Episode 9 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.

-RADIO:

-Where's the patient?

-CRYING:

-He'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 pop him off to sleep with an emergency anaesthetic, OK?

And town centres into helipads.

-RADIO: Look here on the left.

-Just behind you, Tim.

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

Today on Helicopter Heroes...

A biker is fighting for his life and the team's in a hurry.

I've a patient who has got serious facial injuries.

We're just going to scoop-and-run him.

A truck overturns and Sammy fears the driver may have a spinal injury.

He is complaining of some back pain

and he's also got some pains in his chest.

There's a serious industrial accident.

Good circulation in his fingers so far -

-there wasn't when I first got here.

-And Helimed 98 becomes a soapstar.

-JEFF HORDLEY:

-Saving lives, it's important.

-There's a little tin in the Woolpack, isn't there?

-There is.

Countless lives have been saved by these.

The Helimed team won't leave the ground without one

and thousands of bikers owe their lives to them.

But some crash helmets are safer than others.

The market town of Helmsley,

on the edge of the North York Moors is a mecca for bikers.

And this is the reason - the B1257 heading north to Teeside

appears again and again

on lists of the UK's best roads for motorcyclists.

But its place in the accident stats is just as prominent.

And today an off-duty cop has dialled 999

with news of another crash.

RADIO: 'I believe it's a motorbike and an HGV.

'RV on the scene

'and said, "Patient is unconscious with severe injuries." '

The accident's happened near the hamlet of Laskill,

in remote Bilsdale.

But the location's sounding familiar to pilot Andy Lister.

I've a road drop over the top.

Yeah, but your drop's down.

I've a sneaking suspicion I've done a job, I inspected this bit before.

There it is and I have done a job here before -

exactly that bend.

-How are we doing?

-Hiya.

-It's a 50-year-old gent.

-Yep.

-Andy. 15, no G-sector 15.

-15.

-Biker Andy Broxham is critically injured.

-He's not wonderful, is he?

He has very serious facial injuries after a collision with a trailer.

Without immediate first aid given to him

by off-duty policeman Nick Walmsley,

who insisted the Air Ambulance was scrambled

he may already have died.

He's having difficulty breathing.

So what's the story, chaps, just from start to finish?

Right, this gentleman, went round the corner...

and he found them. This is Nick.

Hi, Nick, how are you doing, mate?

-He's a-a policeman from Northallerton.

-OK.

So he can tell you all about it.

I came over, started talking, but just talking to him.

I wasn't getting any response.

-Tried to feel for a pulse but couldn't feel anything.

-OK.

-Can I have a bag of fluid, please?

-Yep.

-As he's come around the bend...

-Do you want it now?

-Yeah, please.

One of them has been heading north-bound, he's been heading south-bound.

-Putting my hand on your hip there.

-He's hit the trailer of the wagon.

Andy was wearing his helmet, but unlike many,

it has no protection for the face.

His jaw is shattered and he's lost much of the flesh

around his nose and jaw - which is broken in seven places.

-Has anyone got a sharp splint?

-We got a line in?

Yeah, airway is precarious, if nothing else.

-Yeah.

-GCS is 14/15.

This is by far the most serious facial injury

paramedic James Vine has ever seen.

Just get him onto this trolley. If we just bring it nice and close.

The brake's on the inside there.

The patient has got serious facial injuries

but his head injury is not so bad.

We're just going to scoop-and-run him.

He doesn't need any immediate intervention

other than to get to hospital quickly.

Are we still out of time for James Cook

if we leave in the next two or three minutes?

It's early evening and the team is running out of daylight

to get the patient to hospital.

Strict rules ground air ambulances at night

and there's too little time

to reach the James Cook Trauma Unit in Middlesbrough.

If I was to go to James Cook,

I wouldn't have sufficient hours of the day

so I think we'll come up with an alternative plan

whereby we transport the casualty and the doctor to York.

There's no time to lose.

James and flying doctor Simon Ward know Andy's injuries

could cause him to lose the ability to breathe at any moment.

But for the off-duty cop, who has already saved

the biker's life today, it's a moment for relief.

