Episode 19 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, a car overturns

and a passenger is trapped underneath it.

-Try and straighten your arm for me.

-It feels like it's going to pop.

High in the Dales, a DIY job ends in disaster.

There's loose tiles on the roof and we were trying to get 'em off.

This biker's fighting for his life and the driver who hit him,

-didn't stop.

-We didn't see any crash or anything.

We just come when the bike was already on the ground there.

And a pet's in the doghouse.

I heard an almighty thud, cos I was at the front, turned round

and poor Lorraine's on the floor.

Every paramedic has stories of patients who've miraculously

escaped without injury from accidents that

should have killed them.

And, sadly, others who did not have luck on their side.

If the low winter sun is a nuisance for motorists,

it's a serious hazard for air ambulance crews.

Despite darkened visors,

trying to see anything in glare like this is painful.

We should be over it now.

And, today, the sun's dazzling effects are making it hard

for paramedics Matt Syrat and Pete Vallance

even to see the accident they've been called to.

Is that the one?

-Yes, that's the one. Uh, the track is to your right.

-Yeah.

I can't see through the sun.

Over the railway line and it runs past the right-hand side of that dam.

-The T-junction down there.

-I've got to get the sun behind us.

-That's where the grid is.

-The police car is straight below us.

Uh, the road's blocked off here, isn't it?

This is 99, landed on scene, over.

RADIO TONES

On a country road near the mining village of Hemsworth,

a small hatchback has cartwheeled into a field.

-We've got two guys...

-Right.

..there's a lad under the car who is conscious, is breathing,

seems pretty stable at the moment,

complaining of his pain in his lower legs, possibly a crushed foot as well.

Its driver's trapped,

but one of his passengers is in a terrible predicament.

Pinned under the upturned car, he has no feeling in his legs

and freeing him is going to be a long and complicated process.

-So, at the moment, his ABCs seem all right.

-Yeah.

Because the car's sinking into the mud, we're having to prop the car up so we can release him.

He's trapped from his pelvis downwards, so we're not quite sure

what injuries he's got at the moment, we're waiting to see

once the car's lifted from the mud.

All I've saw was a car just lose it here and go bump, bump,

bump, bump into the field.

So, that was it. There was no other vehicle involved.

There were a couple of lads in and then a girl that I think

this lad dragged out of the car.

Firefighters have been doing their best to comfort

-the 22-year-old passenger.

-He can't feel his lower leg.

He can feel it from his knee upwards,

but he can't...but we've now lifted it just to take that pressure off.

And Bob's condition is stable, but paramedics Pete and Matt

know that he will be in most danger when he is finally freed.

Toxins can build up in trapped limbs.

When they're released, patients can go into cardiac arrest.

My mate's just been telling me how you're feeling

and where it's hurting.

Just go through it again now, so have you any pain in your head?

The bottom of my head at the back.

Right, don't move at all,

so, when you're saying "at the bottom of me head", are you talking here?

No, further down.

-Underneath?

-Yeah.

-OK. What about actually here?

Yeah, you've pain there?

-On my neck and both my shoulders, my right shoulder more.

-OK.

While I've got you in this position,

I'm going to take advantage of just feeling down your back. All right?

-Are you hurting here?

-No, but it's not hurting as much.

What about down here?

-I can't feel it. Oh!

-Here?

I can't feel it.

A woman who was travelling in the car is already on her way to

hospital. She escaped almost unhurt.

Now, it's time to free the driver.

He has a suspected neck injury,

but he's understandably concerned about Bob.

Let these guys look after you. He's being looked after, mate.

Just keep your head down, OK?

Try and straighten your arm for me, best you can.

Where is it hurting while you're doing that?

-The back of my shoulder.

-Back of your shoulder? Where I'm touching now, can you feel it?

I can feel it. I can't feel the actual impression.

All right. Straighten it as best you can. Keep coming, keep coming,

keep coming, keep coming. Will it come any further?

-It feels like it's going to pop.

-All right.

Their patient was hurled from the car when it left the road.

It then landed on him.

His survival is a minor miracle, but he's not out of the woods yet.

The biggest problem for us is this ditch is quite deep, actually.

