Episode 17 Helicopter Heroes

When the people of rural Yorkshire

dial 999, help can be a long time coming.

The Yorkshires 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, 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.

Parade ends at an army base

and the sergeant major's fighting a suspected heart attack.

It feels like someone's sat right in the middle of the chest.

A veteran horsewoman takes a tumble.

-You broke your pelvis before, have you?

-Well, the other side.

She shouldn't be riding but she won't stop.

High in the Pennines,

pilot John struggles to reach an overturned lorry.

I'm not happy about parking there.

Stay there!

And on the moors, Helimed 98 is battling the weather.

We're going the wrong way round, guys.

It's a frightening fact that around 20 people a day die

from heart disease in Yorkshire,

200 across the UK and some of them had healthy lifestyles.

Even the super fit are not immune from Britain's biggest killer.

It's the Helimed team's job to save them.

Here at a military base in North Yorkshire, the chopper's

on stand-by throughout the day and today the neighbours need help.

The Royal Artillery has dialled 999 after a medical emergency

involving one of its most senior NCOs.

Well, we've just seen a call come in

which indicates that there's a patient on camp,

which is not unusual. Since we've been here about 18 months

we've already done four details with patients from here.

-It's literally 200 metres away from our...

-Oh, ambulance is here.

-..base.

-At least we can make an assessment, can't we?

-Mm.

In the military medical centre

a sergeant major has crushing chest pains.

..progressively worsened until

probably about an hour and a half ago,

most pain after starting home to get his lunch

and it was at rest that he got the pain.

It was about eight or nine out of ten.

It's sounds like he's having a heart attack.

-It's right in the centre of your chest?

-Right in the middle.

It feels like someone's sat right in the middle of the chest.

Pain anywhere else at all?

-No, I've just got tingles in my arm, in the arm area.

-Your right arm?

Yeah, that I just can't seem to shake off. But it's just right in there.

Scott Merry is the battery sergeant major.

He served in Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan

and he's normally one of the fittest men in the regiment.

-Yeah, there's not been much change really.

-No.

ECG suggested that it's a myocardial infarction,

a heart attack basically.

Although he's sat up and he looks quite well,

multiple ECGs have confirmed

that there's some elevation in the leads

that we look for heart attacks in.

It could, however, be what we call pericarditis,

which is an infection of the skin, the muscle layers around the heart.

Either way, the treatment is the same.

He needs to get to hospital quickly.

We're trying to book him into a specialist unit

at James Cook Hospital where we can take him

and we'll get direct treatment straightaway for the problem

that he's got.

I am genuinely fit. I never get sick.

But...

hopefully this is nothing. Probably something I ate.

Could well be. Better safe than sorry though, I'm afraid.

To be honest, it was my wife's 40th this weekend

-and we hit Harrogate quite hard, so...

-Oh, right.

But this is much more than a hangover.

Scott needs specialist medical care.

So pilot Chris has one of his shortest ever flights,

just 200 metres across the base, ready for Scott to be flown to hospital.

Take your time.

Back side here, mate, feet in.

He still seems very well but looks can be deceiving.

Leon knows that patients like Scott

can go into cardiac arrest at any time.

-Trees to my left, mate.

-OK, mate.

-20 metres. Good to the rear.

This is Helimed 98,

we've just lifted Alanbrooke Barracks, Topcliffe.

Basic service en route to James Cook.

-ETA's about 10 minutes, Leon.

-No worries.

Scott's crushing chest pain still hasn't got any better.

Now, how would you describe that pain again, Scott?

It feels like it's getting a little bit tighter.

Like someone's...I don't want to put words in your mouth.

Just a tightness around your chest?

-Yes, just right in the middle there, just...

-Someone pushing down.

98, on the pad, James Cook.

Scott's life is still in danger and so is his job.

His heart is about to undergo exhaustive tests to determine

the cause of the pain.

He knows that if it is a heart attack,

his distinguished career in the army could be over.

His role demands total fitness.

For Scott, his family and his men back at the barracks,

it's a long wait for a diagnosis.

It's two weeks later, the Royal Artillery are on parade.

And so, against all expectations, is their sergeant major.

Back in uniform and clutching his trademark baton.

