Episode 18 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. Can we get in that grass field on your left?

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 -

a bus crashes in a busy shopping street, and the driver is trapped.

He's got a bar going through the front of his knee,

right out the back of his thigh.

High in the Dales, a woman crawls for help after a painful accident.

She actually crawled here and then...

knocked on the door with her stick.

An ice cream van's at the centre of a major rescue operation.

We're just going to get it put in the splint and see

if we can stop the bleeding as well.

And a DIY project ends in agony.

This piece of grinding material could have taken his eye out.

Out here in the Yorkshire Dales,

neighbours can be thin on the ground.

There are fewer than 20 people per square mile in the national park.

No wonder this is regarded as a local life-saver.

But sometimes the Helimed team finds itself

needed in the heart of the city.

It's Christmas and on a main road into Bradford city centre,

there's been a major accident.

Passengers on this bus were thrown from their seats

when it was in collision with several parked cars.

But the most serious casualty is the driver, now trapped in his cab.

Helimed 99 is on final approach to a car park

in the densely packed terraces below.

Paramedic Leon Baranowski is joining a major rescue operation.

He's got a bar going through the front of his knee,

right out the back of his thigh.

He's trapped, obviously. We've taken a section out of the vehicle.

The driver is Lukasz Mokos,

one of many Polish workers driving buses in Bradford.

The accident was witnessed by hundreds of people

in a busy shopping street.

I was just in t'shop.

Just heard a load of noises, some piping had come down.

Next thing I come out, bus were careening down here.

It just hit all t'cars, really.

And I just saw people getting thrown forward.

Looks like the bus driver's slid into one of the safety railings

at the side of the road and the impact's caused the railings

to penetrate through the front of the bus, up into his right leg,

and all the way and back through his buttock area, near his pelvis.

You got a lot of major arteries and veins in that area and a lot of

nerves and long bones, so it's hard to see exactly what damage he's done.

Plan at the moment is to get him comfortable with some drugs,

then the fire crew are going to cut him out and we'll get him

packaged in, hopefully fly him in to LGI.

Penetrating injuries like this must be treated very carefully.

Removing the rail isn't an option.

Firefighters are going to have to cut it short.

He's in a lot of pain, so we're just giving ketamine for that.

Then we'll assess him once he's extricated.

There could so easily have been many more casualties. Lukasz's bus

was packed with shoppers on their way to the Boxing Day sales

and the road was busy.

I was sat in t'car waiting for the wife to get a statement from t'bank

and just noticed in t'rearview mirror the bus coming towards us.

I was parked in front of the first car that got hit.

And just shoved me another 20 feet into another car.

SAW WHIRS

Leon is reassuring his patient.

Despite having a Polish name and ancestry,

he can't speak a word of the language.

Luckily, Lukasz is fluent in English.

We're just going to move you now, nice and slowly.

ALL TALK OVER EACH OTHER

We're going to move you now, nice and slow, all right?

I think we should go now - he's laughing.

Now the firefighters' cutters have done their work,

it's time to move Lukasz.

ALL TALK OVER EACH OTHER

You keep your hand there for me, fella. That's it.

The team's given Lukasz a new drug called TXA.

It encourages clotting

and is preventing its patient bleeding internally.

That can be fatal in cases like this.

Yeah, C-spine's fine, guys.

Just relax for me.

ALL TALK OVER EACH OTHER

Ready, steady, roll.

Because of the severity of his injury,

the team's going to bypass Bradford Royal Infirmary

and fly Lukasz direct to the regional trauma centre in Leeds.

We've got to get him up to the aircraft now

and the way that they've cut the bar, we've got him laying on his side.

So, we won't have any problems getting him in the aircraft.

It should clear the door.

It should be a two, three minute flight from here, centre of Bradford.

Steady, lift.

Nice and still. Relax your head down.

We're going to fly you to hospital, it's going to get a bit loud.

-How's that pain, are you comfortable?

-Pain.

-Have you got any pain?

-Yeah.

-Where is it?

-Leg.

-In your leg?

-OK.

-Right leg.

-OK, all right.

