Episode 8 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?

-She's 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, everybody! Keep going, mate.

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

turning roadsides into operating theatres...

We're going to prop him up and give him an emergency anaesthetic, OK?

..and town centres into helipads.

-Still good on my left?

-Just behind you, Tim.

And, every day,

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

Today on Helicopter Heroes,

a veteran pilot is trapped in his wrecked glider and paramedic John must save him...

He's not looking very well. Obviously, it's going to need some specialist gear to get him out.

..James and Darren realise the slightest movement will paralyse their patient...

Is it painful through here?

..miner's son Tony is called to a serious underground accident...

We've got to try and get to the coalface where these two casualties are.

You can legally learn to fly in a few weeks, but ask any airman

and he'll tell you it takes years to become good at it.

Most of the Helimed pilots have thousands of hours in the cockpit behind them.

But experience can't always save you from an accident.

There can be few better ways to enjoy a landscape like this

than from a glider.

This pure form of flying uses rising thermals to keep the aircraft in the sky.

But with no engine, and few inbuilt safety systems,

if things go wrong, there's little room for mistakes.

Today, in the Peak District, a major search is underway,

in the air and on the ground.

The grid I've given you is near the gliding site.

He apparently has crashed near East Moor.

We can't find East Moor on the map.

A glider has crashed into a remote hillside,

but no-one quite knows where.

Every emergency service is heading to this remote part of the national park.

At Helimed HQ, dispatcher Dave Gardner is coordinating the search.

We know he's trapped by his legs.

If he's had a hard landing, that could be nasty - legs, hip, pelvis.

In the cockpit of Helimed 98, pilot Steve Cobb

and paramedic Sammy Wells

are desperately searching for the downed aircraft.

Other gliders from the same club have also joined that search

and, alongside them in the air, is the police helicopter.

It's using thermal imaging to try to find the crash site.

He's been speaking to the police on his mobile a few times.

That's all I can give you,

and I believe Mountain Rescue have just been mobilised. Over.

The high-resolution cameras on police helicopters

are designed specifically for jobs like this,

and soon the crew spots what everyone's been desperately looking for.

'Confirm Oscar Hotel 88 do have visual on this male.

'I'm just trying to get a location for you.'

Just to let you know, the police have got a visual

and I'll get back to you as soon as we've got...

INDISTINCT Over.

Roger. Received. Thank you.

The police helicopter's just spotted him,

so they're going to talk us into where he is.

All I can really see is the tail of the glider,

and obviously the police that are on the scene.

They've gone forward. I'm sure we'll welcome their assistance.

It's hard to imagine a worse place to crash.

The glider's come down nose-first into a steep, wooded ravine.

It's highly unstable

and it's clear this glider's pilot is in real danger.

-Hello.

-My feet are trapped.

-Your feet are trapped.

-Right. Do you think you've got any pain anywhere?

-My feet.

-Your feet are trapped?

-My feet are trapped.

-Right.

OK.

Tony Senior flew into low cloud.

When he emerged, he found himself in a spin,

heading straight for the ground and it was too late to do anything about it.

He's been on his mobile phone, this guy, saying he's crashed.

Said he was suspended in a tree and that's the best he could give us, just east of the glider site.

As you've seen, it's been a struggle to find him, and he's in absolute agony.

TONY GROANS

-I can't walk. I've hurt my legs.

-All right.

He's OK but he's not looking very well.

Obviously, it's going to need some specialist gear to get him out by the looks of it.

Tony is badly injured.

Both his legs are trapped inside the wrecked cockpit,

while he's falling forwards out of it,

but paramedics John and Sammy are about to discover an even bigger concern.

-I'm on warfarin, by the way.

-He's got a pacemaker fitted as well.

And I've got a defibrillator fitted, yeah.

-Is it a defibrillator or pacemaker?

-Defibrillator.

Tony had a heart attack ten years ago,

and has an electronic implant attached to his heart.

Knowing this past history is yet another reason

they know they need to get Tony out quickly.

My foot's going numb.

Can we strap you back into your harness and take some of the weight off you?

There's real danger here, not just for Tony, but for his rescuers, too.

Supported by just a few small trees,

the biggest risk is that the whole glider could plunge further down the ravine.

We'll have to get the technical rescue team here.

Obviously we're in the middle of nowhere, so the police just arrived,

across the fields, in a vehicle, so presumably there's a road there.