The first thing I was aware of

was another car flashing its headlights as we passed.

-BREATHLESS:

-Lots of motorcycles.

I work here, I know how bad this is for road accidents.

-Just make sure of your footing.

-Bit of a bump up here.

-Just try and keep ahead... That's it.

-Head up.

'Come round the bend, saw him lying, saw the state of his face'

and thought, "Ow."

Nobody was applying first aid.

They'd tried to get a pulse by then so the first idea

was talk, pulse, but I couldn't apply any pressure.

OK, chaps, it's going to be a bit of a lift.

If we can lift him as high as we can,

try and keep the weight off the stretcher.

'So it was just talk, talk, talk.'

Telephone going, give the ambulance services as much as I've got

over the phone, can I have a helicopter please?

You just start closing it all up behind us, John.

Helimed 99 is almost ready for takeoff but James and Simon

have real concerns - Andy's airway is getting worse.

-You've come off the bike, Andy.

-ANDY: I can't breathe.

You're doing ever so well, I know it's difficult to breathe.

It's because you've fractured some bones in your face.

He'll be lucky to survive his flight to hospital.

A single lorry can weigh as much as 44 cars

and if that statistic isn't frightening enough,

think about what happens when something that big turns over.

That's when you need the skills of the Helimed team.

We've just been called to an incident near Stamford Bridge,

which is east of York in north Yorkshire.

We've had reports of an HGV which has been blown over onto its side

trapping the driver.

We're not sure what his state is

so we'll have to wait till we get to the scene for that.

The tractor unit of this 40 ton lorry

has ended up down a deep ditch.

The driver is trapped inside and badly hurt.

He's sat up, he's conscious. He looks a bit pale...

Left-hand side.

A road crew paramedic has already climbed into the upturned truck.

Tony needs to join him but the route in is now blocked.

We're just trying to see if this is viable for a route in.

We're just trying to get a bit more space

for some access to get in and help him.

RADIO: 'Four EMA crews are going to this one.'

-Hiya.

-Hi there.

This is John, 54 years of age.

He clipped something and it caused him to flip over.

He's not collapsed as such.

The casualty's not trapped as such

but obviously he's in a difficult position within the cab

and the cab's obviously ended up in a difficult position

in terms that it's down this embankment.

Much of the rescue is about stabilising the casualty

and we've got a bit of time there to make sure that we've got everything

in place to get him out as conveniently and as safely

as possible without causing any further injury.

Are you all right, buddy?

You all right? John, just look at me, mate.

The driver, John Harvey from Hull, is fighting for breath

and Tony fears he may have suffered a spinal injury

when the truck overturned.

-I want to get up.

-I know, mate.

We're just getting you sorted before we start moving you.

Have you managed to have a listen to his chest yet?

Yeah, but as I say, it's nice and clear on the right-hand side.

I couldn't actually hear breath sounds on the left myself.

We've closed the road both directions at the junctions,

we've got patrols down there. Once we get the driver out of the cab

and the paramedics have assessed his injuries

then we will start our investigation.

How's your breathing, mate? Do you feel like you're struggling at all?

-Yeah.

-Yeah, is it mainly taking a breath in?

-Yeah.

If John has fractured bones in his back,

one wrong move could paralyse him.

They must stop his injury being made worse

and he could be trapped in his cab for some time.

-The plan is we're going to put this big corset round you, right?

-Yeah.

So that'll just stabilise your back

and it'll stabilise your chest a bit as well.

They're just discussing whether they're going to put on

like a half backboard, a KED, and bring him out through his windscreen

and then onto a longboard, cos the space is so small.

But it's not only the driver who's at risk,

the lorry's tractor unit could slip further into the ditch.

The emergency service crews need to get their patient

and themselves out of danger.

One of the things we look at in any road traffic collision

is the stability of the vehicle. In this particular case

that's very relevant given we've got a tractor unit

hanging over the ditch.

Wherever you look in Yorkshire

there's scenery straight out of a film set.

So it's not surprising so many movies and TV dramas are set here,

which means the air ambulance often gets a starring role.

