Episode 13 Helicopter Heroes

When the people of rural Yorkshire dial 999,

help can be a long time coming.

The Yorkshire Dales are as beautiful as they are big,

but if you're seriously injured in a landscape as gigantic as this,

your life is on the line.

But in the remotest parts of Britain's biggest county,

they look to the skies for help.

Look on your left, Matt.

-Can you get in that grass field on the left?

-Yes, mate, go for that.

From high drama in the Peaks to high waters in the Dales,

the Helimed team's at the heart of almost every rescue.

Bringing 21st-century medicine

to some of Britain's most isolated communities

and saving lives against the odds.

Today on Helicopter Heroes... There's a crash in the attic.

He's got c-spine tenderness and some pain around his pelvis.

And the team faces a lofty rescue.

We're going to take the patient out on a platform

rather than try and go down the stairs.

Firefighters turn a good Samaritan's hatchback into a convertible.

Never mind. It's only a car. She's safe.

A glider crashes.

I thought to myself, "That's not right. Too low."

And a holiday-maker is injured

beneath the white cliffs of Yorkshire.

She slipped off one of the boulders and fell with her back onto them.

The Pennines are England's backbone.

270 miles of solid rock towering up to almost 3,000 feet

separating one side of the country from the other.

There's still only one motorway across them.

Every day, they present challenges for the emergency services.

The towns of the high Pennines

were the silicon valley of Victorian times.

The canals and mills brought wealth to these hills.

But today, a different boom is under way.

House prices are soaring as wealthy commuters from the big cities

of Leeds and Manchester move in.

But the steep hills and tight terraces

make towns like Todmorden a tricky place for the Helimed team.

We've been requested by a crew in an RV on scene of a detail

just in Todmorden.

It's a patient that's fallen through a loft hatch

and is now having some difficulty breathing.

In the streets of the Calder Valley,

an unusual rescue operation is under way.

I'll go down to have a look.

The accident has happened in a three-storey house.

"The fire brigade has also been requested.

"Possibility the patient will be coming out of a third-floor window.

"Repeat, third-floor window. Over."

-This is the only one.

-Yeah, absolutely.

Pilot Andy Hall is forced to find a park some distance

from the team's patient.

And it's at times like this

paramedics like Sam must turn hitchhiker.

That's brilliant. Thanks very much for your help, mate. Appreciate it.

-Right up on the third floor.

-Right up.

This is why the team's going to have its work cut out rescuing the patient.

Two steep flights of stairs

will be tricky to negotiate with a stretcher.

-Hi, guys.

-Hiya.

-Hiya.

He's fallen out. He's feeling pain in his hips at the moment,

his, er...left shoulder and elbow. Anywhere else?

60-year-old Gregory Barber was working in his loft

when he fell 12 feet to the floor below.

He's in severe pain and ground paramedics fear

he may have a spinal injury.

Hello, sir. All right?

Are you allergic to any medication at all?

Only one antibiotic.

Just one antibiotic. Have you ever had morphine in the past?

-Loads of morphine, yeah.

-Excellent.

Have you ever had ketamine in the past?

-Ketamine?

-Ketamine.

-If you've not heard of it, you probably haven't.

-No.

RADIO: "What's he looking like?"

Yeah, he's got c-spine tenderness and some pain around his pelvis.

So I'd like to fly him if we can,

but we're waiting on an ETA from the fire service.

If they don't hurry up, we're going to be limited for oxygen,

so I'm aware we are chasing daylight.

It's essential Gregory remains immobilised on a spinal stretcher,

which means that he's going to have to take the short way

down to the ambulance, through the window.

Because there are so many storeys and they're such narrow houses,

the stairwells themselves are really compact to fit in.

Which is fine if you're fit and able to walk up and down stairs,

but if you've got a patient who's very poorly through a medical or trauma problem,

trying to get them out of the house is quite difficult.

The fire service have turned up,

but whether or not they can get their lifting device up to us.

The patient is nearly packaged,

so we are trying, but again, we'll keep you in the loop, mate.

Local firefighters are used to the problems posed

by the three and four-storey houses that commuters find so attractive.

But this rescue will be a tall order.

The vehicle's got to be out by 25 past.

The brigade will be using their hydraulic platforms

to lower Gregory to the ground.

We're going to take the patient out on a platform rather than try

and go down the stairs because it will be safer for him.

Because he's quite a tall patient, it'll be awkward for us

to get him around the twisting staircase.

So that's the plan at the moment.

For paramedic Sam, there's a more pressing problem.

It's late afternoon and night is drawing in.

We have to leave the hospital prior to last light.

So we've only got about 45 minutes to get the patient to the hospital,

or we'll have to leave scene and the aircraft will have to go

and he'll have to travel in by road.

And obviously, with a patient who's got potential for significant internal injuries,

a road transfer is more risky than a transfer by air.

Cheers, guys.

You don't need to go to the gym later on.

It's all done. It's all sorted.

Thanks to the speed of the local firefighters,

Gregory catches his flight to Leeds General Infirmary

with minutes to spare.

"99 on LGI, over."

But his rapid journey to hospital

is followed by a long, slow recovery.

As well as a punctured lung,

he has several broken bones, including his pelvis,

and it's months before he's fit to climb into his loft again.

For the people of rural North Yorkshire,

country life can be a lonely existence.

But when summer comes, people leave their farms

and get together for the country show season.

With its coiffured cows and pampered pigs,

competition is fierce.

And for the farming community, it's the most sociable time of year.

Nowhere is the friendly rivalry more fierce

than in the showjumping ring,

which is what will be keeping Helimed 98 busy today.

Follow this train line all the way up to Darlington.

We've been passed a job by our pals

at the Great North Air Ambulance up in the north-east.

So somebody's fallen from a horse up there,

seems to have some reasonably serious injuries.

So they've asked if we can go and assist.

SIRENS WAIL

Near the town of Spennymoor, firefighters have been scrambled

to an unusual emergency.

An injured horse rider sitting in a car.

Right, 26-year-old Helen.

she's been thrown off a horse, probably about eight-foot high.

Landed on her right side, from the photograph I've seen.

She's got severe thoracic tenderness.

It may look like a car crash, but this vehicle was totally undamaged,

until the injured rider was given a lift in it.

Some well-meaning Samaritans decided to bring her over

into the yard in this car.

Normally, cars that get cut up

are ones that have been in an accident, they're already damaged.

In this case, there was nothing wrong with the car at all,

until all these guys turned up and basically have reduced it to scrap.

When patients are suspected of having back injuries,

one wrong move can paralyse them for life.

Which is why ground paramedics asked the fire brigade to move in.

She'd fallen off her horse and she'd made her way to the car

and the owner of the car, she said, "Lean on the car, get a rest."

But the lady got inside her car.

Later on, she discovered she's got back injuries,

spine injuries, then we got called, obviously, to take the roof off,

take the car apart and then get it on the long board.

-That one's all right, yeah?

-Yeah.

The owner of the car is remarkably philosophical

for a woman whose good turn could cost her

hundreds of pounds in lost no claims.

I brought my car around so that she could use my car to stand up on.

She climbed in my car and I brought her up here for first aid treatment.

And then the paramedic came out and decided they were cutting the roof of my car off.

But never mind, it's only a car. She's safe.

Helen? Hello. My name's Al.

I'm a paramedic on the helicopter. How are you feeling?

-I've got a pain in my back.

-A pain in your back? OK.

Have you got pain anywhere else?

The team's patient is Helen Mercer.

She was jumping a fence in the show ring

when she came off her horse.

If you have a look at the way we've put it back together,

if you squint, it doesn't look too bad, does it?

I mean...

What do you reckon? Do you think we'll get away with that?

-No, maybe not.

-I bet you'll think twice about doing that again, won't you?

I know I shouldn't do. I fell off in the front field.

-Did you?

-Last July.

They lifted me up and put me in a car. I can't remember any of it.

They said, "If we can't get her out, we'll have to cut the roof off."

But they managed to get me out.

There's the car written off, so...there's a lesson.

TANNOY: Hello, everyone.

Welcome to the Seagold Centurion Equestrian Centre.

It's three months since one of the ambulance service's most expensive rescues

and horsewoman Helen is back in the saddle.

She's fully recovered from her fall, but not the embarrassment

of the third-party damage her injury caused.

The lady judging the class came over and asked

if I could get up to leave the arena and I told her I was unable to.

I did feel OK, I didn't initially feel any pain,

but I was winded, I was struggling to catch my breath.

So she asked if I would get into her car because I was causing

a little bit of a distraction for the other classes that were going on.

And she came over and assisted me into her car to take me to the yard

so that I could be seen by a first aider.

I had pains going down my shoulders, all down my ribcage,

right through the middle of my chest.

It was really quite painful.

I was panicking. I tried to climb out of the car myself

and they restrained me, stopped me from getting out of the car.

I was more worried about the car than I was myself at the time.

Because she'd tried to help me to get me to a first aider

and now she was getting her car roof cut off

because I'd climbed into the car with her.

To add insult to injury, it turned out Helen's spine wasn't damaged,

but she did have other serious injuries.

Not that they kept her out of the saddle for long.

I'd cracked the top two ribs that were attached to the sternum.

I'd bruised my spleen and my lungs.

Lower back pain, I had shoulder pain and neck pain.

I was in hospital for three days, but as a determined rider,

I was adamant that I was getting back in the saddle ASAP.

I strapped myself up with plenty of painkillers and lots of patches

and I was actually back on the horse within a week.

Helen is still on speaking terms with the car's owner,

but both will be careful how much assistance

they give fallen riders in the future.

And in their sport, there's often a casualty in need.

Do you need a hand?

The North York Moors plunge nearly a thousand feet into the Vale of York

at a landmark called Sutton Bank.

It's a dramatic cliff face that attracts some unusual visitors.

This is a Mecca for glider pilots.

Soaring into the sky and using invisible thermals to stay aloft.

And today, a national competition is under way.

But one competitor is in trouble.

We're just going to Northallerton

for a glider that may well have crashed.

We've been told it's come down,

but we don't really have many more details.

It's a very busy glider day. There's a competition at Sutton Bank.

We've got 20-odd gliders flying there

and around nine gliders flying at Tockwith itself,

so it could be any one of those nearly 30 gliders.

But first, they have got to find their patient.

-All right, that's your intersection.

-Yep.

-There. It's there.

So we're looking somewhere in that light-coloured field in front of us.

That's the other road running up. So it should be down below.

That's the farm down below.

-That's not it there?

-Yeah, it is, yeah.

-I'd say that's a little bit broken.

-98 overhead.

-Is it?

-"Yeah, roger."

-Hello, there. How are you doing?

-SIREN WAILS

Had better days?

The pilot is trapped in the crumpled wreckage of the aircraft.

Paramedic Graham Pemberton can see the patient has a broken ankle,

but it's the injuries he can't see that are most worrying him.

So, it's just pain in your chest?

The glider has an emergency locator beacon

which sends out a radio signal

allowing emergency services to home in on a crash.

Now it's electronic chirps are just a nuisance.

-SIREN STOPS

-Thank God for that!

She can't remember coming down,

so that suggests she's clattered her head quite hard.

So we'll work on the principle that until proven otherwise,

she's banged her head quite significantly.

So we'll do the whole full immobilisation

and fly her up to James Cook so she can have a full works up there.

The pilot was found by a farming family who live nearby.

They kept the patient's spirits up until the Helimed team arrived.

I watched it come round and I thought to myself,

"That's not right. Too low." and I heard it crash.

And I just ran over here and she was talking to me and everything,

so she was... Poor lady's very in shock, I think.

And just rang the ambulance, basically.

There's not a lot left to it, is there? Complete mess.

Just an update. Basically, we're still waiting for the fire service.

They seem to have got delayed or lost.

We're doing everything we can, but we're stuck until they arrive, over.

The accident site's remote and hard to find on the ground.

The team needs firefighters and their cutting gear.

There's a spring just there, look, Pete. It might come out.

If you look...just there, look, there's a spring.

If you unhook the spring, it might... Oh, no, maybe not.

-That's a pedal, isn't it?

-Yeah.

My experience says that everything's OK

until we start messing around with it and then suddenly, it's like,

"Oh, no, I wish I'd had some more pain relief!"

The fire service is having to hitch a lift,

but its cutters make short work of the cables

trapping the pilot in her cockpit.

Fabulous! You put that one across the top of her foot.

This one across the top of this.

Helimed pilot Chris is calling the glider club

to let them know about the crash.

The pilot's been missing for an hour.

I've managed to get hold of the gliding club there eventually

just to confirm it was one of their tail numbers, so...

Yeah, I believe so.

They're trying to find her husband and update him on what's going on.

The plane that launched the glider

has come to see how the flight ended.

I think that's that guy out of Sutton Bank just come to have a look.

Chris? How long to James Cook?

Ten minutes.

Ten minutes. Ready, steady and lift.

Hello, there. We'll be arriving with you about 1405.

Thank you.

Their patient is being flown direct to James Cook Hospital in Middlesbrough,

where scans and X-rays will reveal the extent of the injuries.

Gliding is actually a relatively safe form of flying

and most accidents happen when pilots are trying to land in fields.

Low and slow, they're vulnerable to stalling

when the airflow over the wings simply isn't fast enough

to generate lift.

Just lifted on scene and en route to James Cook.

If you're happy, we'll go straight to Durham on the way back.

The injured pilot's on final approach to A&E.

This isn't how anyone expected the gliding competition to end.

Doctors here at the James Cook Hospital

will subject the team's patient to exhaustive tests,

but it could be some time, if ever,

before the pilot's able to take the controls again.

Flamborough Head on the wild North Sea coast of Yorkshire

boasts Britain's other white cliffs.

These towering rock faces are home to millions of sea birds.

But for seafarers, this coastline with its submerged stacks

and unpredictable tides has always been a dangerous place.

And today, the coastguard has called on the ambulance service for help.

We're on our way to the seaside.

We're going to Flamborough Head, just to the north there.

Sounds like somebody's taken a bit of a tumble down the cliffs there.

There's crew on scene concerned he might have a spinal injury.

-Is it a steep climb?

-Yeah.

On the grid, not on the beach.

He just said they were going to get the crew and the patient

to the RRV point for the coastguard to land for pick-up.

Always a bit careful landing on beaches,

especially if the tide's coming in.

If we have a problem with the aircraft,

it can end up floating away.

I've got a visual with the RRV on your...

Oh, yeah. Right on the top there.

Pilot Andy Lister's a former Royal Navy officer

who's very familiar with the risks of landing on beaches.

-No beach?

-Oh, no, there's no beach at all.

There's a yellow, almost like an orange thing out.

-Do you think that's...?

-Yeah.

Oh, yeah, there's a man with a yellow thing on, as well there.

-Waving at me.

-I can't see the patient anywhere.

-Shall I just put it down here?

-Yeah.

Yeah, we've got the path closed

and they're bringing the casualty up as we speak.

OK.

The casualty is a tourist who was exploring the rock pools

when her dog pulled her off her feet. She landed awkwardly.

We're just wondering whether it would be easier for us to go down there.

Do you think you can land in that bowl there, Andy?

No.

They're on the way now.

Now they've made the decision

to convey the casualty up to the helicopter,

it probably makes best sense to stay where we are.

Beach landings can be hazardous.

So the patient's being brought up to the Helimed team

on the cliff top by coastguards.

-Does he need a hand?

-I bet it's that way and the short way is this way.

What's happened?

-There's a lot of boulders, big boulders down there.

-Yeah.

She was walking her dog and her dog pulled her.

She slipped off one of the boulders and fell with her back onto them.

-Right.

-She's complaining of quite severe back pain.

-She's had 20 milligram of morphine.

-Right.

-Which has brought her pain score down to about six, she says.

-OK.

Most Coastguards are now part-time volunteers.

Many have turned out from home today to help in the rescue.

-We'll just put her down on the floor here.

-OK.

Victoria Edwards, from Castleford, has an ankle injury,

but it's feared she may also have injured her spine.

Can I get a little look at her legs?

Can you feel that?

WEAKLY: Yeah.

-Yeah? How about that?

-No.

You can't? Feel that?

-Yeah.

-You can. OK.

Can you feel me touching your toe?

-No.

-Wiggle your toes for me?

-SOFTLY:

-OK.

Victoria's accident has ruined her holiday

and she's in considerable pain.

Ready, steady, slide.

VICTORIA GROANS

She lost her footing,

banged her leg on a rock

and then her shoulder and her back on big boulders.

She just went straight down.

Couldn't get her back up.

VICTORIA GASPS IN PAIN

OK, Victoria, while they're strapping you up

I'm going to have a little chat with you. Where's it hurt?

That foot... and my ankle.

That foot and your ankle?

The tests Ali's carrying out

are aimed at identifying symptoms of a spinal injury,

and there are indications that all may not be well.

I'm a little bit concerned because

she's complaining of a little bit of a loss of sensation

down one side of her right leg,

which could be a result of a spinal injury

and some damage to her spinal cord,

so that's our main worry, really.

For the Flamborough Coastguards,

it's been a pretty routine rescue.

The cliffs around here can soar up to 400ft above the waves

and the team's trained to abseil down to casualties on the shoreline.

Just keep it coming...

Keep it coming...

-There we go.

-VICTORIA GROANS

Lovely, there.

Victoria is being flown to Hull Royal Infirmary,

30 miles away.

For pilot Andy and the crew, it's a spectacular view.

He's assessing it for his next holiday next year.

Check out some of the best places to go.

Flamborough Head has been a landmark for seafarers since Roman times

and now it's a major tourist attraction.

Sadly, Victoria's memories of the headland will not be entirely happy.

That's a lovely TV shot.

PILOT COMMUNICATES WITH TOWER

In the next hour, X-rays at the Royal Infirmary

will determine whether Victoria has injured her spine.

Her rescue came just as the crew was preparing lunch.

Now Andy's so hungry, he's foraging some for himself.

We got caught out unexpectedly,

just as I was settling down for my meal.

So I am making the best use of downtime

by helping myself to some of the finest blackberries.

Happily, Victoria's injuries turn out not to be serious

and after being detained for a period of observation

she is allowed home.

If you love speed and the open road,

nothing beats one of these.

But motorcyclists are very vulnerable.

They represent just 1% of traffic on Britain's roads,

yet account for up to 20% - that's one in five - of all deaths.

Summer's the time when bikers get the chance to be sociable -

market squares and cafe car parks the length and breadth of Britain,

are ringing to the roar of Hondas, Suzukis and Nortons.

But when it comes to noise,

there's one make of bike that tends to lead the pack.

Harley Davidson's are the ultimate big boy's toy -

but when you come off you're just as vulnerable as the next rider.

I was saying to the chaps,

I bet we get a motorcyclist today at some stage.

Bank Holiday Monday without a motorcyclist...?

Helimed 98's heading to Huddersfield in the Pennines,

where a biker and his pillion passenger have crashed.

Most bike accidents happen in the summer months,

and on August Bank Holiday, this is unlikely to be the only smash.

If you could just have a look at this thing...

Football stadium just to the south of that grid.

It's just before you get to the ring road.

We'll be almost flying down that road.

It runs parallel with what looks like the canal or the river.

So, looking at this map it's literally like the main road.

So just follow that down.

There it is. Middle of the road.

A group of Harley Davidson enthusiasts

was returning to Cheshire from a rally

when one was in collision with a taxi in Huddersfield.

The female pillion passenger has a badly broken leg.

Christine? Hello, there, sweetheart.

My name's Dave. I'm a paramedic with the air ambulance, all right?

-We're going to be taking you into Leeds hospital.

-OK.

But we do need to get you onto a board,

so it is going to be a little bit uncomfortable. All right?

I'll look at giving you some extra pain relief.

Christine Mathers was catapulted out of her saddle

and slid more than 30m down the road.

Her husband could do little to avoid the collision.

He's injured himself, but insisted on staying by his wife's side.

We were coming back from a rally,

and that silver car was in front

and we ended up sliding down the road.

Passers by, including a nurse,

stopped to help Christine and have stayed to assist the Helimed team.

But some people were less concerned.

the usual people with cameras - camera phones -

trying to get a snap of what was going on.

A lot of people wandering around the scene.

It was a case of getting the riders,

who were beginning to show mild signs of shock,

get them settled and sat down away from the severely injured lady,

and then try and control the traffic.

Christine's leg is badly deformed.

Dave knows it must be straightened,

but that is going to be very painful.

The use of a stronger painkiller than morphine

must be authorised by a doctor.

This lady's got severe deformities to her leg - multiple fractures.

She's in a lot of pain.

I'll have to move her and get that sorted,

and get that straightened.

I'm getting some authority to use a very potent drug for pain relief.

I am going to give her some of that,

and get everything ready to go as soon as we are ready -

it's a very quick-acting drug - get it in her, get her sorted,

and get her off to Leeds as quick as we can.

I've got a lady near Huddersfield

who's got multiple fractures to her left leg.

Her left femur's gone,

looks like her knee's gone,

and looks like tib and fib, as well.

A couple of open fractures, as well.

She is stable at the minute...

Now the road's been sealed off,

which means pilot Andy Lister

can reposition Helimed 98 to get it closer to the team's patient.

This is a tricky landing -

trees, fencing and kerbs

are all making life difficult.

But with a little help from paramedic Paul,

Andy manages to touch down safely.

It means Christine is now only metres from her flight to hospital.

OK. Right, Christine, here we go, sweetheart.

You might just feel a bit woozy, Christine. All right?

Feel as though you're not with us.

When my mate starts to look good-looking, you know it's working.

All right?

Christine is wearing biker's leathers

with body armour built into them,

but nothing can protect you against the sort of impact she has suffered.

-Come on, let's get on with it.

-OK, get this straight.

-Are we ready?

Right, mate, as soon as...

If you think she's starting to come out of it bit, give us a shout.

The main danger from broken bones like this, is internal bleeding.

Speed is important.

But so is helping Christine endure the pain of her journey to hospital.

We are in the process of putting a traction splint on,

and she's coming out of it now.

I would like to give a little bit more in line with the protocol

of up to one milligram per kilogram if that's all right.

As the police investigate the cause of the incident,

its victim is at last ready to fly.

Are we stepping over the barrier?

Yeah. Are people happy doing that?

-Yeah.

-OK.

The team is taking her direct to the regional trauma centre

at Leeds General Infirmary, 20 miles away.

Nice and steady... Last two over. Good.

Right. On "Lift" - ready, steady, lift.

Keep coming, keep coming, keep lifting.

Paramedic Dave knows his patient's injuries will require months -

if not years - of surgery and physiotherapy.

It's possible she may never walk without a limp.

-She'll go straight into surgery with that.

-Yeah.

Should have an assessment and hopefully straight down.

The road to recovery starts here -

with scans and X-rays at the LGI.

It will be weeks before Christine is fit to leave.

Every day, 3,000 999 calls

come into the Yorkshire Ambulance Service.

And the Helimed team checks each one.

"..fallen probably 20ft."

Yorkshire's flying paramedics dispatch themselves,

and today they're responding to an emergency at a school building

in the heart of Bradford.

A workman has been badly hurt in a fall.

-Is that the...?

-I think that's it there.

-Where we landed for that kiddie?

-Yeah.

See an ambulance now at one o'clock.

INDISTINCT RADIO CONTACT

Yeah, sorry, Daz. We're overhead and preparing to land.

Pilot Steve, who knows the Bradford area well,

must find a landing site among the busy streets below,

and every safe landing starts with a checklist.

"A few minutes to go, prepare landing, please, Andy."

THEY RUN THROUGH SAFETY CHECKS

Roofer Steve has fallen 20ft.

Now the ambulance service's specialist rescue team -

in distinctive green uniforms -

is working to bring him down to ground level.

The crew suspect that he may have a skull fracture.

We've been called in case we need to take them to LGI.

There's a very high incidence of intracranial bleeds

secondary to skull fractures.

If we do need to take him to LGI,

the quickest and safest way to go is by air.

It's suspected Steve has broken his neck.

He's also fractured his wrist.

-I'll get up there.

-Just that ladder there.

Wherever a patient needs help,

paramedics must follow.

Building sites are dangerous places

and getting Steve out of here isn't going to be easy.

We just heard a crash. He was just above us.

We were in one of the rooms.

And that were it, basically. Went upstairs and he were on the floor.

-This is Stephen.

-Hello, Stephen.

Stephen is 54. Normally fit and well.

Up there, lost his balance, came through...

-Come through that.

-..headfirst.

-'Ey up, Stephen. You all right, there, mate.

-All right, yeah.

How's your pain at the moment? Is it all right?

It's just my wrist, that's all.

Your head don't feel too bad?

Your neck and your back, don't feel too bad? No pain anywhere else?

My ego's taken a bit of a bashin' though, hasn't it?

Steve's been talking to his rescuers.

He's making sense which is a good sign, in cases of head injury.

But that could change quickly.

All right, I'm going to give LGI a ring, see if they accept.

The team knows that if Steve has a bleed in his brain,

pressure could be building inside the skull.

If that's the case, surgeons will have only minutes to save his life.

He's landed headfirst, so we're worried about skull fracture,

neck injury, things like that.

So, basically, the crew, my HART team,

and fire service are working to package him, so we can get him

basically out on the turntable you can see behind us.

So, I've had a chat with LGI and we are going to take you there

rather than to Bradford

because they've got some more specialities down there.

We'll take that back down now,

get him and then get it back up.

Yeah, that's cool.

The site of the accident is surrounded by scaffolding

and the fire service has brought

in a hydraulic platform to bring Steve down.

It's time to move Steve.

The HART team and the fire service regularly train together

specifically for rescues like this.

LS-99, you receiving?

CRACKLY RADIO RESPONSE

Yeah, Daz, we're going to take this patient up to the LGI.

I have had a chat with them, and the consultant has accepted.

He doesn't look too bad.

He has got some quite nasty head injuries.

He might have a bleed in his brain,

he's certainly got some big lacerations.

So just to be on the safe side, we are going to take him on to the LGI,

where they can properly assess him.

Just go in foot-first onto that green board there.

You might just want to spin him around. Hey ya, mate. You all right?

Just keep coming.

Pop that hand back down, mate.

Try and make yourself as comfortable as you can.

-I appreciate it's a bit difficult.

-Yeah.

Steve's grown-up son has been told about the accident.

He's come to see his dad off on his flight to hospital.

Don't worry, mate. We'll take care of him.

See that garage down there? 11 o'clock. Follow that road up.

The cities of Leeds and Bradford merge into one.

With the traffic problems to match, Helimed 99 will be

leapfrogging the jams

and flying Steve direct to the General Infirmary's rooftop helipad.

Two minutes to land at LGI.

Helimed 99 from Yorkshire air desk, roger, all received.

-Steven, are you normally fairly fit and well?

-Yes.

You don't take any regular medication for anything?

A team of consultants is waiting to examine Steve.

It's Sam's job to brief them about every detail of his medical history.

I think they've seen a fix or six inch laceration

across his forehead, with the swelling round it, so query...

It means they can begin treatment immediately.

He's on a spinal insert, so he might be able to lift that up or might

have to use a screw to get him out...

Doctors find Steve hasn't fractured his skull, but his neck is broken.

And he requires extensive treatment for his other injuries.

It's months before he is fit to return to work.

It's been a painful reminder of the dangers of his job.

The flying paramedics know they will spend more time

out in areas like this than the big cities.

They'll be called out more in summer than winter,

and the school calendar will also affect their workload.