I'll get them to call Dave at the airbase,

who can pass the information on to the mountain rescue team.

They need to get more help to Tony, and quickly.

If we pull you out like you are now, we'll all end up in the stream.

His heart condition is a real worry,

not to mention his two crushed ankles.

I'm just going to get down on my knees and look down here, and see what I can see.

But unless the aircraft is supported soon,

the whole thing could end up crashing further into the ravine.

The human body is incredibly tough,

as the Helimed team finds out every day.

It can survive massive impacts, often with very little injury.

And every paramedic has a story of a patient

who's cheated almost certain death or disability by a stroke of luck.

We've been requested to attend to a road traffic collision,

at Green Hammerton, which is to the north of York.

We've got a motorcyclist there who's been knocked off his bike

and ejected into a ditch.

Paramedic Darren Axe is a keen biker himself.

Can you see a building, that's on the nose,

-a little white building?

-Yeah.

That's about where we need to be, so if you just head for that.

How we doing? Good. Pleased to meet you.

We've just got here ourselves but all we've heard is that,

-somehow, he's clipped the back of that van.

-Right.

-And it sounds like he's tumbled quite a bit. So upper neck, back pain.

-Yeah.

29-year-old Tony Thompson was overtaking this van

when the accident happened.

He's lucky to be alive after being catapulted into a hedge.

-Are you allergic to anything you're aware of?

-Penicillin.

He's in pain but his symptoms sound unremarkable.

-What's sore?

-Me back.

-Your back.

-Your lower back or...?

-Higher.

-Higher?

-More in your chest?

-Where my knee is.

-Where your knee is?

-Where MY knee is.

-Where the knee is, OK.

Every patient who's been in an accident like this

is treated as if they've had an undiagnosed spinal injury.

Remember what we said - no nodding or shaking your head,

just yes or no.

Most of the time, the precautions taken to protect their backs are unnecessary.

Tony, just while we're attacking you from all angles,

-I'll have a quick listen to your chest, pal, OK?

-Yeah.

But the paramedics are about to make a shocking discovery.

Big deep breath in, pal.

You're going to be a bit cold for a second while we just get you covered up.

Tony's back is so badly broken,

his shattered vertebrae can be seen protruding beneath his skin.

Basil, Basil...

-You haven't got any problems with that?

-No.

-All right.

What's baffling James is that Tony still appears to have

some feeling below the injury.

-Any pain in your lower legs at all?

-Yes.

-Yeah?

Your left leg.

Unbelievably, his spinal cord appears undamaged.

Does it all feel normal? Do you feel me touching? Yeah?

It feels normal to touch? Is it painful through here?

What we'll do is get ourselves set up for a roll.

I'll just do this really steady, chaps.

This is most visible spinal injury

Darren Axe has seen in 20 years as a paramedic.

What I want you to do is just pop your arms across your chest for me, just there.

You just hold onto that one for me.

Tony will have to be handled with extreme care.

OK, ready, steady, roll.

One wrong move now could sever his spinal cord,

and that could kill him or leave him in a wheelchair for life.

Every day, deep below the ground,

thousands of men are hard at work,

but Yorkshire's miners have a dangerous job.

Even in the age of renewable energy,

the UK is still largely powered by coal.

And Drax Power Station, Europe's biggest generator,

consumes it by the trainload.

Most of it comes from Kellingley Colliery,

but, today, Yorkshire's deepest mine

is at the centre of a major emergency.

A trench has collapsed underground.

They're still trapped so I'm not sure how long it's going to take

to get to them and get them out.

One of them's totally buried.

Paramedic Tony Wilkes is navigating today.

His dad was a miner at the pit.

The pit exit's covered up so it's just a big box, really

More news is coming in from the pit and it's not encouraging.

Helimed 99 receiving.

Airbase, this is 99. Go ahead.

99, roger. An update at the moment -

there's a doctor and a CTR, I believe,

going down into the mine, and they say it will take an hour and a half

to get to the two patients,

but just keep me updated once you're on scene. Over.

Yeah, roger.

It's less than two weeks since

four miners died in a similar accident in Wales,

and this incident is already making headlines.

'It's six o'clock. Let's get your latest news with Clive Settle.'

'Good evening. A full-scale rescue operation has got underway in the last hour

'at West Yorkshire's last deep mine.