What it came down to

and I was diagnosed with something called pericarditis which is a virus

that affects the bag that the heart sits in.

It had filled with fluid which was compressing the heart which

was giving me the chest pains.

Although it wasn't a heart attack, this is still a serious condition.

And this super-fit soldier's been told he's got to take it easy.

It's quite frustrating.

On the Tuesdays and the Thursdays and the Fridays during the week,

we always have PT and I'm missing out of that

but that couple of hours or an hour doing a bit of exercise,

you know, just calms me down for the rest of the day.

Yeah, I am, I am missing that.

But Scott's main concern wasn't what was happening to him,

it was what other people could see.

One of the worst things was it was the teacher training day

and as I'm getting wheeled towards the helicopter

I look over my left shoulder and my son is looking at me.

My 11-year-old son.

So all I... I said, "Hello, son."

And he thought it was a training exercise so I let it go.

And since he's been back on base,

he's been the subject of nonstop military banter.

As soon as I came out of hospital, the battery, you know, bless them,

they put a card together for me, a get well card and also gave me

a little toy helicopter with remarks like,

"Don't stop being a chopper", you know, that sort of thing.

So I'm doing it for everybody else really, you know,

if it keeps everybody else happy, I'm happy.

The heather-covered hill tops of the North York Moors

are dominated by Britain's most expensive grouse shooting estates

where a day's sport can cost hundreds of pounds a head.

But the valleys are still home to a hardy community of hill farmers,

working the fields of remote places like Bilsdale.

That's where Helimed 98 is heading today.

Helimed 98 lifted.

...We'll pass at a bank...

An elderly woman has fallen off her horse.

There's a concern from the caller that the patient might've

fractured her pelvis which

given the patient's age and the mechanism of injuries,

quite significant concern.

So we're going to go down there before the land crews arrive

to assess.

To reach their patient, paramedic Leon and pilot John Slater

must fly through the low cloud left by a storm on the moors.

What we should see will be a farm off to our right

and the next nearest farm will be up, which is the one we're aiming for

and there should be two buildings

and an outhouse or some building off to the left.

Trying to find the right farm isn't easy

and an old-fashioned Ordnance Survey map is the best way to do it.

-What's that? Low on the bend.

-Yeah, I see...on the track.

-Three o'clock.

-Yeah, visual.

-Do you see?

-Yeah.

-Sam?

-Not seen.

-Three o'clock, very low.

-Ah, yep, seen.

-What do you reckon?

-Yeah, think so, mate.

It's someone stood next to a pile of clothes.

-Yeah, I'm going to park on this slope up here if you're happy.

-Yep.

This is a remote place to live.

The nearest shop is a 25 minute drive

and the roads mean anything but a 4x4 is a nonstarter.

-What's your name, sweet?

-Jean.

-Jean.

And what's happened this morning, Jean?

-Erm...I was just coming home with the pony and she slipped.

-OK.

And I came off but unfortunately I fell heavy on a stone...

Jean Sanderson has always been reluctant to give up riding.

Even though she's 74 years old.

-Right on there. Have you got any pain there at the moment?

-Yeah.

Yeah, OK, if you...

She was coming up the field and the horse just slipped

and she thought she was going to come down, she just come off.

Sam's concerned about his patient.

He fears her pelvis is broken

and this isn't the first time it's happened.

-You've broke your pelvis before, have you?

-Well, the other side.

-The other side.

-Yeah, but that wasn't with a horse, that was...

-That was something else, was it?

-Just falling down.

-Just falling down.

Her husband's always had reservations about her riding.

Oh, she's very tough. She shouldn't be riding but she won't stop.

It's her life, you know?

Jean's mount was caught out by the mud left by a moorland cloudburst.

Jean, can you remember everything that's happened?

You can remember falling off the horse?

Because the horse has gone down onto you, hasn't she?

I can remember the horse slipped and then...I just, erm, well,

I was stunned, I think, really.

And then I realised I was sitting on a stone and I just moved

and thought, "Oh, something went crack."

The pelvis is a vital shield for many of the body's

internal organs and a fracture can lead to serious internal bleeding.

What we're going to do, we've got a hard board and like a belt

and what we're going to do is pop the belt round your pelvis,

just if so you have damaged it, it'll keep it all together.