It's Yorkshire's most famous village, but you won't find it on any map.

No-one lives in its houses and the pub is dry.

Everything about Emmerdale is make-believe,

except for today's guest stars.

Here we go, stand by. And...action!

Helimed 98 has been called in to rescue two of the TV soap's

biggest stars - Jeff Hordley and Steve Halliwell,

members of the infamous Dingle family.

We're near Bolton Abbey on the great Yorkshire Moors.

We hope the weather will lift a bit.

It's a typical Moors day though, isn't it?

It seems right that the weather should be like this.

The Yorkshire Air Ambulance are kindly doing some shots for us

and are going to save us if we need saving.

TV executives are picking up the bill for today's rescue mission

and screen appearances like this help attract sponsors

to keep the choppers in the air.

My character's sort of cracking up and having a bit of a breakdown

and he's ended up getting lost on the moors.

He thinks his son's after him, out to kill him.

-Yorkshire Air Ambulance help you out and rescue you in the end.

-Yeah.

Crew members John Baxter and Darrel Cullen are playing a familiar role.

But John's not likely to win an Emmy this year.

Most of the Emmerdale cast live locally

and it turns out many members are real-life air ambulance supporters.

-There's a little tin in the Woolpack, isn't there?

-There is.

That people from Emmerdale put money in. Saving lives, it's important.

-Hmm, especially ours.

-Yes. Yes, if we need it.

And real life in Emmerdale country

is sometimes every bit as dramatic as the soap.

In the limestone scenery around Yorkshire's three peaks,

Helimed 99 has just touched down 2,000 feet up

to rescue a real-life walker whose situation is every bit as dangerous

-as the Dingles'.

-Just going to have to cut your trousers

just ever so slightly, sweet.

Elaine Collins was out for a solo walk when she slipped

and broke her ankle.

At home in Leeds it would be a minor injury. Up here,

her life could be in danger.

It will be dark in a few hours, and below freezing.

She's come down this track and then just hit the ice

and then taken her right leg over

and I think strained quite a lot of the ligaments.

-Foodology?

-I've eaten snails.

-Snails?

No, we don't tend to use them for our ankles. Isolated ankle inversion.

Paramedic Al Day is a mountain rescue volunteer when he's off duty,

and he knows rescuing Elaine without injuring anyone else won't be easy.

We've got a 200 metre carry, a wall to negotiate,

so a stretcher party basically, with a stretcher.

The Upper Wharfdale Mountain Rescue team

has been scrambled from its base at Grassington.

It covers the scenery that's the backdrop to the fictional residence

of Emmerdale, but its dangers are real.

If anyone falls here there's nothing to stop them for 500 feet or more.

She's had some painkillers that she had in her first aid kit,

so well prepared, you know,

and it's just a matter of getting her all strapped up.

Mountain rescue will be here in a few minutes with a stretcher,

so we'll let them do the hard work and get her onto the helicopter

and fly her down to the hospital.

Elaine was alone when she fell.

Luckily a family party came across her and raised the alarm

and they've been keeping her warm.

I think she'd been there for about half an hour and, yes, we...

They went down to meet the ambulance so we stayed with her

and kept her warm. So yeah, she was getting colder.

All I want to do is make sure you've got some nice strong painkillers

on board before we start messing you about. And just cos you're in a bit

of an awkward position, if you'd have stayed on the other side of the wall

-we'd have been grand.

-Can you just drop back, please?

-Yeah.

-Thank you.

Helimed 99 is just 200 yards from Elaine,

but without the proper kit it might as well be 200 miles

in a landscape like this. Mountain Rescue can solve that problem.

-All right, lads? How we doing?

-All right?

-Yeah, we're doing all right.

-Not too bad.

-Are you OK? Is that comfy?

-Yeah.

Hello LGI, it's James one of the paramedics on the helicopter,

how we doing?

Not bad, mate. We've got a bit of a problem,

we're stuck up on the top with a lady with an isolated ankle.

Would you be happy to accept her to yourselves?

She wouldn't need to go into resus or anything.

We're just in Kettlewell at the moment.