At Leeds General Infirmary,

a team of vascular surgeons specialising in the repair of

blood vessels and an orthopaedic consultant are on stand-by

to examine Lukasz.

Even on Boxing Day, specialists are on call.

HE GROANS

-Clear?

-Yeah, head's clear.

Keep going, keep going. Clear.

Perfect.

So far, he's been very lucky.

But removing the rail could be difficult and risky.

Hello. When we get you in, we're going to tell the doctors

and nurses what's happened.

Lukasz is remarkably calm and curious about his unusual injury.

Don't touch it.

Just need to make it nice and clean, all right?

This is Luke. He's a 27-year-old male.

About 12:20, bus driver involved in an RTC.

He's gone and impacted central railing reservation,

penetrating his right leg through his tib and fib...

It's time for the Helimed team to stand back

and let the doctors do their work.

It's been a challenging job for Leon.

He'll get assessed by the doctors, probably taken up to surgery

to have it removed under a better environment.

Antibiotics will probably start as well. And go from there.

He's only 27, so it doesn't at the moment look like the injuries

could have been as bad as what they are.

It looks like his arteries and his veins will still be intact.

He's not haemorrhaged as bad as what we thought he may have done.

He's stable for now, so I'm quite happy. Good job.

That night, surgeons operate to remove the rail.

It's caused major damage inside Lukasz's leg, but it's repairable

and with luck he should be able to walk - and drive - again.

The market town of Holmfirth clings to the steep slopes of the Pennines.

It's one of West Yorkshire's quaintest places.

Last Of The Summer Wine was filmed here.

And the old picture house is now a thriving concert hall

attracting veteran bands that were once big names.

But today it's at the centre of a medical emergency.

We're going over towards Holmfirth, a chap that's fallen off a balcony.

Information that we've got so far is that he's unconscious.

We've got a crew en route.

I would imagine they'll be on-scene first.

But it's right in the centre of Holmfirth,

so it could be a problem for us getting close to the casualty.

It might be that we land nearby

and have to walk some distance to get there.

-It's right near the town centre.

-Yeah.

Bowling green on the bottom there.

Yeah, I think this is where we've landed before, this cricket pitch.

Holmfirth's hills mean that pilot Andy Hall's going to have

his work cut out getting the team anywhere near the patient.

That's probably the best access. There is a gate over there

but I've got a feeling you've got to climb over it.

I'll park over here then.

Compound fractures to arms.

Head injuries.

And he's unconscious...

That's received, thanks for that.

He was up there putting the banners on the balcony and slipped over.

How and why, I don't know.

Are you all right if I go and have a look at

trying to get the helicopter a bit nearer?

Speed is vital. Their patient needs the advanced life support

only a hospital can provide.

This road will have to be shut, at the main road.

And we need to have everybody cleared out of the way.

Paramedic Al Day, who lives locally, thinks he can get

the chopper into the town centre just outside the Post Office.

This chap's quite poorly. We could do with getting him

in the helicopter as quickly as possible and on to Leeds.

Helicopter's parked a good half kilometre away.

We're going to attempt to land it into this little space here.

It's a little bit tight, though, so we'll have to see how it goes.

We may or may not be able to get in.

I need to push everybody back to the other side of the bridge.

The pressure is on ex-army pilot Andy.

He's heading for a tiny landing site

littered with buildings, lamp posts and parked cars.

The chopper's rotor blades are meters from stone walls.

This is the last place Andy would choose to land.

But a man's life could be at stake.

This landing will demand all his skill.

And he's down.

Their patient is now just 15 minutes from Leeds General Infirmary,

and its trauma team.

Al was a very big help, clearly with his orange suit on.

He's qualified to marshal the aircraft.

He can see the hazards beneath and behind the aircraft.

As you can see, we're quite close to that railing

but that's the least of my problems. It's the blades.

But the diameter away from all the buildings is satisfied. And it works.

Paramedic Darrell knows the odds are stacked against his patient.

The hospital helipad can't come soon enough for him.

There's the church...

Happy with that.

Clear of the church.

-All clear.

-Good job.

But this rescue has a happy ending.