A new term brings more falls and sporting accidents,

but fewer injured pedestrians.

But there's one day in the summer holidays almost guaranteed

to bring mishaps involving teenagers.

The A Level results are out, and so is Helimed 98.

Just going to the right-hand edge of that high ground,

-then we'll cut back behind it.

-Yep, that's my plan. OK.

The team has been called to a road near the seaside resort

of Bridlington.

I've had reports that a car has rolled over.

I believe the 18-year-old occupant has sustained some neck injuries

and as a result of that has got some altered neurology,

which means they've got strange sensations or loss of sensation

somewhere in the body. So the crew have requested us

to take this patient through to a major trauma centre.

NS from Helimed 98, overhead...

The police have stopped the traffic and pilot Ian's heading

for a touchdown on the road, but a pedestrian has other ideas.

-Where's this bloke going? Completely alien to it, isn't he?

-Yeah.

It's clear now, coppers have got him.

He's arguing with them that he wants to walk through there with his newspaper.

Clear right. Clear right here. Yep.

Plenty of clearance.

18-year-old female is coming round this corner, she's braked hard.

And then she's seen by a passer by, the car was airborne

-but apparently it's landed on all fours.

-Right.

-She's conscious.

GCS 15.

Complaining of severe pain, mid-cervical.

Mid-lower back, down the hips.

She said she's lost all feeling in her legs.

Jessica Jackson was on her way to school

to collect her A Level results.

She's been seen to fall out

and collapse onto the floor at the side there.

-Right, so she's not needed extricating at all?

-No.

The impact has left Jessica with a fractured pelvis

and suspected spinal injury.

Paramedic Pete knows they could be even more life-changing

than her exam results.

The car's not actually rolled over, but it sounds like it has,

er, become airborne for some reason, landed very heavily.

You can see all the tyres have exploded on impact.

So the lady is just complaining of some altered sensation in her

lower extremities, so obviously want to treat that with caution.

You know you're going across to an aircraft

and we're going to fly you to hospital.

Yeah? Don't worry about that, OK?

You're not going to have much of a view out of windows either,

unfortunately, the way you've been laid down there.

Right now, Jessica should be opening the brown envelope containing

her results. Instead,

she faces another examination at Hull Royal Infirmary 20 miles away.

You know when we caught your toes, you could feel a bit of pain then?

-Yeah.

-OK.

-Are you ticklish?

-No.

-Good job, innit?

Can you feel me touching under your foot?

-Pardon?

-Yeah.

-Good. What about that one?

-No, not in this one.

-OK.

One in five drivers like Jessica will have a serious accident

within six months of passing their test.

So at the moment, without you being moving, how bad is your pain?

Er, nine in my back and my neck and here. And then my shoulder hurts.

Right.

And just down that right side, you just feel a little numb

when I was touching? Not a normal sensation to you?

Like pins and needles all the way down my leg, but like...

They're sharp, sharp all the way down and then

they just, like, fizz out on my feet.

Pete's concerned.

Jessica is describing the classic symptoms of a serious spinal injury.

Is that OK? Just breathe normally.

She is heading for X-rays and scans at Hull Royal Infirmary.

This is Helimed 98, lifted from scene, routing to Hull Royal, over.

Security aware and the ambulance waiting for you, over.

The results of the test are not good.

Her spinal cord has been crushed and she has broken her pelvis.

Thankfully, the damage is reversible.

It's several weeks before she is well enough to return home

to Bridlington. Only then is she given her A Level results.

They wouldn't let anyone else go and get them,

so I had to go and get them.

On crutches.

I'd got in my head on the day of results day that I'd failed

everything completely, and I knew that it was going to be bad news

so I was going to pick them up nervous and already thinking that.

And after two years of solid working, you think,

A Levels are your next step to the future.

-Hello.

-Hello.

Well, I got B, C, D, E.

I was a bit disappointed, but overall fairly happy because I'm here now.

And here is a high street travel agent, where the story

has a happy ending.

Jessica has landed an apprenticeship, arranging

flights that are very different from the one she took in Helimed 98.