The closest hospital is Airedale

but obviously we struggle to land at Airedale.

Due to the current conditions we'd prefer to come back to yourselves

if you're happy to accept.

Thanks to her injury she'll be watching telly at home

rather than hiking the hills for the next few weeks.

Elaine's got a lot in common with one of the stars

she's likely to be watching.

-This is Doug Poulton, actor.

-Oh, not him, he's a timewaster.

And this is Doug Poulton, patient.

We were just having lunch, making a cup of tea, having a sandwich

and we just started moving around

and he just twisted his ankle on a rock.

Kind of quite dramatic and we were kind of debating

whether to call these guys cos it's quite embarrassing.

But there's no way that I could get him off this hill without them,

so that's what we had to do, unfortunately.

Doug was out walking in the Peak District with his girlfriend

when he turned his ankle high on a Pennine hillside.

Mountain Rescue has come to his aid

and Helimed 99 has been called in too.

Following the path at the moment, although it's telling me

it should be down to the right.

There's some walkers down on the wall.

Before we had the helicopters it was park as near as you could

and then walk up there with us carrying as much gear as we could

and then carry the patient out.

The helicopter's just helping getting these patients out.

A little bumpy here, guys.

I took my boot off and put it back on again,

it started swelling all the way round the back and the ankle.

-Did it look deformed when you took your boot off?

-It did, yes.

It was all massive on either side.

Swelled ankle and then round the back.

And you can't put any weight on it at all?

-I can put weight as long as it's straight down.

-Is it hurting now?

It's throbbing, yeah.

When he first hurt his foot I was quite worried,

but now he's quite calm so it's OK.

But there was a moment where we didn't know what

-we were going to do.

-SHE LAUGHS

We just stopped for lunch by these rocks here

and these are new boots and they're a bit uncomfortable,

so I just unhooked them, the top three loops

and I was just eating lunch, not looking where I was going

and just stepped down awkwardly onto a rock, and that was it,

I just heard it go pop.

Then plan is we're going to pop him on the vacuum splint

and then hop him up the hill to the awaiting aircraft, over.

There's a gentleman just coming down from Mountain Rescue.

He's got a vacuum splint and that provides a lot more stability

for the ankle when it goes on than the splints we carry.

They're much better, really.

So we'll put that on and we'll see if Doug can manage between us

to get back up to the helicopter and whisk him off to hospital.

Doug's not used to playing the role of casualty,

he's usually the hard man in series like Sherlock,

and this couldn't have come at a worse time.

He's filming a film called Closed

and he's supposed to have a fight scene with Eric Banner next week.

Not sure how they're going to do that if he's got a broken ankle.

SHE LAUGHS

OK now, nice and steady, chaps.

He's done loads of TV work, so Sherlock, lots of gangster movies.

That's why it's funny when they said he's an actor to these guys,

they were like, "Are you sure it's really hurting or are you acting?"

SHE LAUGHS

Doug's flown to hospital in Sheffield for treatment,

which is so successful that a few days later

he films his fight with Eric Banner,

with the help of a lot of painkillers.

For thousands of people living in rural Yorkshire

the Helimed team is a lifeline, and today Countryfile

is featuring its work.

Presenter Matt Baker, who grew up on a Pennine hill farm himself,

knows how vital an air ambulance is.

Here we are on the top of this crag here and you would think,

"How inaccessible," and then all of a sudden you get these boys

just dropping in behind you. You know, it just fills you

with confidence, even just watching it go through, you know,

the lads arrive, bosh bosh, straight into it, and then before you know it,

you know, the perfect treatment, and then off to the necessary place.

And many people living in the countryside

share Matt's opinion of the service.

Helimed 98's been called to a farm near York

where there's been a serious accident.

We've got a farm worker that's been trapped briefly underneath the wheels

of his combine harvester.

On this farm near the north Yorkshire village of Slingsby

Steve Johnston was helping to unload this combine harvester

when it rolled backwards, crushing his chest.

It was jammed in gear and the patient got underneath

to do something, and before we realised what had happened

he released it and it rolled back onto him and trapped him.