-Yeah.

-And stop it from moving around too much as we move you.

It's in areas like this that the Helimed team comes into its own.

Driving Jean off this hillside would be painful

and could make her condition worse.

This is just a bit of morphine, OK?

So when we start to move you onto this board,

it shouldn't be as painful for you, OK?

Just because of what you've said happened today and what's happened

to you in the past, we're best off to take you up to James Cook.

-Right.

-So I know it's a bit of a trek but it's better safe than sorry.

-I feel awful about it, really.

-What do you feel awful about?

-Well, having all of yous out!

-Well, we weren't doing anything else.

-Yeah, yeah.

-I was only watching Jeremy Kyle.

It's not a problem, it's what we're here for.

-Have you ever been in a helicopter before, Jean?

-I haven't.

-Ah! So it will be a day of firsts for you.

-It will, yeah.

You all right, guys?

Pilot John's been carrying out a recce for take off.

Now he's in danger of being a casualty himself.

I don't get paid for this mud!

You could be a skipper on the North Sea now.

Just carrying Jean to the chopper on this hillside won't be easy.

The moors cover more than 500 square miles and their height means

the rainfall up here is usually much heavier than average.

It's a good job you're only little, Jean.

Wouldn't fancy carrying me over this.

Because of the distances involved in going up to James Cook,

we're going to fly her there because it's going to obviously be a

quicker transit, if there is some kind of bleeding into her abdomen

but it'll also be more comfortable for the patient.

You could see how badly rotted the tracks are around here

and it's quite a long trek up to the main road so that's

the plan at the moment but she seems relatively well in herself.

She's comfortable now that she's had some morphine.

3-5-0 heading.

3-5-0.

Jean's on her way to the trauma unit at the James Cook Hospital

in Middlesbrough.

If she had been going by road, it could've taken an hour.

-OK, you ready?

-Yep.

Jean's arriving at hospital within 10 minutes.

Inside, doctors are waiting to X-ray her pelvis

and, if necessary, operate.

But a few days later, in a misty Bilsdale,

their patient is back home by the fire, in pain from bruising

and pulled muscles but otherwise unhurt.

I hadn't broken my pelvis or my hip, you know,

so...which is fair enough, which was good news really.

It's just taking time, it's the pain what's pulling me

back more than anything I think really, but I do get around, yeah.

Jean's on sticks for now

but her fall hasn't changed her mind about riding.

Even in her eighth decade and regardless of doctor's orders.

The main doctor came and he suggested I stopped riding

but he said, "I can't really force you", you know,

and I said, "Oh, dear me."

And then I said, "I'll keep the pony,

"just in case I do get back to riding."

So he said, "Well, fair enough." So that was it, like, really.

And as far as this horsewoman is concerned,

she's not hanging up her boots yet.

If you feel that wind in your face and the sunshine in your face

and the pony's going well and you look around at the scenery,

it's just absolutely marvellous, it is.

There's your carrot.

That's it. Good lassie.

I am going to try,

even if I don't go on the moor and riding all over...

I can still go, sort of, round the farm

so that's what I'm hoping to do, definitely.

Now you would've thought riding one of these over terrain like this

would be hard enough for anyone. But some bikers think it's too easy.

Motocross enthusiasts insist on creating bigger hills to ride over

but sometimes the result is all too predictable.

This sport is not for the faint-hearted.

Riders race around specialist tracks in all conditions attempting

20ft jumps that launch them into the air for four times that distance.

Even when a rider is wearing all the right protective gear,

it's not unusual for serious injuries to occur

when man and motorbike come back to earth.

We're heading to Fat Cats,

it's a motocross centre near Doncaster

and we've got reports there a crew are on scene

and they've asked for our assistance

as a patient's got an unstable pelvis fracture.

Internal bleed is our biggest concern. Therefore, the aircraft is

involved and hopefully we'll be able to take him to the

major trauma centre in Sheffield.

I'll probably turn around because it will be easier just to walk

back up the hill, so I'll just approach this bit and turn around.

-...Probably get blown over into that.

-Yeah, hold on to him.

TWO-WAY RADIO CHATTER

-Hello.

-This is Andy.

-Hiya, Andy.

-He's come off his motorbike.