'There are reports that two miners are trapped at Kellingley Colliery near Knottingley.'

'We hear they're some distance from the entrance shaft

'and the Yorkshire air ambulance has been scrambled.

'The NUM says the two men are trapped by a roof fall

'and up to their waists in debris.'

-Is that a bit of road by your side?

-Yeah.

-So stick it in this corner here.

-OK. Still clear to land.

We might have a fatality down there. We've got one trapped by his legs and another totally buried.

All they've seen is a helmet.

They've had no communication with him whatsoever.

But the other one's conscious throughout. He's been talking.

Once you go down in the lift to the level where they are,

you've then got to go out three miles from here to where these people are.

So if I was to go down there now,

it would take me an hour and a half to get from here to where the patients are.

We've got our HART team - our hazardous area response team -

who are trained in this kind of incident,

confined space rescue and trapped patients, and so on.

The rescuers are heading into a dangerous environment...

The central communication point in the control room.

We'll phone out to there.

..and the conditions underground will be arduous.

Kellingley is so deep, the heat of the earth's core means

miners work in temperatures of almost 30 degrees Celsius.

It's going to be a long day,

a real job to get them out.

It's quite sad, really,

cos these are all quite close mining communities,

and one of these miners actually worked with my dad,

so we all know each other.

So when these things happen, it's quite a sad occasion, really.

All the Helimed team can do is wait for news from underground.

It sounds like it's probably the back pain.

The second one? The first one, you think, should be how long?

Well, if he's on his way out, it should be an hour.

-So it will take us an hour from here to get to him?

-Yeah.

-Right.

Deep underground, the trapped men's colleagues are digging them free,

as the ambulance service rescue team

makes the long journey to the coalface.

The rescue operation is being co-ordinated from the pit's communications centre.

Do you have an approximate time that he's going to be back up here?

They're going in, he's coming out. They'll meet wherever they meet.

So will you know when they meet? You have communications at that point?

-Yeah.

-We'll pass that information on to yourself.

They know that, after a long journey back to the surface,

the victims of the accident could be in desperate need of a flight to a trauma unit.

But there's a problem - Helimed 99 cannot fly at night,

and its crew is running out of daylight.

The second patient sounds really quite seriously injured.

He's not responsive at the moment.

Erm, you know, his prognosis is probably not going to be good,

considering what's happened.

Unfortunately, we've got to go home with our tail between our legs.

There's not a right lot we can do to help.

The paramedics are frustrated at having to leave a patient,

no-one more so than Tony, who grew up in a mining community,

the son of a pitman.

Me dad went down the pit for 40 years,

so, you know, we've lost friends, had plenty of accidents down there.

We had to come away, unfortunately.

As I say, it doesn't happen too often but,

yeah, it's not nice when it does.

And today's other news now, and a miner has died

after being trapped down a colliery near Knottingley in North Yorkshire.

The roof had collapsed.

One other miner was brought safely to the surface.

49-year-old Gerry Gibson had worked underground for 30 years.

His funeral was attended by hundreds of miners.

Another casualty of an industry where danger is all part of a day's work.

Now, let's return to the Peak District

where the battle to free an elderly pilot from his wrecked cockpit

is about to reach a crucial stage.

-Tony, how we doing there, fella?

-Not well.

-Not well, OK.

We're going to get you sorted, my friend.

Ten years after surviving a cardiac arrest,

74-year-old Tony Senior is once again lucky to be alive.

The whole thing's unsecured at present.

Teams of rescuers from every emergency service

are now arriving at this remote ravine in the Peak District

to try and work out how to free the pilot.

What we're looking at is a bit of space creation that side

and coming forward over to you, Sammy.

We need to use something to get him out if we can do.

The fire service is just trying to secure the glider

so they can rescue the person, because it's not safe, really,

to try and get him out at the moment, I believe.

So everybody's just trying to help out by securing it for the time being,

so that they can then remove him from the aircraft.

He's saying his feet are a bit numb.

-So he's trapped by his feet.

-The feet are trapped.

Yeah. Yeah, that's it. But we're going to have a

potential suspension trauma when he comes out.

Both his ankles are trapped by the wreckage

and blood is now struggling to reach his feet.

Tony, which foot's going numb?

-They're both going numb but this one on the right...

-The right.

-Can you feel me touching it now?

-Yeah, but my foot is going numb.

Can I cut through wires on here?