A local paramedic was quickly on scene.

He has managed to piece together what happened.

It's got caught in here. So he's gone behind here,

-gone into the back to lean across.

-OK.

And the tyre's gone down onto his right side.

So he's been in your position?

Yeah, he's been like that and the tyre's got caught.

Right, and trapped him.

Dave was in the cab and he heard him shout same as I did,

and I was round the other side. I just physically got a hold of the wheel

and wheeled it forward and he was able to release himself.

It'll weigh about six or seven tonnes.

Not a very pleasant experience.

Hi, Steve, where abouts is your pain, buddy?

-Looks like it's slightly in there, doesn't it?

-Yeah.

-Right.

Take a big deep breath in for me.

Steve was helped into the farmhouse kitchen

where he is now flat out on the floor.

Usually when I go to farms and deal with people that work on farms

they're hard as nails and when they say they've got very little pain

to the likes of me and Daryl, it'd probably make us cry,

you know what I mean? So, don't be brave, be honest, OK?

We can give you things to take that pain away, right, we carry morphine.

We've called for the helicopter cos we feel that he had reduced air entry right-sideed

so we felt he needed a rapid transportation to the hospital.

I'm going to ask you to take as deep a breath as you can

without causing yourself too much pain, when I say. I'll just go,

"in and out," through your mouth for me, OK.

Just breathe in...and out.

Glen's examination confirms the local paramedic's suspicions.

One of their patient's lungs is not fully inflating.

In...and out.

Yeah, that's good. Yeah, you're right, it's reduced there.

It's still getting air into it but it is reduced. Quite right.

Steve has a punctured lung,

apparently caused by several broken ribs.

Right, you're in control of your pain, we can be here for support.

If it's too painful, say.

If I start pushing and pulling on you I'm going to cause more pain.

-Bend your legs.

-I'll be all right from here on my own.

Yeah, that's fine. We're just here for support.

With Steve's injuries isolated to his chest,

there is no need to fully immobilise him.

The paramedics have done all they can for now.

Steve has been given some pain relief,

but he desperately needs further treatment

and examination in hospital.

Did you hear anything go pop when it hit you?

-I heard some crunching.

-You heard some crunching? OK.

He's scoring his pain at the moment. He's at seven out of ten.

He's just had some morphine so we're going to see how that goes.

Hopefully it'll settle his pain down a little bit.

We're just going to pop him off to York District Hospital.

Doctors later confirm that Steve has fractured several ribs,

but is otherwise unharmed.

And the air ambulance paramedics are soon able to return

to their part time roles as TV extras.

Helimed 99 starring there and I'm pleased to say

all its real casualties are on the mend.

Now, let's return to the North York Moors where Dr Simon is concerned

about the condition of a biker with terrible facial injuries.

In the market town of Helmsley, bikers are beginning to head home

after yet another accident involving a rider

on the notorious route north to Teesside.

Helimed 99, we've just lifted and are headed towards York.

ETA approximately ten minutes, over.

Andy Broxham from Hull is on his way to hospital in York

on board Helimed 99 and the team is concerned.

He's a lucky fella, this one, isn't he?

He rolled him on his back, he was just going to move straight away, I think.

The only reason he's still alive is cos he was prone when we got there, I think.

Andy's having difficulty breathing

because of the severe facial injuries he suffered in a collision with a lorry.

Surgeons at York District Hospital are preparing to operate.

At the same time, police from Hull rush Andy's wife 40 miles to York

to be at his side.

She's told he's not expected to survive.

OK, John, you all right there? OK, and the rest of the way.

One, two, three, lift.

Beautiful.

Andy's skull is broken in so many places,

facial surgeons have to rebuild his nose, jaw and airway.

He has countless operations, but with the medical team's skill

and his own will to survive, just two months later

the team at air ambulance HQ are waiting for a special visitor.

Obviously we're quite apprehensive.

The last time we saw Andy he was in a very bad way.

His face was horrendous, really.

-Hello.

-How you doing, you must be Andy.

-I am. You must be James.

It's a pleasure to meet you, how are you?