Despite a very serious head injury, the patient survives

and after a few weeks in hospital is allowed home to recover.

When you live somewhere like this,

there are two things at the heart of the community.

One is the Post Office. The other is the pub.

And the more remote the community, the more important the inn.

But today in Muker, high in remote Swaledale,

the local landlord has had a surprising visitor -

an elderly woman on her hands and knees, with a badly broken leg.

She must have slipped and crawled round the snicket,

and just crawled to the door and just banged with her stick, really.

At first I just opened the door, I didn't really see anybody.

And only when I looked down

I realised she were in trouble, you know?

From the description, it sounds like an open fracture,

so it sounds like the bone that's broken has come through the skin.

Which obviously is a little bit more of a worry than just

a straightforward closed fracture.

There should be a road that follows this valley round.

We don't know if she's inside the Farmer's Arms

or whether she's outside.

Hopefully she's not having too many medicinal brandies.

-I've got the pub. White pick-up truck. Farmer's Arms.

-Yep, got it.

-How about this field here?

-Yeah, down on the right.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

Muker's built into the steep side of the Dale.

The team's patient was posting a letter

when she fell on this slippery path. It's no wonder.

With her broken leg, Marina Parker managed

to crawl down to the door of the pub to raise the alarm.

Now, then. What have you been doing?

Playing stunts?

-How are you feeling?

-Just cold.

-Cold?

-I'm a bit cold.

-Does it hurt?

-It's beginning to hurt.

-OK.

It's bleeding as well.

Sounds like it's an open fracture, lower leg.

I was going to move her inside the pub but as you're here I think

-we'll splint it and put her inside your vehicle.

-Yeah, OK.

And then we can decide whether we want to fly her or not

-once we get her dry and happy.

-Yeah.

The fall's left her with a badly broken and bleeding leg.

Just going to take your show off. Tell me if this hurts a lot.

It's a painful end to a simple trip to the postbox.

I wasn't with her. She was walking by herself.

And she just slipped because it's very, very slippery.

She actually crawled here, apparently,

and then knocked on the door with her stick.

Big suck.

That's it. Breathe out. Relax.

Nice, long deep breaths.

The weather's getting worse.

And so is her pain.

Al wants a doctor's permission to use the team's strongest painkiller.

I was just wondering if we could give her a bit of ketamine

to get her splinted and move her?

She's got quite a nasty open fracture of her lower leg there.

You can see the bone sticking out through the skin.

That's going to be painful when we try and move her.

So we're going to give her a little bit of ketamine just to try

and dissociate her a bit before we start moving her around.

We're in a bit of a rush cos it's chucking it down, she's cold.

So we want to get this done as quickly as possible.

I'm going to give you this medicine now.

You listening? OK. Now, it might make you feel a bit strange.

Like you're not attached to your body any more.

SHE LAUGHS

Just be ready for that. Don't worry, if you feel a bit odd, that's normal.

All drugs affect people differently

and the injection has a dramatic effect on Marina.

-Marina?

-Marina?

Marina?

Marina's stopped responding.

If that doesn't change soon, her breathing could stop as well.

Marina? Deep breaths for me.

Marina? Deep breaths for me. Eh?

-Is it all a bit strange?

-Yeah.

Do you remember I gave you some medicine? Do you remember?

Yeah, cos you hurt your leg, didn't you?

-Yeah.

-Yeah, that's right. OK, you just relax for me.

This is one of those villages where everyone knows everyone else.

You're OK. Everything's OK. They're just bandaging you all up.

Marina certainly wasn't short of help.

We're a close-knit community and everyone knows everybody,

so it's nice that everyone rallies round and brings cushions

and another local got a hot water bottle to keep her warm.

Everyone gets the brollies out and the blankets.

But all this only happened because she had the foresight

to crawl to the pub.

It's probably a good 100 yards from top to bottom

and then to have crawled here in the rain...that's just amazing.

All credit to her.

She's great. She was born here so she's used to it all.

All right, chicken? Just slow that breathing down for me.

Hello.

Hello. Give me a smile.

-There we are, lovely.

-Well done.

It's horrible weather and it's muddy and slippy

so we're just going to drive her up to where the aircraft is.