Yes. We control them, so there should be no electrics.

Nothing live at all?

Working environments don't come much tougher than this.

-One more time. Don't move, Tony.

-Yeah, keep really, really still.

All this cutting gear is usually used to free people from cars,

but now it's being put to the test to tear through the airframe

that's trapping Tony's feet inside this crushed cockpit.

-Can somebody push me back?

-Push me and I'll push you.

GROANING

Harmful dust and fragments from the fibreglass

is yet another concern for the growing team of rescuers.

Bolt cutters.

The one at this side's harder to see.

His feet will soon be freed, but it will take some creative thinking

to work out how to get him up the steep, muddy slope.

It is going to hurt when you come out

but your feet are free now, so you'll come, right?

And we're going to take all your weight, right?

Put your arms on me, mate. You're all right. That's it.

Right, this arm here's going to have to move, obviously.

GROANING

This certainly isn't normal.

It's nearly always best to have the patient on his back,

but in this treacherous terrain,

it's the only way he can be safely brought out.

-Everyone ready on the stretcher?

-Yeah.

Ready, steady, lift.

It's a moment of relief for paramedic John.

He's broken his ankle, we think, and hopefully nothing else.

We've not been able to protect him like we would do normally

because it's just been so difficult.

Trapped by both feet and we've had to cut...

Well, I've never dismantled a glider before, put it that way.

First time I've done that!

OK, walk back with him slowly, guys.

Wait until we're upon the flat.

Now free of the wreckage,

it's the first time Dr Steve Rowe from the local mountain rescue team

can get a good look at his injuries.

Prepare to roll. On three.

One, two, three.

OK, Tony.

GROANING

Well done, mate.

OK, Tony. Try and relax.

-Right, Tony, your right ankle's dislocated as well.

-It's what?

-Dislocated as well as broken.

-Oh.

-So what I'm going to do is pop it back into line.

-Oh.

It'll take two seconds. It'll be a bit sore whilst I do it,

but it'll be more comfortable afterwards, OK?

So, here on a windswept, remote hillside,

Steve is preparing for a procedure normally carried out in a hospital theatre.

Remember injured biker Tony Thompson?

His spinal cord is still intact,

despite what appears to be a massive fracture to his back,

but now the team must move him.

Just going to feel a little bit of pressure on your pelvis, mate.

The crew must take great care.

The slightest movement could sever the biker's spinal chord,

and he's about to take off for emergency surgery at Leeds General Infirmary.

Can I have resus, please?

Assessment of a 28-year-old male motorcyclist.

Been ejected, high speed.

He's got obvious deformity through his thoracic spine.

We're going to go feet first, so wheel around me if you want to.

Most patients with this injury would be suffering from numbness,

and pins and needles in their arms and legs,

the first symptoms of a lifetime's paralysis.

Spinal cords cannot be repaired.

Keep the weight off.

Up. Right, you can move now.

Good. Thank you.

Paramedics James Vine and Darren Axe are shocked by the severity of Tony's injury,

and amazed at his ability to feel pain below the damage to his spine.

-Did someone just touch my right toe?

-Your right toe?

Is it itching?

-I can't move it.

-You can't move it? Don't move it, then.

It'll be all right, pal. No worries.

What about your left one?

So, you can wiggle that one. Yeah?

-OK, clear for take off?

-We are clear.

You're clear, right and above.

At Leeds General Infirmary,

consultants have already been alerted.

The chances are, Tony's injuries will require very complex surgery.

And even then, there are no guarantees

of a successful outcome.

He does appear to be comfortable, but the biggest concern is

the deformity that's obvious, around his spine.

It's always difficult to tell with these things,

cos the spine tends to go into shock,

in an attempt to protect itself, when it's been damaged.

The long-term prognosis could be a full recovery,

and him able to walk around and get about, as he should.

The worst-case scenario is that he might not be able to walk again.

The streets below are still jammed with the last traffic

of the rush hour.

There doesn't appear to be much wind, mate,

but if there is any, it's behind us.

-Right, you've got an aircraft just taking off.

-Seen it.

But pilot Steve has nothing to delay him today.

He'll be making this landing as gentle as he can.

Cheers.

99 on the ground.

Just 15 minutes after leaving the roadside, Tony's back

is about to be examined properly, for the first time.

Just take it really steady, chaps, with him.

If we can just get as many people round as we can.

OK, lads. Just take the strain, and then, just nice and steady.

All the medical team know is that this patient

needs especially gentle handling.

OK, chaps. This is Tony, 28-year-old male. Motorcycle rider.

He's got an obvious gross deformity to his back around T7, T5.

Probably round that region.

And altered sensation distal to his umbilicus.

Good motor throughout, a little bit weaker in his feet,

but good in his hands.

-What was he wearing in terms of protection?

-Jacket, helmet,

he had a sort of a lower back protector, not upper back.

This is the MRI scan.

What you can now see is the spinal cord itself,

stretching round this corner, here.

When Tony's surgeon looks at his patient's scans,

he can see that the damage is extensive,

and recovering from an injury like his is probably unlikely.

You can see on the images, that the top part of his spine

has been completely detached from the bottom part of his spine.

And, the worry is,

that his spinal cord runs down in the space, there.

And my immediate reaction, when my juniors told me that

he was in the A&E department, was that this boy must be paralysed.

Tony undergoes a major operation, and doctors find

his spinal cord is protruding,

from the shattered remains of three broken vertebrae.

But crucially, it's intact.

And, two weeks later, Tony is slowly getting back on his feet.

I can walk up and down stairs, hundred yards down the road.

I can walk, now. Get up out of bed by myself.

It's an absolutely amazing feeling, after two weeks ago.

I thought I'd never be able to walk again, like.

So, a great, great feeling.

This is one biker who's very grateful to the surgical team

for the extraordinary work it did, rebuilding his spine.

I owe my life to them. I truly do.

Back to Helimed 98 now

and the paramedics have a difficult case on their hands.

It's hard to imagine anyone surviving this,

but 74-year-old Tony Senior

has just been cut out of the wreckage,

with two badly broken and dislocated ankles.

Now we've got him in a secure area, we can assess his injuries.

It appears two badly broken ankles, which we're about to reduce.

I've given him some analgesic, and we'll pop them back into line,

before flying off to the Northern General.

Ready, steady, here we go.

-Well done, mate.

-Well done, Tony.

Sorry, Tony. OK.

Good. That's it.

Tony's friends from the gliding club have come to help

with the rescue, and are impressed at what they've seen.

They are remarkably robust, gliders.

So, you can often escape from fairly horrific-looking accidents,

with relatively minor injuries.

Two-minute walk, Tony, and then we'll be in the helicopter.

Our patient was trapped by his lower legs,

in a great deal of discomfort.

But, because of the precarious position,

we had to get all the support and help to get him out.

He's conscious, he's happy, he's not pain-free yet,

but we're working on that.

And, we're going to go to the helicopter,

and take him to hospital.

OK, prepare to lower, and lower.

'It's pretty badly smashed up, that glider.

'He's lucky to have come away with the injuries he has,

'and not something more severe.

'It turns out that he just has ankle injuries.

Because of the position we're in, it's very difficult to assess that.

With the combination of teamwork from the fire service,

the mountain rescue teams, and the paramedics,

we were able to get him out, and to a place of safety.

Now we're taking him over to the Northern General,

to get his injuries treated there.

So, more than an hour after his crash,

Tony is taking to the air once again.

This time on the short, powered flight

to Sheffield's Northern General Hospital.

Back at Tony's gliding club, there's a long wait for news.

This morning he left this grass runway as he had done

on hundreds of flights, but this time

he didn't make it back.

Now his friends are doing all they can to help him recover.

"Happy flying." Oh, that's a nice card.

Very good.

Tony's legs were each broken in two places,

as well as having broken ankles.

It'll be a long time until he's able to walk again,

but he's just grateful to have survived such a serious crash.

It was a very nice flight up to that point, above the clouds.

But it started filling in below me.

And, when I came down, I wanted to get down below them.

And, I guess I lost my position, coming through the clouds.

And when I did get through them, I was pretty low.

And I knew, immediately, I wouldn't get back to the airfield.

But things are about to change.

After a bit of influence from his wife, Jo,

that flight will be his last.

I don't see a future in gliding.

I think I've told my good lady, I'm 75 this year,

and I think that maybe I've had a good crack of the whip.

I was very lucky to get away with it, this time.

And I don't want to push my luck again.

But, I'm pleased to say, Tony doesn't intend to leave

the world of gliding behind, altogether.

He says he'll help out on the ground,

passing on his experience to student pilots.

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