For paramedic, Sammy, Andy Wallis' leg is a serious cause for concern.

-You see his leg? He said he's had to twist his leg back around.

-Yeah.

-Do you take any medication at all, Andy?

-None.

-None at all, great.

Traction splint, please!

Bring a pelvic binder, as well.

Hello, my name's Sammy, I'm another paramedic.

I'm going to put your leg in a traction splint which will hurt

when we do it but it'll also make it a lot, lot better once it's in.

OK? Then we'll get you up off this floor.

I'd just come off from my session and parked my bike up

and I've just seen him through the vans.

He did this jump, just flipped over front ways and he must've

landed, fell off and another bike's come over and landed on him.

He got over it, it just flipped him off. He was flying, wasn't he?

-He was.

-There's no stopping him today.

Sammy fears that as well as a broken leg,

Andy has fractured his pelvis.

Both injuries can cause internal bleeding.

So he's been giving saline to keep his blood pressure up.

Now the team's giving him a powerful painkiller.

You might not even remember when we do it, OK?

He's got a significant twisted spiral fracture to his femur.

The land crew have done an excellent job giving him morphine

but his pain is still excessive so we're just drawing up some

ketamine now before we realign his leg.

His knee's actually facing the wrong way.

Now he's sedated, it's time to straighten Andy's broken leg.

Once it's done, he'll be much more comfortable.

You support his leg, all right?

I'm just going to pull this from under him, all right?

This is called a Kendrick splint. It's a traction splint

and if this leg has got a fracture,

you know, we'll address this. It's what we gave him the ketamine for

so we can pull it straight. Literally if there's a break

and it's gone either side or it's spiralled across, we'll pull it,

give traction basically and sort of restore it to its normal length.

-Another breath, Andy.

-Right.

-Andy, come on, fella.

-Ready?

-Another breath. Come on, big breath.

He is, I can see him, he's just not sucking on the gas.

-I can see his belly.

-It's working.

-Keep going. You ready?

-Yeah?

-Fantastic.

Andy fell at a ramp built to propel riders into the air.

Helimed pilot Andy Hall has pulled off a stunt of his own

by landing on top of it.

I didn't want to put the tail up the slope

and we parked with the tail over the ramp, it's a bit of an uneven area.

It's built for purpose, not built for helicopters, of course.

It's digging into the back end, just got to be a bit careful.

I think we're waiting to bring him up now.

Obs are stable, most recent BP 130 over 79.

Heart rate, 60.

GCS 14, he has had 20mg of morphine

and up to now, 30mg of ketamine.

Our ETA will be approximately 12.25.

Biker Andy's being taken to hospital in Sheffield

where surgeons will operate on his leg.

He'd driven across the Pennines from his home in Lancashire

to take part in today's event.

It'll be a while before he's fit to return home

and much longer before he's in any shape to ride his bike again.

The Yorkshire Dales is among

England's most sparsely populated areas.

There are fewer than 28 people per every square mile,

London boasts 12,000.

For the ambulance service it adds up to an outsized problem.

Reaching the most critical emergencies within eight minutes

is their target but even Helimed 98 has its work cut out doing that.

Today, on a farm near Masham,

a farmer is feared to be having a heart attack.

The team's touching down yards from his home.

This emergency has come straight out of the textbook.

Within five minutes of the 999 call from his son,

farmer Ken Wilkinson had a volunteer community responder with oxygen

and deliberator by his side,

closely followed by a paramedic in a response car.

In areas like this, they're very vital.

I work in Bradford and we have them

just on the outskirts of Bradford in some areas where it can take

forever to get an ambulance there

and they do really good work and they're volunteers as well.

-He's just telling me he's got a little bit of chest pain now.

-OK.

He was just out in the field...

Ken was out rounding up sheep and digging fodder for them

when he felt unwell.

-Sort of sat on his hands, it was a bit like this.

-Mm.

And up in the field...and he was just going like that.

When he developed chest pains, his son Martin raced him

back to the house on his quad bike.

-You normally fit and well then, sir?

-Mm.

Yeah, all right, you sit nice and still, relax your arms.

This trace shows no obvious sign of a heart attack

but with chest pains, ambulance crews don't take any chances.

Have you still got some discomfort?