Hopefully there's some access there.

Ready, steady, lift.

A long drive to hospital from here

so we're going to fly to James Cook, which is probably 15 minutes for us.

Should be nice and safe and sound up there.

79-year-old female with an open fracture, tib, fib.

Otherwise stable.

She's had 30mg of ketamine.

The effects of that ketamine are now starting to wear off.

What can I say?

I love you to bits!

-We're going to start the engines up in a minute.

-Are you?

So I'm going to put these ear defenders on your head.

-Cos it's very loud.

-Is it?

I'll leave the heating on for a moment.

And lifting.

Lifted, 0-4.

15 minutes to James Cook.

Now the wet weather that caused Marina to fall in the first place

is leading to problems for her flight to hospital.

Veer round to the right. And we'll come back around to the left.

That's looking decidedly grotty in front.

We're just making our way through some

difficult weather towards James Cook.

Stick with the low ground for the moment, rather than go over.

-I don't think this was in the forecast.

-No, I don't think it was.

Pilot Chris must stay low,

hugging the bottom of the Dales until he reaches lower ground.

After a long diversion, Helimed 99 finally reaches the trauma centre

in Middlesbrough, where Marina's leg can be examined.

98 landed at James Cook.

How's your leg feel?

-I can't feel it.

-Good. Good.

X-rays reveal that Marina's ankle is broken so badly,

surgeons must use titanium rods to mend it. And several days later,

she's still detained in hospital under observation.

She knows she could had lain undiscovered for some time

if she hadn't decided to seek help on her knees.

I just went down this lane and there's nowhere to hold anything.

And before I knew it I'd skidded and my ankle was broken right away,

it was horrible.

There's so many people who helped and brought umbrellas

and then it was cold and there were blankets.

And then I wasn't conscious, really,

until I was actually in the aeroplane.

Marina says she can't wait to get back home to Swaledale,

but her ankle is likely to mean someone else will have to

walk to the postbox for the next few months at least.

In the picturesque towns and villages of North Yorkshire,

keeping up appearances is not just a way of life -

it's a legal obligation. Many of these homes are listed

and using the right materials for any building work is compulsory.

It can be expensive, which is why DIY accidents are a major source

of patients for the Helimed team.

The teams often scramble to someone

who's neglected to do what it does every flight.

My door is secure.

All the right equipment...

-Security.

-My harness is good.

..working properly and double checked.

With no-one else getting in the way.

Glider just come over your head.

-Somewhere... There he is.

-Got it.

But sometimes the chopper's called to an accident

that's happened despite the victim taking all the right precautions.

Someone's injured themselves with an angle grinder

and the ambulance has got quite a distance to travel, so we've been

dispatched as an immediate response

so we could assess the patient.

I believe it is a residential address and the patient is a male.

Other than that, I've got no information at this time.

-We're looking at this area...

-Yeah, in a garden.

A bird's eye view can help in finding a patient,

but you can't read the street numbers.

BOTH TALK OVER EACH OTHER

-It's somewhere between there and there.

-The main road?

-Yeah.

Paramedics Leon and Al know angle grinders can cause

very serious injuries. The cutting disc slices through almost anything.

Hello.

Mark Brogdon was cutting bricks when the accident happened.

It's in his face?

He was wearing protective goggles.

If he hadn't, he may already be dead.

-It's flicked up and hit you?

-I think the disc broke.

Yeah, you've got about an inch.

Inch laceration. That hurt then?

Mark is embarrassed but Leon would rather be safe than sorry.

We've come because the road ambulance was going to take quite a distance

to get to you and we're only based over at RAF Topcliffe.

-Right.

-So it's only been a couple of minutes, all right?

I only just saw an explosion, really,

a flash of sparks or something. I presume the disc broke.

I had my safety glasses and my own glasses on.

At the moment, everything looks absolutely fine.

-You have got quite a nasty cut to your nose.

-Yeah.

But it doesn't look too deep. And it doesn't look like it's intruding

anywhere in your nasal passage.

-I can still breathe through it.

-Which is a really good sign.

The air ambulance isn't needed.