It's a pleasure to meet you, I'll tell you that.

Absolutely, how's the face? You're looking 100% better

-than when I saw you last time.

-Yeah. I've looked worse.

You looked worse when I saw you.

-I think I look better, actually.

-Have they improved how it was before?

Oh, yeah.

Andy has little recollection of the accident

that changed his life for ever.

He and his wife Angela want to understand what happened.

-I'm going to watch it, yes.

-At any stage just say and we'll stop it.

You'd come round that corner and been thrown.

-There was a policeman who was driving behind, wasn't there?

-Yeah.

He put you into a position where,

we think initially you were face down and he rolled you over.

He shouldn't be here today, you know, the impact was severe enough

to cause him a massive head injury and a cerebral bleed

or snap his neck.

-Did you hurt your wrist as well?

-I hurt my thumb.

-Your thumb, that was it. Cos every time you went quiet

we tweaked your thumb. THEY LAUGH

Cos it was the only thing that kept you awake.

That's the tricks of the trade.

It was easy cos I could just hold your hand while we were in the flight

and every time you went a bit quiet we just gave your thumb a little tweak.

'The only reason he's still alive is cos he was prone when we got there, I think.'

When you look at the footage and you look at what happened

and my injuries, it's quite amazing really.

But for Andy and Angela another ordeal is just around the corner.

The start of surgery to give him back his face.

It will be long and painful.

The emergency services are used to working together,

but sometimes the priorities of one conflict with another.

Paramedics want their patient in hospital as quickly as possible,

but often the fire service has to balance speed with safety.

On a major road in east Yorkshire, fire officers are carefully

weighing their options as the Helimed team

struggles to free the driver of this 14-wheeled lorry.

It's feared trucker John Harvey from Hull has fractured his spine

but his isn't the only life at stake here.

Sorry, John, we're just gonna have to get this collar in place

and then...there we go.

The driver's in great pain.

He could have a serious spinal injury,

so before they move him they must put on a back brace called a KED.

The corset's coming round you now, OK?

What I need to do is just get access. That's grand, there we go.

The KED is to keep his neck and back straight.

He is complaining of some back pain

and he's also got some pains in his chest.

The lorry is fully loaded with bags of plaster.

Fire officers believe the weight of its cargo

is stopping the tractor unit from slipping further into the ditch.

If it does move, the driver's rescuers will be crushed.

We've made an assessment with the police

and they're an expert in that area.

They're happy that it's absolutely solid,

so we've got a good stable working platform to perform the rescue.

Firefighters have removed the windscreen

so John can be slid straight from his cab.

You'll probably feel a bit unsteady at first,

but we've got you, we're going to support you, all right?

-Nice and steady.

-Nice and steady, good.

Try and bring that right leg when you get a chance.

Right, can you get that right leg and bring it towards your left leg.

-That's smashing.

-Put it straight down there, that's super.

This is a delicate operation.

In this confined space, the team needs the patient to help himself.

-Put your feet out.

-Let your weight go, mate. Just let your weight go.

-Bring yourself down.

-That's it.

-Lower it down. Well done.

-That's it.

Put your foot out straight in front of you.

-That's it, grand.

-Bring this left hand forward, John.

-Keep coming down.

-That's it.

John is out at last,

strapped to a rigid spinal stretcher to protect his back.

But carrying him out of the ditch won't be easy.

-Right, John, how's your pain now, mate?

-Eight out of ten.

-Say again?

-What are you scoring it, still eight, something like that?

-Yeah.

-OK.

-I think it's in me back.

-OK.

I'll give you some more painkillers in a second, OK.

He's still complaining about a lot of chest pain, pain in his back.

So could be he's fractured some ribs,

maybe his scapula, the shoulder blade.

Obviously we're concerned he may be bleeding into his chest.

If John does have a spinal injury,

his rescuers can not afford the slightest jolt to the stretcher.

Firefighters are clearing the way to Helimed 99.

Keep coming, mate.

The nearest hospital is in York, ten miles away.

But whilst John's been trapped in his lorry

there's been another multiple car crash nearby, and A&E is very busy.