-No.

-Nothing at all?

-No.

And when it came on, about that half hour ago,

was it more than three or four out of ten?

-Or has it always just...

-No.

-..been about a three?

-It was just a tingling.

-A tingling? OK.

The family farm is in a remote area, close to The Dales town of Masham.

Now an ambulance has arrived, Ken has five trained medics on hand.

His son is impressed.

Would be ten minutes in the field before he felt like that he

wanted to come down to the house and we would be down here...

..a couple of minutes and the first lady landed,

probably ten minutes.

And then another five before the ambulance was here.

Technology helps the medics of The Dales find their patients

but responding to 999 calls up here is stressful.

The country roads, you've got bits of traffic and you've got

tractors in small roads so that's what slows you down, if anything.

But it is beautiful.

The team's decided Ken isn't in immediate danger.

Right then, sir. It's you and me going up in the world.

'Thank goodness for sat nav, I mean,'

years ago, you know, we'd be looking in map books so, you did it

because you had to and you got used to doing it

and now the sat nav's fantastic

because on this particular farm there's several buildings

and the sat nav actually pulled this particular cottage which is

fantastic and it just reduces any delays, you know,

the on-scene time's so much quicker

because you know exactly where you're going.

Finding a patient from 1,000ft up in the air is rather harder.

We had this as the property and the RRV had pulled up,

we weren't entirely convinced that this... the casualty was in the house.

-Yeah.

-For all we knew, he was still out in a field somewhere.

That's why...because there's some properties up on

-the river banks there, aren't there? Some old ruins.

-Yeah, yeah.

So we saw the car park and we presumed

-it may very well have been a walker...

-Right.

-..who had collapsed,

you know, on the trails sort of thing, so we had a quick look

round there before returning here and that's when we saw you waving.

The ground ambulance will be taking him

to hospital in nearby Northallerton.

Up here, the first response to a medical emergency is likely

to come from a friend or neighbour, trained by the ambulance service.

I was just saying thank you, she's missed her Christmas luncheon.

-No, I've not missed it!

-Well, you started it...

I've just missed the end of it.

Yeah, so figgy pudding, you're going to have to have

-double helpings next time.

-Do you think?

-Yeah.

They're a real good team going

and the advantage is you know most of the people that you visit

which has got to be a help, hasn't it?

The lambs and the fodder will have to wait.

Ken's on his way to hospital for tests to his heart.

People living in Yorkshire's rural areas are statistically much

less likely to dial 999 than those in the cities,

even when they really should.

Martin did the right thing and in his dad's case,

the NHS response was certainly prompt.

If you live here in The Dales, you'll know there's a barrier

that actually divides the North of England.

Thanks to the Pennines,

some people in North Yorkshire can actually get to London faster

than they can to Liverpool by train

and the roads over the hills are both difficult and dangerous.

The M62 is still the only motorway

from the east of Northern England to the west.

No wonder it's amongst the busiest in the UK

which is why the high Pennines passes first trodden out by

pack horses 300 years ago are still popular with motorists

anxious to find a short cut.

-We're here, mate.

-You sure?

Well, that's the Woodhead Pass road on your left, isn't it?

Yeah.

High above the market town of Glossop, Helimed 99 is

on final approach to another smash on the Pennine passes.

We've had reports that on the Woodhead Pass,

just a few miles north-east of Glossop,

a heavy goods vehicle has rolled over

and that the driver is trapped.

I would say the incident's in that drop there, isn't it?

-OK, got the stationary traffic.

-Got the ambulance.

I've got the ambulance now and I've got the vehicle.

The road is closed so pilot John Slater could land on it

but police vehicles are in the way.

-Is that black car too close?

-On the road, you mean?

-Yeah.

Yeah...the police car that's just pulled up.

If I open the thing, I'll signal to him and tell him to move it.

Could do.

Right, I'm going to open the door.

The stone walls close to the crash will make this landing tricky,

even if drivers cooperate.

Mate, I'm not too...I'm not happy about parking there.

John decides a patch of grass will be a better bet.

If he'd parked his car where the yellow one is.

-He's gone to go, he's gone to stop it, mate.

-I'm not going there.

-Right.

-I'm going for this bank here.

-Just watch these trees here, mate.

Stay there!

Stay there.

Right, how are we behind?

You're OK behind but we're on quite a bit of a slope.

-But that's OK, I'm happy here.

-Sure?

-Yeah.

The driver doesn't appear to be seriously injured

but the medics aren't taking any chances.

-Saying he can't feel the lower parts of his legs at the minute.

-Right.

He's doing fine, talking to us, we've given him some morphine,

think it's dropped his blood pressure a bit,

-he's gone a bit woozy on us.

-Right.

-Is he...so pinned to his knees?

-Yeah.

Bit of neuro deficit to his lower legs.

He feels like he can't move them at all.

This is an exposed place.

The road is frequently closed for days on end in mid-winter

and the roadside reservoir makes it especially prone to ice.

That can't have been a factor today.

Think it's just manpower just to get him out the side.

We'll go on you guys, completely on you guys.

Firefighters are going to remove the driver on a spinal stretcher

but it's just a precaution.

This gentlemen looks like he's hurt his knee but other than that,

all his baseline obs are fine.

And he's not complaining about any other injuries.

It's only about 10 to 12 miles to the nearest hospital in Manchester

so I think the crew's going to deal with that.

We're just waiting for the fire brigade to

extricate the guy from this cab, as you can see it's quite high up.

Then give him a further check and then we can get him

on his way to hospital and then we'll return and get some much needed fuel.

Helicopters are only used to fly patients when it's clinically

necessary or impractical to transport them any other way.

Hopefully the police will have called the recovery truck

and they'll get the truck back on its wheels and on her way.

Helimed 99 will be back at base in 15 minutes

but the drivers trapped by the accident will still be

crawling across the Pennines in two hours time.

That's the penalty motorists pay for taking one of Britain's most

spectacular but accident-prone routes.

The Pennines form the border between five major counties

and a call out to the passes means a long drive on blue lights,

often through the traffic jams caused by the emergency incident

unless you can fly there.

We're going to a road traffic accident in Derbyshire,

near the bottom of Snake Pass, which is one of the really

busy roads that goes between Sheffield and Manchester.

Got reports of a patient with a head injury, trapped in the car there.

TWO-WAY RADIO CHATTER

Paramedics Daryl and John are keen cyclists.

They often ride these hills.

-Have you rode on Snake Pass on your bike?

-Yeah.

-You know there's a flat bit coming out of Glossop...

-Yeah.

..and then the pass starts right at the bottom of that bit?

-Right, OK. Yeah, we're pretty much straight over Holme Moss then.

-Yeah.

There's been an accident near Holme Moss,

the giant transmitter that beams BBC radio to most of the North.

Yeah, we've got the guy wires from Holme Moss,

-we appear to be on track, anyhow.

-Yeah.

-The road there to the left of it, just inside?

-Yeah, that's the road.

Looks like it's right down here, this junction, doesn't it?

-Yeah, it does.

-Look at the traffic, all the way back up the road there.

Yeah, terrible.

Two vehicles have crashed head-on.

Van driver Liam Scrimgeour had forgotten to put on his seat belt.

In the impact, his head hit the windscreen.

-What's your name?

-Liam.

-I'm John, Liam, OK.

The Snake Pass was recently included

in a list of the top ten most dangerous roads in Britain.

Today, its reputation has been confirmed.

Local firefighters are used to being called to crashes up here.

There's no such thing as a standard RTC, the thing about this

one which is a little bit unusual, it's actually a van.

Generally RTCs involve normal saloon vehicles, domestic cars, etc.

It's a little unusual in that it's a van,

we're having to make extra cuts to actually remove the roof

as opposed to taking the roof off a normal domestic saloon car.

Can I just have a word with him before you do that?

-Is that all right?

-Yeah.

-I just need to do some checks on him.

Right, I'm just going to listen to your breathing.

It's probably all right, mate. Any pain at all in your chest? No?

Right.

The fire service will remove the roof of his van

so the team can lift him clear,

while keeping his spine straight.

Paramedic John wants to protect Liam's neck.

He's fitting a surgical collar.

Can you just hold his head for us, mate, while I put this on?

Just up above so I can get it round.

Traffic's backing up for miles.