Instead, he'll be taken by road to Harrogate,

where his wounds will be treated.

He's just got a laceration across his nose,

it's not gone through to the actual septum, the gristly bit of your nose.

Lucky he's been wearing safety goggles as well. The minor

lacerations he had across his forehead and the bridge of his nose

were caused by the safety goggles doing their job.

Potentially, this piece of grinding material's flicked up

and come across, it could have taken his eye out.

That piece could have gone anywhere.

The fact that he was wearing his safety goggles, he's been quite lucky

and also the cut's not as deep as what it could have been,

so a trip down to Harrogate A&E, assessment,

and then potentially down to LGI if he needed further surgery.

In Harrogate, doctors stitch up Mark's wound.

It heals well and he's soon back at work on his home.

Anyone walking with the aid of one of these will tell you

an accident can have a devastating effect on your life.

All it takes is a few seconds of inattention.

When the school bell goes, thousands of children pour out

of the classroom to make the journey home.

Getting on a bus is statistically the safest way.

But for those who walk home, that brief chance to play with your mates

is when an accident is most likely to happen.

There was a group of boys at the other side of the road

and one of them just run across road in front of the ice cream man.

-Aircraft, ten o'clock, high, helicopter.

-OK, mate.

Paramedics Darren Axe and Dave Appleby

have sons of their own.

They know that they are on their way to every parents' nightmare.

Youngster knocked over.

Looks like compound fracture.

That young man on the scooter

overtook the...

ice cream van and he just hit him.

I see it now.

-On this road here.

-Yeah.

That field looks good.

12-year-old Rowan Farnsworth's injuries

are worse than the initial report suggested.

This lad has got an open tib and fib

so we're just going to get it straightened,

get it put in the splint and see if we can stop the bleeding as well.

Hiya. Can you just tell me what happened?

Paramedic Dave needs more information.

Was it a glancing blow or has he hit him at the front?

I think he's hit him at the front and knocked him

into the ice cream van.

Rowan?

I know this is not very nice,

all us crowded round you like this, all right?

Before they can treat Rowan, Dave knows he must give him

pain relief - morphine and no needles.

What I want to do is just squirt some of this in your mouth

and I want you to swallow it for me.

All right? It's quite a strong painkiller.

All right?

It might not work straightaway, all right, but it will help you.

All right?

Right, so just let go of my hand, all right?

Can you open your mouth for me?

It doesn't taste very nice but it can make a big difference.

Suck on that and drink it.

-All right?

-Is that it?

Is that all you want?

I'll not give you any more for now, all right?

Rowan's understandably frightened, but the morphine has taken effect.

I'm being as gentle as I can, darling.

The patient's mum has arrived to comfort her son

and it could be just what the doctor ordered.

Right, he's in a bit of a funny position here,

so when we're ready we'll pull him away from there and roll him

and straighten the leg, if we can, all in one go, all right?

-Do you want him on gas?

-Yeah.

As soon as you're happy...

Paramedic Dave and the team can now straighten his badly broken leg.

We're going to lift his leg a bit.

Take really deep breaths on that. That's it, suck in.

It's painful but it will help stem the bleeding,

reduce the risk of infection,

and hopefully help Rowan get better quicker.

There's a general hospital in nearby Barnsley but paramedic Dave wants

to take Rowan to the specialist Children's Hospital in Sheffield.

He has got some kind of small swelling to the front of his head

and he's also got an open tib and fib on his right leg,

which is still seeping blood a little bit.

His baselines all seem normal at the moment.

I think we'll go in on the far side, feet first.

All right, steady.

Cos it's an open fracture, concerns are pain relief and infection,

because it's exposed. So, we needed to keep it clean as best we could

and reduce it to ensure there's still

good peripheral circulation into his foot.

He's still got some sensation and we're pleased,

once we moved it and put him into a good position,

he could wiggle his toes and he got good cap refill in his toes,

which meant there was good blood circulation down into his toes.

So, pleased with that.

-Hello.

-Hiya.

You all right, darling?

Rowan is much calmer now he's on the way to hospital.

And Mum coming too is reassuring the young patient.