He's being flown to another trauma unit instead.

Taking him to the Leeds General Infirmary,

which is a major trauma centre for us round here.

With the potential injuries he's got

that's the most suitable hospital for him.

After arriving at hospital, John is taken to intensive care.

For the next three days he is kept in an induced coma.

His body is allowed time to recover ahead of a series of scans

that reveal the full extent of his injuries.

Ten days later and his memory is beginning to return.

I can remember coming into the hospital on the air ambulance

but I can't remember actually going into any wards,

and obviously they were filling me full of drugs, so...

The next thing I knew I woke up about three days later.

Two breaks in my spine, a punctured lung

and I believe between 10 and 12 broken ribs.

Andy thinks climbing into an upturned lorry cab,

even for a paramedic, is above and beyond the call of duty.

He jumped straight in the cab and he started treating me straight away,

I couldn't fault him whatsoever.

All right, John? Going to get you some feeling back in your legs now.

He was just on the ball, he was doing the job.

And I think they actually saved my life.

John had been driving HGVs all his adult life,

and despite his injuries, he says that's not going to stop.

I will definitely drive again, yes, of course I will.

It's just in your blood.

You try to leave it but you can't, you get itchy feet,

you want to get back on the road again.

Any lorry driver will tell you that.

Engineering workers have a dangerous occupation.

They're up to ten times more likely to be killed at work

than people with ordinary factory jobs.

And accidents usually involve machinery.

The team's heading back to the scene of Richard Hammond's rescue today.

In 2006 the Top Gear star crashed his rocket car

on this former air base at Elvington, near York.

Paramedic Pete Vallance was one of the crew which saved his life.

But today's emergency is rather more mundane.

We've got reports that someone's got their hand trapped in some machinery.

We believe it's a drill. At this stage their hand is still trapped.

We don't know the size of the drill or the extent of the injuries.

So we're heading over there now.

Timeframe, we're looking at about ten minutes.

In this steel fabrication workshop,

machinist Kevin Fletcher has injured himself.

Loose clothing became tangled in a large industrial drill,

pulling in his hand.

Helimed 98 overhead scene, landing now, over.

A local paramedic has made quick work of freeing Kevin

from the machinery.

We've got both bones extended. Completely out, snapped.

It's just there, they're still coming out there

but I've wrapped it, the guy feels faint when he sees it.

Good circulation in his fingers so far.

There wasn't when I first got here.

Moved it across and now there's good circulation.

Kevin has come close to severing his own arm.

The work the paramedic has done to restore circulation

means that the chances of him retaining a working limb

are much improved.

Can you hold that in your teeth while you're doing that?

Can I just have one of you guys round here to hold this?

If you stand over that shoulder.

Just hold the entonox for him while we get at this arm.

You just put that one out for me.

Our hands and arms are among the most complex parts of the body.

Dozens of bones, tendons and joints

that give humans incredible dexterity.

Injuries like Kevin's can lead to severe disability.

The good news is that now circulation has been restored

he still has feeling in his hands and he can move his fingers.

He can feel all his fingers.

-His little one's starting to feel a little bit numb.

-OK.

How bad's that pain at the moment, then?

What are we thinking at the moment with the pain?

Getting a bit stiff, me arm is now.

The lower portion of Kevin's arm is now only attached

by a thin layer of flesh.

Even for this tough Yorkshire man there is a point

when it's time for something stronger.

-Giving you some morphine, all right? Have you had that before?

-No.

Sometimes with people they might get a bit of itching up their arm,

that's perfectly normal,

and you might just get a rush where you think you're a little bit dizzy,

but it'll wear off and become a nicer sort of relaxing feeling, yeah?

Talk me through it. If you start to feel..

..any worse that that, let me know, OK?

Pete's just given him some pain relief.

It looks like he's got an open fracture

to his wrist from this machinery.

The paramedic that was first on the scene

has already dressed the wound

and said he didn't actually

have any circulation when he actually got here,

but he's manipulated it slightly and now we've got a good pulse

and a good circulation distally to the injury.

-Take a deep breath. Feel me touching you there?