The pass links Manchester and Sheffield,

the two biggest neighbouring cities in Britain not linked by a motorway.

He's only complaining of pain in his leg,

however, not wearing a seat belt and he's bull's-eyed the window.

The North West ambulance service

has scrambled its specialist rescue team to the smash.

Chaps, we can just put a KED on him

and bring him out sideways if you want?

We're going to get him extricated on our scoop.

So we'll pop it in behind him and we'll just ease him onto it.

Have you discovered anything new bothering you

-since we've just brought you out?

-No.

When you were taken out then, did anything hurt when you came out?

-No, just a little bit in my knee but...

-Right.

We're actually getting him in the helicopter now

so probably going to be there in 15 minutes, over.

At least Liam's now ready for his flight to hospital.

The team's taking him to Sheffield Northern General

where he'll be scanned and X-rayed.

Happily, his injuries are not as serious as first feared

and he's later allowed home to York.

On top of the Pennines,

the temperature can be a full ten degrees colder than at lower levels

and on these roads, winter can catch out the unwary.

For most drivers crossing the Pennines,

its passes are like any other road.

The radio's on, the heater's turned up

but when there's an accident up here, the remoteness and the climate

can make a minor accident serious very quickly.

And that's when another emergency service comes in to its own.

The local knowledge and four wheel drives

of mountain rescue often come in handy.

These volunteers are all medically trained

and several motorists owe their lives to them.

Today, Helimed 99 has been called in by a mountain rescue party

on the Snake Pass.

We were on our way to a course over at Woodhead

and we just came across this RTC.

Initially ABC assessment and control C spine

and just make sure the right resources were running to the job.

So our natural thing was just to help out where we can

until the emergency services arrived.

Head-on impacts are still statistically

the most dangerous accidents on our roads.

A family returning home to South Yorkshire has been caught out

by the first bite of winter.

Ice patches are making the pass slippery.

It's one of the first kind of mornings that we've had

some really hard frost across the region so there's going to be plenty

of accidents. This incident, two cars have clipped each other, caused

significant damage and there's a patient still trapped in one

that we're going to fly over to the Northern.

Delays are building for tourists and commuters alike.

The Peak District National Park straddles both the Snake and

Woodhead Passes and it's a favourite place for city workers to live.

Looks like he's been trapped with where the vehicle's been deformed,

rather than any injuries he's got.

But we can't see his lower legs at the moment so just getting the

fire service to create a bit of space on the right-hand side of the

vehicle and then we're going to extricate him through the side.

Before that, we're just going to give him some morphine.

One of the doctors might give him a bit of ketamine as well,

something a bit stronger. So, we'll get him out,

have a proper look at him then we'll take things from there.

Just making the conditions for the emergency services

quite hazardous at the moment. There's lots of fire engines,

police car's arrived on scene, got the helicopter here as well

so we're just thinking of relocating it to get to a better position

to load the patient and head off as quickly as we can.

I'm going to ask you to back up, please, as far as you can.

Pilot Andy needs to get Helimed 99 closer to the patient

but first he's going to need the cooperation of motorists.

Andy can touch down in an area not much bigger than a tennis court

but he has to protect the public

and the emergency services from the chopper's downwash.

With grit and rock salt on the road

and plastic debris from the cars, a man-made 150 mile an hour gale

could hurt or injure anyone unwise enough to be in the landing zone.

He's got away quite lightly at the moment.

All his obs are stable,

looks like he's just got some lower limb injuries.

But you can see what's happened to the car he's been driving.

There's been a significant intrusion onto the driver's side of it

so as a precaution we'll fly him to Sheffield Northern

and get the doctors down there to have a look at him.

Despite the remoteness of the accident,

the driver will be in hospital in Sheffield in less than ten minutes.

He has suffered serious injuries and is detained for several days.

A lot of the flying paramedic's work

has always been up in The Dales, moors and peaks.

When the heavens open in North Yorkshire,

life gets harder for the Helimed team.

With hills towering up to 2,500ft and clouds down to 500,

reaching patients is difficult and potentially dangerous.

-Looks a bit murky.

-It does a bit, mate, yeah.

Helimed 98's been scrambled to a cyclist badly injured

in the North York Moors.

Ahead is a curtain of cloud.

Oh, we're going the wrong way round guys.

Air Desk from Helimed 98, due to the low lying cloud

and weather conditions, we may not be there as quickly as we thought, over.

This is Helimed 98, just for your information,

we're not able to go direct because of weather, we'll be reaching

around via Ampleforth, Helmsley and then up through the low ground.

As luck would have it,

the first job that we get is up towards the North York Moors,

which takes us back into the low lying cloud

so we're having to sort of fly around it a little bit to find routes

in the low ground which will take us into the job.

Pilot Chris knows these hills well. If anyone can get through, he can.

Thing is, all this weather's going north so we're going to try

-and go north with it.

-Right, yeah.

We're going to have to come all the way back to the south and around.

Chris is hugging the ground.

He knows a river straddled by a medieval abbey will take them

to their patient.

Here we go, coming round onto the nose.

Yep.

This a valley up there, so...that's it, this is a valley up here

-and we want to go this way.

-Yep.

At last a valley opens up and it heads in the right direction.

So follow this road up because it's on this road, Chris.

Yeah, that's what I meant.

You've got a truck coming up to you, I'm not going to stop there...

And finally, thanks to Chris's skill, they make it.

There's a gate here, Chris, at your three o'clock.

Yeah, I've got that, mate. The problem is me staying.

-I'm not taking anything with me.

-No, that's OK, mate.

I'll just drop you off.

-OK, mate?

-OK, Chris, disconnecting.

-We are on the ground.

Chris daren't land Helimed 98 here but he can drop off

paramedic Darren within walking distance of the patient.

-So, what have we got?

-This is Craig.

-Yeah.

Craig has come down this hill doing about 50mph.

He's hit that pothole somewhere, miles up there, he's flown

10, 15m in the air and he's impacted probably somewhere around here.

If we just pass that helmet too, we've got a massive

great big dent in the top of the helmet there.

-He's got the corresponding dent in his head.

-Fantastic.

-Fully conscious.

-Lovely.

We've got rash on his leg,

we've got what looks like a possible colles fracture on this side.

Right.

-And we have got C spine pain.

-OK.

Serious cyclist Craig Mitchell from Lanarkshire was sprinting down a

steep hill near the moorland village of Hornby when he lost control.

Taking part in a road race today and we've come down the hill

and the conditions have been very, very wet

and he's just feathered the brakes coming down

and the back wheel's kind of just slipped which has forced him wide

and the pothole has just launched him over the handlebars.

And at the speed we were doing, he's carried on and travelled down

and hit into the fence here.

His symptoms are worrying. Particularly the pain in his back.

-Hello, people.

-Hello.

-Can we have your board, please?

-Yes.

But Darren has ways of diagnosing a possible head injury.

-What day is it, Craig?

-Friday.

-Friday. Take a deep breath for me.

-Does that hurt?

-Only in my collar bone.

-Only in your collar bone.

-Can you remember everything that's happened to you?

-Yep.

-What's your date of birth?

-15th August, '65.

-And how old does that make you?

-48 years and 2 months.

-Super.

-Good, good. Well, at least all his marbles are in the right place.

-Yes.

TWO-WAY RADIO CHATTER

On any other day, Craig's back pain which could be

caused by a spinal injury would earn him a flight to hospital.

It's going to be this field over here, mate.

But with low cloud continuing to billow over the hills,

the team decides the risk of flying its patient over

the moors to the nearest trauma unit is too great.

-Where do you live?

-Strathaven.

-Oh, you live there.

So you're just visiting?

So you've come down to God's own county then,

-to have a ride round on a bike?

-To have a crash on a bike.

-Yeah.

-Of all places to crash.

-Welcome to Yorkshire.

Craig's certainly not confused.

He'll be travelling by road.

He's been extremely lucky. His injuries look quite minor.

He's not been unconscious although his helmet is damaged.

Which is a good case in point,

we see so many people without cycling helmets.

This could've been so much different had he not been wearing one.

He's in quite good spirits so I'm not concerned for him

in terms of his injuries.

For Darren and the crew, the flight back to base promises

to be just as circuitous as the journey here.

Craig is driven 20 miles to Middlesbrough

where his injuries turn out to be relatively minor.

He soon returns home to Scotland and is now back in the saddle.