They came over and said they was trying to make him stable.

I said, "Is he dead?" They said, "He's still breathing."

As Helimed 99 left the scene,

police took Gail to the hospital to be with her son.

I think the operation took about five hours.

We were taken to intensive care...

where the surgeon had came and seen us and said that...

Scott had actually... His brain had been bleeding.

A break in the neck, two breaks in his spine, collapsed lung.

On a scale of one to five - five being the worst - Scott was at five.

There was a bit of his brainstem that was still responding,

but it was only like a nerve ending.

They wouldn't ever have been able to help him survive,

there was nothing they could do.

Then we turned the machines off and let him go.

Living in the Yorkshire countryside is a dream for many new pensioners

and house prices reflect this.

But many find a happy retirement here indulging in their hobbies.

In the country lanes of rural Ryedale,

there is no shortage of local characters.

There's something about this corner of North Yorkshire

that attracts people in touch with the past.

Robert Polley is one of them.

His barn is packed with vintage cars, awaiting restoration,

from superannuated sports cars to mature Morris Minors.

But one day, time caught up with Robert.

I'd had a slight pain in my back,

the previous five or six days

I had been to see my GP,

but they said it's just one of those things,

take paracetamol,

couldn't find anything wrong with my chest, my heart,

or anything like that.

But, anyway, on the Thursday morning, obviously, there was something wrong.

Helimed 98 is heading to Robert's home

just outside the village of Whitwell,

but the weather is not on pilot Ian's side.

-We might be struggling.

-We're having a problem here.

-I'm going to go to the south, because that's clear.

-It's brighter, yeah.

Works for me.

Yeah, just an update for you, Dave.

We've got an ETA of about six minutes,

however, we're just going to have to route around some low-lying cloud,

so we might be delayed by a few minutes.

Obviously if anything changes in the meantime, I'll keep you updated.

'Roger, thank you.'

Ten miles ahead on the other side of the low cloud,

66-year-old Robert is suffering a heart attack.

He desperately needs treatment 40 miles away

at Leeds General Infirmary.

Yeah, Roger, Dave, we're just about to land on scene,

we've got the ambulance in sight,

he's just a bit concerned about actually getting to Leeds.

Could we get a weather update

on what the weather is doing at Leeds? Over.

Roger, will do.

Robert has a history of heart problems.

He needs a stent fitted to open up the arteries in the heart.

If that's not done soon, he may not recover.

We've given him all the medications that are required,

spoken with Leeds, got him booked in to go and get a stent fitted.

These lads have done everything, so basically we're just taxiing you,

obviously, you're a fair distance from Leeds, aren't you?

-So...

-Yes.

We've just had to check on the weather,

it's obviously quite poor, this visibility at the moment.

This patient's been booked in for a procedure

at Leeds General Infirmary,

so the pilot's just got a weather update from Leeds

just to make sure we can actually get there.

The last thing we want, really,

is to get patients on board with time-critical conditions

and then we can't reach the destination.

They are finally given the go-ahead to fly.

Robert's life could depend on getting to Leeds quickly.

-Right, thanks very much. Cheers.

-Thanks, lads. Thanks, lads.

-On your right hand.

-Got them, thank you.

Once in the air, it's not clouds in their way, it's something else.

Is that a hot-air balloon on the nose?

Yeah!

-You don't see one of them every day in passing, do you?

-Not that close!

-It just came out of the blue.

-Yeah.

What a strange day to be going up on.

Robert is in a stable condition and he's doing well to remain calm.

-You all right, sir?

-Yeah, we're fine.

-You all right, Robert?

-Yes, thank you.

-Are you enjoying the view? It's not the best.

No, it's not so bad.

The helipad on the Leeds General Infirmary is a welcome sight.

In the next few hours,

Robert will undergo potentially life-saving surgery.

And within a few days, he's sent back home to plan his next project.

I, to be perfectly honest, was wondering,

what's all the fuss about? Why do we need a helicopter?

But, obviously, it's the golden hour, isn't it?

With that sort of problem,

the faster you get to hospital,

the better the outcome.

But once the procedure was carried out, that was it.

No problems after that.

Robert now plans to get his narrow gauge railway back into action -

then he might start on the cars.

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