And it's coming out straight in line where the waterline is, so we've just

built a bit of a pontoon just so we can slide him

straight up the ladders and bring him out without him not

having to negotiate this waterway, so, hopefully the plan will work.

Firefighters are using an airbag to slowly release

the pressure on Bob's legs.

The team's carefully monitoring his blood pressure for any signs

that toxins are affecting him.

Happily, there are none.

Is that pain starting to ease? Is that pain relief taking effect?

-I can feel it, yeah.

-Good.

We are going to have to put a board under the shoulder that's hurting.

All right? We can't do it any other way.

As we move up, guys, if you can keep sliding the board under.

Just get that off a minute, it's getting in the way.

I'm trying to move my legs up, but I can't move my legs.

No, you don't need to move, we'll move you, all right?

Bob has worrying symptoms.

Numbness below the waist can be the first sign of a spinal injury,

but as soon as the car is lifted, it's clear feeling is returning.

He was trapped mostly by his hips and his legs.

Uh, with not much of the weight of the car resting on him,

but sufficiently that he was in quite a bit of pain.

He is complaining of a lot of pain in his lower back at the moment.

Ready, steady, up.

BOB GROANS

He's extremely cold at the moment. He's starting to shiver.

I think that is down to the cold rather than anything else at

the moment, so, what we need to do is get him

packaged up as quickly as we can, get him warm,

get him into the aircraft and, given his back injury

and the mechanism that's happened, we're going to take him to

Leeds General Infirmary at the Major Trauma Centre.

It's been raining for days and that fact alone may have

contributed to their patient's survival.

As you can see, it's a bog.

But I think the fact that it's muddy and soft and soggy

has saved his legs. Even though the weight of the car was on top of him,

it literally pushed him into the field, into the mud,

there's not a mark on his feet, not a mark on his legs.

You're lucky that it's such a muddy field.

Yeah.

-Awesome.

-We're not lucky it's a muddy field, but you were.

Helimed 99 is taking off for the Trauma Unit at Leeds General Infirmary.

This is 99, lifted from the scene for LGI.

The team's still taking in its patient's good fortune.

-You're a lucky lad.

-Very lucky.

-He obviously didn't have his seat belt on.

-No.

-This is from 99...

-Yeah, got him.

Put it on the ramp.

In the next half hour, Bob will be examined from head to toe,

scanned and X-rayed.

It's here that it's revealed Bob hasn't been so lucky after all.

His injuries include a fractured spine, a broken sternum

and extensive ligament damage to his shoulder.

He'll spend more than a month in hospital

and require physiotherapy to learn how to walk again.

The UK is a country of 20 million cyclists.

Some do it for thrills, many to get to work,

and even more to get fit.

But getting off the beaten track on two wheels

can have the opposite effect.

ON RADIO: Helimed 99... five minutes to scene. Over.

RADIO TONES

-Roger, thank you. Received.

-This is what, three miles?

Two miles now, yeah.

A ride in the countryside has ended in a freak accident.

Cyclist Tim Storey is 53.

He was enjoying a ride down a bridle path near his home in Barnsley,

when this happened. He staggered to a nearby farmhouse for help.

Now he needs Helimed 99.

It's the job of paramedic Al Day

and pilot John Slater to find a remote farm.

What are we looking for?

Well, there should be an ambulance on scene,

so we're looking for ambulances and a guy come off his push bike.

Right, visual, uh, 2 o'clock now, we're RRVing that...got it. Yeah.

-This young fellow's been riding his mountain bike.

-Yeah.

His forks have snapped at the top,

and he's gone straight down.

All the impact's gone on his head, he's not been wearing a helmet.

-Right.

-He is responding to voice.

-Lovely.

-OK.

-Tim's in a bad way.

Hello, Tim, can you hear me?

He has a deep gash to his face above the nose.

His rescuers know it could conceal even more serious injuries.

All right, we're going to get you loaded onto

the aircraft shortly, OK?

They're protecting their patient's spine, just in case.

What? Is it your back that's hurting?

-Me neck.

-Your neck. All right.

'I heard a knock at the door. Came to answer the door'

and he just said, "Can you help me, love?"

And I just grabbed the towel and the phone,

and got him onto the wall, kept him talking, rung the ambulance,

but then he started to go forward, so I had to lay him

and try to get him in the recovery position.

Thanks to the farming family's first aid,

Tim's had help and reassurance since minutes after the accident.

But paramedic Matt Syrat suspects he may also have a chest injury.

He's listening for the telltale sounds that could indicate

broken ribs or worse.

Because he was alone when the accident happened,

-Tim could also have concussion.

-Do you want me to go up top?

Now, Tim needs hospital care...

and a new bike.

If he had been wearing a helmet, he may not have been as badly hurt.

Right, just square up to the board.

TIM GROANS

Even up a little.

The team's planning to fly Tim to hospital in Sheffield.

Matt has already alerted plastic surgeons.

He's probably going to need an operation.

Thanks to the speed of Helimed 99,

the Northern General Hospital is only ten minutes away.

Like most of the team's patients,

Tim will have no memory of this flight.

What seems to have happened is, he's gone down a bit of a rock or hit

a rock and the front forks on the bike, causing the wheel to come off.

It appears from his injuries that his face has just hit the handlebars.

He's pretty bashed up face-wise, his eye, uh,

a nasty injury to his nose and his lip.

And, chances are, he's also fractured his right clavicle

and his sternum at some point.

You know, he's manageable at the moment,

his observations are really good.

Um, yeah, despite the injury to his chest, he's still got good sounds.

I'm at the single lamppost on the fence behind...by the pay meter.

-They've got the ambulance out. Happy?

-Yep.

Did it hurt, Tim? Did it hurt then?

Tim's now a few metres from the care he desperately needs,

but the Northern General's one of many NHS hospitals built with

little thought for the needs of air ambulances.

He must now be driven from the helipad to A&E.

And, in cases like Tim's, that can mean more pain and discomfort.

Over the next few days, he undergoes plastic surgery,

but, for Tim, his accident and its aftermath remain a blur.

It's three months since his injury.

Curious about what happened to him that day,

Tim's come to meet paramedic Matt to try to make sense of it all.

I've no recollection at all.

The lady that did plastic surgery, she said,

"Your nose is a bit like an eggshell and it's just smashed to pieces!"

Ha, ha! Oh, brilliant!

Visits like this can be therapeutic for people who, like Tim,

-have received head injuries.

-This is the loading side, then?

This is the loading side, if you like.

All our observation equipment, so the blood pressure,

your heart rate, your pulse and things like that.

'Tim was even more badly hurt than first appeared.'

I had two stable fractures in the top of me spine.

Uh, in me neck, and I think I got a fracture in me shoulder.

I've got a broken clavicle, I've then got,

'I think it were 39 stitches in total in me face.

'Me nose is absolutely smashed to pieces.'

'Now he's met the man who flew to his aid and seen the chopper that

'took him for treatment, Tim feels better about his accident.'

He has yet to buy another bike.

The stunning scenery of the Yorkshire Dales

is protected by tough restrictions on building.

No wonder many people are keen to breathe new life back into the many

abandoned buildings that dot the hills,

despite the lack of roads or even running water.

Today, local ambulance crews are heading to a house being

renovated in remote Coverdale, best known for its moorland sheep.

They're likely to be beaten by Helimed 98.

Helimed 98 lifted en route, over.

RADIO: Helimed 98, that's received, thanks.

RADIO TONES

We're heading out to Coverdale where somebody's fallen.

The ambulance service get probably hundreds

of calls a day that are falls.

Most of them are fairly innocuous.

They tend to be what we call a "Nan Down,"

where you just have an old lady who's fallen, can't get back up.

For the guys on the ambulances and response cars,

there will be lots and lots of these.

As a rule we wouldn't normally launch on a fall,

but this one's coded as a long fall, which normally indicates it's

going to be more than between three and ten metres.

Traditional roofs, often hundreds of years old,

are a feature of many buildings in the Dales,

but maintaining them is fraught with danger.

Somebody's come out behind the buildings.

There's a guy in the back garden or whatever.

The team is landing more than 500ft up.

The patient has fallen from the roof of a remote house.

-Yeah. Are you out in the garden?

-This is my neighbour, Dean.

-Hello.

Where have you fallen from?

Up there.

-He was on the lintel.

-You were on that lintel, were you?

-Yeah.

-Right.

There's loose tiles on the roof and we were trying to get 'em off.

-Oh, OK.

-I'm sorry.

-So, I'll have a quick listen to your chest, all right?

-Yeah.

He lives on his own here, but he's a very active gentleman.

He looks after a lot of the neighbour's dogs

and he walks for miles, so he's a very active guy,

so you wouldn't think he's a 60-year-old, that's for sure.

If I weep and wail, you'll just have to go with me.

-Oh, no weeping and wailing!

-Hold still. There we go.

DEAN GROANS

What we're going to do is,

we're going to just move you round onto your back, OK?

-So, you're flat on your back for a minute.

-Yeah.

-OK?

Thank you. Just watch your shoulder.

Dean Smith was staying at the house carrying out repairs.

He could have lain undiscovered for hours

if it hadn't been for his neighbour's dogs,

including two Great Danes which barked so loudly

after the accident that they alerted their owner.

DEAN YELLS

Dean, come on, relax.

DEAN INHALES GAS

-It's the femur that, isn't it?

-Yeah.

Paramedic Al wants to use his strongest painkiller, ketamine.

Moving Dean without it is causing him too much distress.

Right, I'm going to give you some stuff now, OK?

You've had a bit of morphine and that'll take a little while to work.

This stuff's a bit different, OK?

And what it does, it'll make you feel a bit odd.

Is this going to be a bit trippy?

No, it'll just feel like you're not all there,

-like you're having a bit of a...

-Well, that's an everyday occurrence.

You might start to feel strange.

-Tell us when you do, but don't worry about it, OK?

-Right.

We're going to give it to you to the point where we can then start

-moving you and you'll not realise.

-Yeah?

-OK, mate.

-Yeah.

-Good.

DEAN MUMBLES INCOHERENTLY All right then.

But the drug has unpredictable side effects.

At least Dean's not in any pain any more.

DEAN MOANS IN CONFUSION

Are we getting somewhere now, do you think?

It sounds like it.

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds!

The sky's gone a bit weird, has it?

-Right, I'm going to pull your leg now.

-Oh, that's nice.

OK, arms across, nice and relaxed.

Do you know any other Beatles' songs?

DEAN MOANS IN CONFUSION

-I don't remember that one.

-Ah.

-How's it go?

This is really silly, innit?

Hey, ho, yes, zzzz.

It's all going up me leg.

-Support his legs, I'll get his hips.

-Are you actually lifting me now?

-No, no.

-Not just yet, we're just going to slide you.

Hold on to your hands. Keep your hands company.

-And slightly that way he needs to go as well, just slightly.

-OK.

-Everybody happy?

-DEAN GASPS

Ready, steady, slide.

Well done. That wasn't too bad, was it, Dean?

Oh, that's a smashing face you're pulling.

Step down one.

Another step.

Quite a difficult little situation where he was in there,

but we managed to get him...what we had to do was get him

stabilised, leg strapped up, and get him warm, so we've got him

in a big pizza bag now, so, hopefully, he'll be getting toasty.

-I'm a bit worried about me dogs.

-Your dogs will be fine.

OK, ready, steady, lift.

DOGS BARK

Dean's understandably concerned for the welfare of the pets

that may have saved his life, but they'll be in good hands.

THEY BARK

-Oh, I'm going for a ride in a helicopter.

-Yep.

-Oh, I am so happy.

-Get this door shut.

-The team's going to fly Dean direct

to hospital in Middlesbrough. It looks like he may need surgery.

We'll be there in about ten minutes now.

Jolly good.

-Ten minutes.

-A fractured femur is

one of the most painful injuries you can have.

You know, the ketamine works in a few minutes

and you go from being in absolute agony, screaming and shouting,

horrendous pain, to...he's no longer in any pain

and he's quite sort of relaxed and blase about the whole experience.

As the team fear, Dean has broken his thigh bone.

It'll be some time before he's fit to return to Coverdale

and his four-legged friends.

They are well looked after by his neighbour, and he's later

reunited with the Great Danes, which all but dialled 999.

Bikers make up just 1% of Britain's road-users,

but 20% of the fatalities on our roads,

and it's often on high routes like this on the peaks

and the Pennines that accidents happen and, today,

another needs the Helimed team's help.

We're off to a motorcyclist who's come off.

We don't know many details about what's happened, but

what we think is

that he may be unresponsive and quite poorly.

The chopper's circling one of the many rural roads crisscrossing

the hills near Huddersfield.

We can see there's an ambulance down at 11 o'clock low on that road,

and it will be somewhere along here.

The biker Terry Braithwaite from Halifax was out for a ride.

Now, he's fighting for his life.

I'm just going to get a scoop out.

-This is Terry. We haven't got a lot of his medical history.

-All right.

Nobody's seen the accident.

Erm, he was with some other lads here who have been out biking

with him, so clearly what's happened...erm, obviously,

you can see the state of his bike down there.

Ground paramedics know the helicopter is probably

Terry's only chance.

By road, he's at least half an hour from the nearest trauma unit.

The accident's a bit of a mystery, his bike is badly damaged and Terry

-was discovered by motorists.

-We was just driving along.

We've seen the biker crashed down on the floor there.

And we just offered any assistance we could to the guy

and to his friend there.

They waited for an ambulance team to turn up.

That's all we saw, really. We didn't see any crash or anything.

We just came when the bike was already on the ground there.

We're not going to roll him too far, cos it could be the pelvis,

-all right?

-Right, OK.

-Just put your hands together. OK, and move.

Ready, steady, move. Just a fraction.

Let's get him up. Not too far, not too far.

Terry's right hand is all but severed,

but that's the least of his problems.

Right, so, airway we've done as much as we can. Breathing's OK.

Circulation, BP's a bit hypertensive. He's got concussion signs, hasn't he?

Yeah, he has, yeah. Do you want to relocate?

Yes, it's going to be easier than dragging him all over that field.

Steve, do you think you can relocate for us?

Andy wants to get his patient into Leeds General Infirmary

as quickly as possible.

Carrying Terry across the rough ground to the chopper could

take valuable time.

Pilot Steve's going to land Helimed 98 on the tarmac.

Can we just get ECG on his just for a second?

Just pop the spots on him.

Yeah, right pupil's going.

Paramedic Andy fears 40-year-old Terry has a serious brain injury.

Yeah, we're GCEMS 902,

we've just been told in the last five or ten minutes.

The pupils of his eyes are wide open, a common sign that

swelling inside his head is constricting his optic nerves.

I just think...he's definitely blowing up. Right.

Paramedic Sam is a biker himself.

He knows every second counts

and moving the chopper may save a fellow rider's life.

Statistically, more bikers are killed or injured

on a Sunday afternoon than at any other time of the week.

Police are already trying to solve the puzzle of Terry's accident.

-Thanks for your help.

-All right, cheers, bud.

-Yeah, thanks, everybody, yeah, cheers.

-Cheers, guys, see you later.

All Andy can do is give his patient oxygen

and try to keep up his blood pressure with fluids.

He desperately needs the care only available in

a Neurology Department and that's only minutes away.

Andy knows his patient's outlook isn't good.

Consultants are being called down to the LGI's Resus Room.

Many bikers have been admitted in Terry's condition.

Few have survived.

His main concern is a head injury.

He's what's called a GCS 3,

which basically means he's unconscious, no response.

Over the next few days, Terry hovers close to death.

His family are warned he is unlikely to make it,

but this is one biker who is determined to beat the statistics.

Slowly, his brain starts to recover and,

after weeks in intensive care, he's finally sent to a normal ward.

Six months after the crash, he's allowed home.

There you go.

'I think I were in Leeds LGI for nine weeks,

'I was in intensive care for three, and then I went to Halifax.'

I was in Halifax for two weeks.

The hand was severed at the...at the wrist.

It was the two joints on the hand...

had come apart, and the hand was hanging off,

hanging on basically by the skin.

The knuckles and all the flesh area was all detached.

But it'll never be 100%,

but it's far better than not having a hand at all.

Terry has no memory of three months of his life,

but one important mystery has been solved by the police.

This car, damaged by Terry's body and his bike,

was found near the accident.

The driver is later prosecuted for failing to stop.

I have been told I was laid there unconscious,

laid out there on the left-side of the road in front of this car.

And I've been told that he drove past my body and left me.

I'm so grateful, very grateful, to all the paramedics,

the hospital staff, and I know,

definitely, I would not be here

if it wasn't for the speed of the helicopter.

Most paramedics leave their patients at the hospital door.

Not fellow biker Sam Burgess who fought to keep Terry alive.

He visited him while he was still unconscious

-and still keeps in touch.

-Hi, Terry, how are you doing?

-Yeah, very well.

It's nice to see you again, mate. You're looking well.

One day, he reckons, they'll ride together.

-I am very, very lucky to be alive.

-Oh, definitely, yeah.

-I wasn't very...well.

-You weren't very well, no.

-At all.

But I still can't believe it's only like, was it six months now?

-Six months.

-Six months.

I still can't believe how well you done, up and walking about.

Me and Andy, the other paramedic in the helicopter,

we...both thought that you might not make it.

Well, I know if I wasn't, uh...

..attended to by yourselves, and Leeds, um...

I know for a fact I wouldn't be here.

Terry's now blind in one eye and he's still recovering from a

fracture to his spine, but simply surviving is, for him, enough.

The hills of the Pennines have a well-deserved reputation

for rainfall, which is why they're full of reservoirs

supplying water for the 10 million people who

live in the North's big cities.

Today, Helimed 99's heading for Scammonden Dam,

a huge reservoir on Yorkshire's border with Greater Manchester.

RADIO: Helimed 99, good morning...

RADIO DROWNED OUT BY ROTORS

We're on our way out towards Huddersfield,

towards the Scammonden Reservoir for a patient that's fallen.

I believe he's fractured his ankle quite badly.

It's quite a difficult access area, I believe, as well,

so we're going to go and provide some support and we'll go from there.

And I think it's the person at the bottom of the dam that's

-done his leg, hasn't it?

-Where are you looking?

This man-made lake holds 1.7 billion gallons of water

and the footpath that zigzags up the dam wall is a real test of fitness.

-What do we call you?

-Marcus.

-Marcus, I'm Leon.

-What's been happening this morning?

-I just came running down the hill.

Just along the path? OK.

I marched down here, slipped on this ice here

-and just...I think I've broken my ankle.

-OK, yeah...

Keep-fit fanatic Marcus Szemruk was out jogging around the dam,

when he slipped on ice.

He won't be putting on his running shoes again for a while.

His ankle is badly broken.

Just keep him warm and a box splint and I'll get a line in him

and we'll go from there.

Marcus was spotted by walkers at the top of the dam.

I saw he was in pain, you could tell by the way he was holding

himself, so we made our way down the steps very slowly on the ice...

to him, but he'd already dialled for an ambulance, so, yeah...

-Gave him coats.

-Just gave him coats, keep him warm with it,

and then his, I think, his sister arrived,

and then, not long after, the helicopter came in.

Marcus was lucky to get help.

Mobile phones are designed to allow 999 calls even

when the signal is weak and that's a good thing for Marcus.

With the temperature still well below zero,

it wouldn't have been long before he developed hypothermia.

When we got here, he was already cold, so I think the best thing to do is keep him a bit warmer

and get him as warm as possible. I didn't want to move him,

cos you don't know what he's done and I don't want to start

dragging somebody around on the floor with their probably broken ankle.

Does that feel any better with that box splint on?

-Um, it feels more secure.

-More secure, that's the main thing.

-I can feel the pressure round here.

-Feel the pressure, yeah?

Marcus, what I'm going to do is...give that morphine

a couple of minutes to work. I'll give you the rest of the dose.

And between me and Tony, we'll support you either side down to the aircraft.

We'll get you out that sleeping bag and fly you to Huddersfield. That's the closest hospital.

-It should only be a two or three minute flight.

-OK.

-All right.

-You not feeling dizzy or funny at all?

-No.

-No?

Now warm and safe in Helimed 99,

he's been flown to hospital in Huddersfield.

The doctors set his ankle and send him home on crutches.

It's spring before he's fit to run again and he'll be

wary about tackling the slopes of Scammonden alone in the future.

The dramatic landscape of the Yorkshire Dales will soon be

the improbable backdrop of the greatest race on earth,

the Tour de France, and its lanes are already a popular

destination for riders who want to try the route for themselves.

But, today, one cyclist's ride around North Yorkshire has

come to a rather abrupt end.

OK, cheers.

We received details about a car and cyclist RPC.

We've got reports at the scene of

the cyclist who's been knocked unconscious,

so, potentially, quite a serious transfer of energy there.

A nasty mechanism of injury,

we've been tasked again to see if we can provide any assistance.

-They're the ones behind.

-How about football posts? I can't see it.

-It's not started moving yet.

-OK.

There's a little gate there to the right. That might help you.

Out of visual. I'm just going to put it here for the time being.

-You all right, guys?

-Every year in this country,

around 19,000 cyclists are killed or injured on the roads and serving

police officer Mark Whitehouse has just become one of them.

How long was he knock out for?

We think about a minute.

Have a look and go from there.

Right, mate, cos of what's happened, we'd like to give you a proper check over,

so I'm going to cut your shirt off, if that's all right with you.

'The accident happened on the crossroads outside the village pub.'

The landlady ran to help Mark.

I heard an almighty bang

and then the chap who was driving ran to the window.

He said, "Call an ambulance."

And then I just came out and stayed with him, I tried to keep him still.

OK, we're going to roll on three.

One, two, three.

Mark is coping remarkably well following the collision,

but paramedics are playing it safe.

He's strapped to a spinal stretcher

until a back injury can be ruled out.

One thing that can help the paramedics work out what

sort of injuries Mark may have sustained is his head gear.

He has hit his head quite hard on the concrete,

he's got quite a big crack to his cycle helmet, so we're just going to

get him onto the ambulance where it's a bit more private, do a few more checks

and then see if we'll fly him up to James Cook or if he'll go by road.

RADIO: Yeah, 13 miles, 25 miles James Cook Road.

Cheers, mate.

You can see here...

we've got a crack there.

And it follows on there.

Now, these helmets are designed to break on impact and, you know,

and once you've had an impact like that, this helmet is no longer

any use, you'd have to throw it away and buy a new one.

We always take these to hospital because it gives them

some indication to the doctors at hospital about what's

actually happened and where they might be thinking to look for injuries,

so, we'll take that on with us and see what they make of that.

Mark's damaged helmet clearly shows the force of the crash

and the crew know that, although alert and calm now,

he could have sustained internal injuries

and needs to be checked over thoroughly in hospital.

The decision is taken to fly Mark to Middlesbrough,

nearly 40 miles away.

There's always a potential with any bang on the head, especially

when he's hit the concrete and cracked his helmet,

that he's got some occult injuries.

Especially a slow occult bleed that we might not be able to detect now,

but might become prominent in the next few hours.

So, with that in mind, we'll take him

to James Cook, cos that's one of the neurosurgical centres in the country.

They can scan him, hopefully there will be nothing found

and he can be discharged later on, but, if he is poorly,

then, it'll be the best place to deal with him.

-I'll put the tail your way out.

-OK.

Mark was taking a route he has ridden several times before

as part of his training. A keen sportsman,

he recently took part in an Iron Man competition which sees

competitors swim, cycle and run a distance of over 130 miles in total.

-Ready, steady, slide.

-It's not compulsory to wear a cycle helmet.

If it was, some experts say three out of four riders who

suffered head injuries would have escaped unhurt.

Mark certainly benefitted from his.

He's examined in the James Cook Trauma Unit and sent home.

Apart from mild concussion and bruises,

he's otherwise fit to get back on his bike.

Becoming a paramedic isn't easy.

Most have degrees, and advances in medicine mean these guys

never stop learning.

Every week, there's a new technique or a new treatment to learn.

'But, when they join the Helimed team,

'it's back to the classroom again.'

Not only must paramedics Leon and Darrell know how

to handle dozens of possible in-flight emergencies,

they must also grasp the art of navigation.

I got a request for...for to attend a detail.

A lady's apparently fallen in some mud and dislocated

her patella or her kneecap.

The crew could have some difficulties getting the advice,

so we're going down there with a view to give them

a hand just cos there's an access problem.

I think this is it. This is it here. The junction in the road, we've got

the A1 down the side of this main road coming across here.

-So, well put it in front of these wind farms, just in here.

-Yeah.

The team has a grid reference, but a green energy company has made the

task harder by building a wind farm that's yet to make it onto the map.

The crew are now with the patient,

but they are saying they do require you for access issues,

and they need you at the scene. Over.

RADIO TONES

Can you see them people that are standing around? Is that them?

99, visual now, over.

RADIO TONES

It looks really boggy.

Yeah.

Ground paramedics have called in the chopper to an embankment half

a mile from the nearest road.

DOGS BARK They're all friendly, are they?

That's good to know!

The patient is Lorraine Walker, who was out with a dog walking group

when one member of the party got a little excited with painful results.

Hiya.

I'm Darrell. You all right? What's your name again?

-Lorraine.

-Lorraine.

-It looks like Lorraine has dislocated her kneecap,

a very painful injury.

The patella is a bone that should float in front of the knee joint.

When she fell, Lorraine's slipped out of position.

The villain of the piece is well and truly in the doghouse.

They've all run about me, got really tired, had a fabulous time,

and we were just on the way back.

We got as far as here, I heard an almighty thud,

cos I was at the front, turned round and poor Lorraine's on the floor.

-Are you feeling a bit woozy with that Entonox?

-Yeah.

-Right.

Well, if it's easing off a bit now,

we'll probably just give you this morphine...

Darrell's trying to get on top of Lorraine's pain.

Morphine should do the trick.

'Lorraine was out with a new group of friends.

'Few of them know each other well.'

We've just formed a small dog walking group,

just through the internet,

and we all met and went for a walk with the dogs

and they all ran around all round here, which is

really nice for 'em and they all met each other,

and we were just making our way back and the lady just fell over.

We don't even really know each other yet, we've only just...

We've only just started.

At the moment, then, Lorraine, is it bearable that...?

-Your blood pressure's a little bit low.

-Yeah.

The morphine has taken effect, but Lorraine's knee is still hurting.

Darrell would like to give her more, but he can't.

The drug has reduced her blood pressure

and a bigger dose could be dangerous.

Are you able to just ease your bum over? I'll support your knee.

-There we go.

-They say that the best way to get to know people

is to buy a dog and Lorraine's fall has certainly

broken the ice for these pet owners.

-Just let me just get the corner.

-Might feel a little unsteady, this.

-All right, well, there's plenty of us.

-Ready, steady, lift.

-Are you OK with the dog?

-Absolutely fine.

We'll see to your dog.

The team's going to fly its patient to the local hospital.

Lorraine's injury may be painful, but it's not serious.

Normally, her case wouldn't justify a flight,

but this is a tricky location to get a stretcher out of.

Darrell's confident his patient will make a good recovery,

but, until her kneecap is restored to its proper position,

there's nothing more he can do to make Lorraine comfortable.

Lorraine, she dislocated her patella,

so, she was in quite considerable pain when we got there and,

previously, she had a right knee dislocation,

so, it might be that she's just, you know,

open to these sorts of injuries, but the fact that the crew had got

her topped with analgesic up prior to her getting in,

made things a lot easier.

Cleared the trees now...

CONVERSATION DROWNED OUT BY ROTORS

There's posts on my side, I can't see...ah, yeah.

Straight ahead is the post, isn't it?

So, what we're going to do now is leave you on this board.

I'm going to put you onto the road ambulance and they're going to

take you round to Doncaster A&E department, all right?

We'll get it x-rayed when we get you into the A&E department.

Lorraine's going to complete her journey by road.

Later, she's given stronger painkillers

and doctors treat her injury in A&E.

She's soon allowed home.

Although she's been told she may need surgery,

-she doesn't bear any grudges.

-Fetch it!

Dogs never really get the chance to socialise because people,

when they see another dog coming,

instinctively put the lead on them and steer them away.

We'd gone along to the side of the river that day,

and the dogs had had a really good run round

and got on really well, and we were just setting off to come back...

and one of the dogs jumped in the river,

I turned round to look at it,

and then I felt an almighty sort of bang in the back of my knee

and one of the dogs, I don't know which one it was,

had run into the back of my leg.

My leg just sort of twisted and I feel my kneecap come out

and then just sort of crumpled onto the ground really.

I can remember somebody saying to me, "Don't get up just yet."

And me saying, "I'm not going to be getting up,

because my knee's come out." Come on then, Rex!

Come on then. Come on then. Hoi!

I really would like to go out with the dog walking team again,

because I still think it's a great idea, despite what's happened

and, I don't know, you tend to think the same thing can't happen twice.

Maybe!