99, our ETA is three minutes into Children's.

The Children's Hospital is in Sheffield city centre.

There's no helicopter landing pad but there is a handy park opposite.

The band stand.

Watch that pointy bit.

Rowan's just relieved that Mum is still with him.

-Stay with me.

-I will stay with you, darling.

-Promise.

-She will.

-Don't drop me.

-We'll not.

-We only drop people on Mondays.

We get fined if you drop. It comes out the wages.

I'm still here, don't forget.

They'll have me to answer to, won't they?

The Helimed team has done what it can.

Rowan is in the right place, given his age and injuries.

-Thank you, bye-bye.

-We're going to leave you with these people.

Good care of you, all right? Rowan, sorry I can't come with you, mate,

but they're going to leave me if I don't get back.

-All right? Take care.

-Thank you!

Orthopaedic surgeons specialising in young and still growing bones

began surgery on Rowan's leg that evening.

Ten days later, with Dad's physio clinic in full swing,

Rowan's on the mend.

It's nice being home.

I sat down on the sofa and Mum put on the recliner for me.

I got wrapped up in a blanket and I watched telly for a bit.

That's where my stitches are, underneath that dressing.

And these two are holding my bone in place.

It looks gruesome so you'll not want to see that.

It's going to be on for about 15 weeks

and I'm looking forward to being completely fixed.

So that I can run around and jump about like I used to.

Once I get my momentum going, I might lighten.

The Humber Estuary is Britain's back door.

It carries 90 million tonnes of cargo every year.

If you buy it or sell it, the chances are it sails these waters.

And once it's been unloaded, it probably goes by train.

It's a fact that makes this sleepy village an unlikely playground

for the UK's train spotters.

Barnetby is quite simply the best place

to see freight trains in the country.

But today, one rail enthusiast's hopes of spotting

a six axle Class 66 diesel-electric has hit the buffers.

We're going to an incident.

It's come in to the East Midlands Ambulance Service.

I think he's fallen and possibly fractured the leg.

Helimed 99 is following the railway line to the patient.

67-year-old Alan Morgan slipped while trying to get a better

vantage point to photograph the passing locomotives.

We've been asked to back a crew up who are on-scene.

It seems like a bit of a location problem,

quite a distance from the road side, so we may be of some use.

At your seven o'clock now. Guy in a hi-vis jacket.

Oh, yeah.

Down there...

-This is Alan.

-Hi, Alan.

You been out spotting trains, have you?

-I have, yeah, yeah.

-Right.

-Dangerous business, you know.

-It is.

I was walking down here and slipped

and fell and broke me leg.

I heard it crack.

And as soon as I looked down, I could see it was misshaped.

So I knew what had happened to me.

As luck would have it, there was another gentleman here.

Who I didn't know. Cos it's quite isolated.

And he was able to phone for help.

They're going to have to move the helicopter

from the top of the hill to the bottom.

If we could relocate to down here, it's better than going uphill,

-isn't it?

-Yeah, going down will be easy.

Easiest method of doing this is either put him on our board

and put him... We'll get our stretcher and rather than lift him

over anything, we can slide you underneath the fence.

I don't have a better plan.

We're going to take him about 10, 15 metres down this hill,

slide him under the barbed wire and wooden fence,

and Andy, the pilot, is going to bring the aircraft down

to a flat part in this field.

And we're going to load him on and take him to the ambulance,

which is probably a mile away.

It's basically just to facilitate us getting down to the ambulance.

It's probably about a mile we've got to walk with our equipment.

And it's just easier and safer for us to get him down that way.

A retired chemistry teacher,

Alan has had a lifelong love of railways, but he has never flown.

Just take it nice and easy.

Paramedic Andy admits to being rather keen on his train set

when he was younger,

and his boyhood shunting skills are coming in useful today.

One more. Ready, steady, slide.

-We're not far.

-OK, one, two, three.

99 just lifting to relocate patient.

'99 from air desk, that's a roger, all received.'

-Pylon to the left of the ambulance.

-Yeah, there's wires to the left.

Because of his injuries, Alan is having to lie flat

and can't make the most of what, for him, would be

a bird's eye view of the 11:53 to Lincoln.

-How was that, Alan?

-That's fine.

-All right.

At first sight, train spotting doesn't appear to be

a terribly risky pastime, but Alan's just proved it can be.

It's something John knew all along.

Just goes to show, doesn't it? Train spotting, golf courses,

crown-green bowling,

seems to be a dangerous thing.

Perhaps not the best circumstances.

The land crew take Alan to the nearest hospital in Scunthorpe.

Doctors there set his leg and ankle,

and he's allowed home. He won't be out spotting trains any time soon,

as his recovery is going to take a few weeks.

But his curtailed day out wasn't wasted.

Alan does have some good photos.

The UK is home to nearly a million horses,

and three and a half million of us get our kicks like this.

From countless pony club hacks to 90,000 racing thoroughbreds,

riding is an industry worth around £4 billion.

One thing every rider has in common is the risk.

One study claimed riding was 20 times more dangerous

than motorcycling, and today paramedic Al and Helimed 99

are heading back to the Pennines for yet another casualty.

We're on our way to the picturesque village of Holmfirth,

famous for the location of Last Of The Summer Wine,

for somebody that's fallen off a horse and collided with a wall.

Which sounds doubly painful.

Think we're somewhere down here, this farm building, I think.

-I've got a wind turbine thing.

-Roger.

Paramedics Al and Paul know this could be a very serious case.

They're landing at a riding school on the outskirts of Holmfirth.

-Hi, Tony, how you doing?

-How are you?

-Not so bad.

-21-year-old Jade.

She's been on a new horse this afternoon,

which appears to have bolted and did you say it hit into this wall?

Into that wall and dragged her across it.

Many experts will tell you that the bond between a horse

and its owner is almost telepathic at times.

They'll also tell you accidents like this are common

when a new horse is ridden by an unfamiliar rider.

She's been thrown into wall off t'horse. New horse.

So...I don't know whether t'horse...

I just know she's hit wall.

Ready, steady, roll.

21-year-old Jade's in severe pain

and the team's worried this may be

a symptom of serious internal injuries.

Have we got three or four people who are good to give us a hand?

Into this bag.

She's been knocked out for a few seconds, witnessed by a friend,

and she's complaining of severe lower back pain.

So, we've treated as such. Because she's been knocked out,

we've put on a collar and a board,

and we have a special piece of equipment called a T-Pod that

wraps up her hips to protect them in case she's broke her hip.

There's no time to waste.

Most air ambulances are not permitted to fly in the dark.

Helimed 99 must fly Jade to hospital in nearby Huddersfield

and return to base before night fall.

Air desk from 99, lifting scene en route to Huddersfield.

We've just worked out that we need to be leaving there at five past,

so we need someone there as soon as poss. I know you'll try.

'Yeah, roger. I'll make sure that they're well aware of that.

'Get back to you if we get any issues. Thanks. Over.'

-Hiya. You what?

-You feeling butch?

-Yeah.

Even before the Helimed team reaches its nearby base,

Jade's undergoing tests and X-rays.

Doctors diagnose a broken pelvis.

Their patient's detained in hospital for three days

before being allowed home. And more than a month later,

she's still to ride her new horse for the second time.

At Leeds General Infirmary,

another of the Helimed team's patients is still recuperating.

It's two weeks since Lukasz, the Polish bus driver,

was trapped in his cab by a metal bar.

He's had extensive surgery.

When I arrived to hospital, they took me straightaway on an operation

to remove that metal thing from me.

And it was very high risk of infection cos that metal thing

from outside stuck in my leg for a couple of hours before they took off.

That was the worst part for me cos I was really worried about my leg.

I was even thinking I can lose it

and then they transplant some kind of soft tissues and muscles

and other stuff from this side of my body to put down there

and I was really, really worried about that as well.

Like, how this will be worked all together,

how this will be accepted by the leg.

But now I know it's safe and they said they're happy.

Lukasz's employers have now launched a staff appeal to raise

money for the air ambulance charity.

By the time he's back in the driver's seat,

it's hoped they'll have repaid the cost of his flight.