-Yeah.

-OK.

With Kevin's pain in check, he can now be moved.

Just ease yourself back. Ease yourself, that's great.

Push your bum way back.

Elvington to Leeds is 30 miles.

In the chopper that will take just under 15 minutes.

Here surgeons will attempt to reconstruct his shattered bones

and torn skin.

After only a few days in hospital Kevin is well on his way to recovery.

He has undergone surgery to fix the broken bones

and tomorrow he will have a skin graft.

The moment he realised things had gone drastically wrong

is still fresh in his memory.

It just clicked on the overalls and wrapped the overalls

and then sort of took my hand with it.

And then...you heard this crunch.

That's when I saw the bone come.

Even for seasoned paramedics, people's pain thresholds

can be a source of surprise.

But keeping a smile on his face after watching his own arm snap

in front of him must make Kevin one of the air ambulance's toughest customers.

There was no point screaming and shouting. It's done and done, isn't it?

So I just grinned and beared it.

Plastic surgery is a multi-million pound business,

but it's not all about brow-lifts or a bit of nip and tuck.

People with facial injuries rely on the surgeon's skill

to give them their lives back.

And biker Andy Broxham is one of them.

Just six months after the bike crash that almost killed him,

Andy's deep in the Yorkshire Dales, halfway through a coast to coast bike ride

to raise money for the Helimed team.

We're doing the Way of the Roses, 170 miles all uphill.

Easy.

The cyclists include two colleagues who were with Andy

the day he crashed.

It's given him something to focus on, organising things

and getting everybody ready for it and planning meetings and everything.

He's a strong character. I didn't realise how strong he is.

I think he's got more operations to go

but I think he's going to be all right, it's a big relief.

It's taken a lot of organising. Andy's driving the support vehicle.

He sees the whole trip as part of his rehabilitation.

Everybody at work has been absolutely fantastic.

And for them to do this, really, they're doing it for me.

It's very humbling. I can't thank them enough.

Two days, 100 miles and many steep hills later,

Andy and his wife Angela have arrived at the finish point,

and on cue, his cycle team.

Yay! Oh, you're here.

-Good to see you.

-Nice one.

Andy doesn't realise but there's also a surprise visitor

to welcome him and the team to Bridlington.

Sergeant Nick Walmsley made the call that made the difference

between life and death.

You look a darned sight better than the last time I saw you, I tell you.

-Yeah. A lot of people say that.

-Absolutely brilliant.

'Of all these people that helped me survive'

I think Nick is the one that made the biggest difference.

I knew the area cos I've used the air ambulance on many occasions.

If you're stuck out there in the middle of nowhere

they're the lads and lasses that can get there quickest.

'What a resilient man. What a strength of character.

'It's a terrible, terrible ordeal to try and get through'

and if it wasn't for the largeness of the man, not just in frame

but also in spirit, it could've been a very different story.

Andy and his team of cycling work colleagues

raised the money they wanted for the air ambulance.

But with that job done, there's another target

that'll mean going back to hospital.

I know I'm not going to look perfect, I didn't before.

I know I'm not going to look anything like,

but I just want to be able to eat and chew.

Once I can do that I can start eating proper things.

That's all I ask for. That's all I want.

A few weeks later, at Hull Royal Infirmary

Andy is at the beginning of the next stage.

Reconstruction.

I keep thinking that I should be nervous, but I'm not.

I'm sort of more excited to get on with it.

I'm just saying, you know, bring it on.

Two isolated screws...

I was looking at some pictures the other day and, you know,

obviously I look different but my face is rounder

and just looks like a completely different person.

Andy's op will last three hours.

The team of surgeons must remove these metal plates

put in to patch the broken bones together.

It takes longer than expected, but Andy's surgeon is optimistic.

I think his mood is lifting at the moment.

I think his life back on track and I think that we've just got to do

what we can do to continue to improve his look, really.

I don't think there's a quick fix.

And Andy is prepared to wait.

He knows he's lucky to be alive.

And I'm pleased to say Andy and his workmates

are planning more fundraising events for the helicopter paramedics

who saved his life.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd