Episode 2 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 are 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 is 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, high in the Dales,

a walker is badly injured,

and pilot Ian must pull off a daring landing.

Just looking at the power situation,

because I can't afford to turn around in there.

The fire brigade dials 999 after a training day goes wrong.

He knew himself what he'd done when he fell down.

He saw the injury straightaway,

so luckily we had first aid kits with us.

And in Brideshead country, a retired jockey is hurt in a freak accident.

You see that post there,

it snapped the post off and thrown it from there to here, hitting him.

There's 1,000 miles of footpath in the Yorkshire Dales.

And in some places, walking is the only way to get around.

It means, if you get into trouble,

you could be ten miles or more from the nearest house.

And if you think this is going to get you out of trouble, think again.

High in the Dales, spring can be a long time coming.

It's April, and the mountain rescue teams are still being kept busy

by walkers caught out by the last gasp of winter.

Today, Helimed 98 is being scrambled to help out

at an incident in a remote part of Swaledale.

High above the village of Gunnerside,

an injured walker needs help.

Go ahead.

Just to let you know, Swaledale Mountain Rescue have been informed.

Do you want to get your radio onto 62 Alpha,

because it sounds like mountain rescue are the wrong team?

Paramedic Al Day is a mountain rescue leader himself

in his spare time.

He knows that finding an injured man in these peaks could be tough.

The kind of problem for us is when you are looking at the map

of the Gunnerside area,

you can see there's about 1,000 little gills.

It's in that sort of area to the north of Gunnerside,

and he could be realistically in any one of these, really.

So we'll have to keep our eyes peeled.

So that beck in there, I think that's that one there.

OK, slow it down a little bit.

Just having a look.

Spotting a patch of red fabric

in hundreds of square miles of snow and rock is hard.

But the crew of Helimed 98 has done it.

I've got somebody down at two o'clock, two red jackets,

by the side of a waterfall.

-Coming into your three o'clock now, Ian.

-OK, looking.

Visual, got it.

Swaledale is the most rugged of the Yorkshire Dales.

Captain Ian will have his work cut out to land here.

Got the landing site visual.

I'm aiming for the flat area ground

to the right-hand side of the casualty.

-Everybody happy?

-Happy with that.

OK, so all I'm interested in is clearance down the valley,

which should be fine at this height.

Just looking at the power situation, just bear with me a second.

Descending into a deep valley,

Ian must make sure he has the power to climb out.

There's too much of a slope on this one, I'll have to lift off again.

-OK.

-Because I can't afford to turn round in there.

So we'll just go forward.

Just going forward.

Ian used to fly for the Special Forces,

but landing down here is just too risky.

Unfortunately, I haven't got the power to spare

to mess about in that valley.

He needs to lighten the load.

Clear to my left.

He's landing at the top of the ravine to drop off half his crew.

And skids are about to put down.

Goods are down.

Paramedic Al will have to take the hard way down to their patient.

A 300-foot climb down a rocky hillside.

With Helimed 98's rotor blades feet from the walls of the ravine,

Ian now has to find a patch of ground flat enough to touch down.

Yes, move to the left. Fly down?

Yes. Keep coming.

-OK, and down.

-There?

-Yes, down there. I'm happy enough with that.

No, I've got nothing on the right-hand side,

it's just open ground on the right.

If you want to come further left, it's flat.

-OK.

-Coming left.

Coming left.

It's tricky, but years of experience and a little help

from a paramedic Matt puts Helimed 98 safely on the ground,

much to the relief of serious walker Ronald Scott.

What are the injuries, and we definitely required?

-So I can tell the pilot.

-This guy can't move, right?

He's got... He can't move a hip and the upper leg on his left side.

Through a fall?

He's done the easy bit, he's come down here

-and just slipped on that rock and come back.

-OK.

Ronald was well prepared for the unseasonal weather.

But some loose rocks have left him with a broken hip.

Next trick is, how do we get you out?

His friends were well equipped too,

each with fully charged mobile phones,

but that's not enough in Swaledale.

We tried at the top of the hill for a mobile signal,

but we couldn't get one.

So the rest of the party went down to Gunnerside,

and as soon as they could get a signal

or could get to a public telephone,

they were going to phone for help.

Getting him out of this ravine is going to be

just as hard as reaching him.

As Ronald's rescuers have discovered,

finding a casualty in the featureless landscape

of the Yorkshire Dales is a daily struggle for the Helimed team.

One valley looks much like another,

and some places are in shadow for much of the day.

But, occasionally, a major landmark

makes reaching the patient a lot easier.

-I can see it now, I think.

-Yes. That big rock.

Across Yorkshire, there are dozens of rock faces,

but one of the best for climbers is Almscliffe Crag near Harrogate.

Rock climbing is a dangerous sport,

and today, one man has fallen ten feet and badly broken his lower leg.

Getting the chopper close to the scene is going to be

difficult for pilot Andy Hall.

Has anybody landed here before?

Have you got a good idea where is a good place to land?

To be honest, it's a bit sloping, and you tend to end up

landing not too close to the rocks.

-So it's a bit of a walk for us normally.

-OK.

The party is halfway down the rock face,

making this rescue even harder.

Between these two rocks is probably the flattest bit.

-We're not going to land on there, mate.

-No.

In this corner, that's the best I can offer you.

INDISTINCT

Almscliffe Crag is miles from the nearest hospital,

and the only way to get the patient out of here quickly and safely

is by air ambulance.

But it's a hot day and it's a long trek up the hill

for paramedic Tony Wilkes.

This is a tough rescue.

The injured climber is part of a group of off-duty firefighters.

We are all members of West Yorkshire Fire service, various stations,

mainly Leeds, Stanningley, and myself at Morley.

We've just come out to do a bit of climbing today.

Not usually dealing with your colleagues, but you just do

the same thing really, it's just that you've got a bit of rapport

with them, so he knew himself what he'd done when he fell down.

You could see his injury straightaway,

so luckily we had first aid kits with us.

And we just tried to make him as comfortable as possible

until the paramedics got here.

Paul Minelli has suffered a nasty break in his lower leg.

The bone has come through the front of his shin.

Ground crews have got his leg splinted,

and Tony will have to administer morphine.

Come up with the group, we're quite experienced at climbing,

but this lad is actually more experienced than the rest of us.

But he overstretched himself.

He did a bit of bouldering on there, which is quite the norm.

He's come off thinking he was safe when he landed.

But obviously hit the ground

and he's gone over one of these small rocks

you can see on the ground.

Pilot Andy Hall is able to bring Helimed 99 closer to the scene.

Paul is in such pain that the trek down the hill

would have really hurt.

-The pain is the same as when I first did it.

-Just come down.

It's not anything like it was when they were putting crepitus on it.

-Can we have someone who doesn't mind lifting?

-Yes.

Now, Paul is on a stretcher, and luckily for paramedic Tony,

there's no shortage of help to get him onto the chopper.

We'll just get him on the stretcher now and take him off

in the air ambulance to Leeds. Take him to hospital.

Then we're going to get his dog in his car and take that home for him.

-Take him down.

-Yes.

-Go ahead. OK?

Just feed him on top of the wall and just relax him on top of the wall.

-Yes.

-OK, sliding.

Paul will be out of action for some time.

A break like his can take three months to properly heal,

so no more rock climbing and no more fighting fires for some weeks ahead.

Keep coming, keep coming.

Keep coming, and down. That's cracking.

But the team know it's unlikely this is the last time

the chopper is called to Almscliffe Crag.

There was a time when Yorkshire wool dressed the world.

The mills of Halifax and Bradford generated a source of money

that would make Richard Branson and Alan Sugar envious,

making cloth that lasted a lifetime.

Now fashion means most people throw away this spring's must-have

by the end of summer.

But that's good news for the Helimed team.

Recycling is big business. And a major moneyspinner.

Across the UK, clothes recycling shops have popped up everywhere.

Here in Yorkshire, the air ambulance receives a huge donation,

thanks to money made through the selling on of unwanted clothes.

We as a company raise over £300,000 a year for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance

and have been one of their leading contributors

over the past seven years we've been working with them.

Plants like this one sort through bags of unwanted garments

and fabrics, which will then go on to have a new lease of life.

The vehicle is coming back to our depot here in Halifax,

but the product is unloaded into bales and is stored,

awaiting collection by our partners from both Europe and the UK.

The product you see in these bales can be clothes, shoes,

household textiles, continental quilts, duvets, things like that.

They'll all go to our partners where they are graded into

about 100-150 different grades of clothing.

They are then sold on to the second-hand clothing market

throughout Europe and Africa.

Just an update. Still a query on injury.

He is conscious and breathing, but is now not trapped.

INDISTINCT

Today, Helimed 98 is heading for another recycling depot

in the market town of Northallerton,

where a forklift truck has overturned.

-There's a guy waving.

-I've got him, in the jacket.

-Yes.

-Just be aware there's skips.

-Yeah.

Pilot Chris is landing in the backyard of the plant

on an industrial estate.

And you're still clear.

Initially, we got the call that this person might be trapped

under a forklift. But he's now apparently not trapped any more,

which is obviously a good thing.

Obviously, quite a lot of weight involved,

so it depends how he's been trapped,

what part of his body has actually been put pressure on.

Their patient is 17-year-old Ryan Bull.

He has a serious crush injury to his arm.

What's your pain like, Ryan?

-If you had to score it out of 10, 0 being no pain, 10 being...

-10.

I was turning the forklift round

and I think I turned it round too far forward.

Like too fast.

And it's just gone straight onto my arm and...

next thing I know, I'm on the floor.

Forklift trucks are dangerous,

which is why the drivers need to pass a test

before they can use them.

Ryan is lucky he is not more seriously injured.

This chap has been incredibly lucky.

Looks like he's got an isolated elbow fracture, which is open,

so the body sticking out and it's bled quite a lot on the floor.

There is no other apparent injuries,

but the forearm is numb,

and he's got reduced blood supply to that arm.

So he needs really to go to hospital for surgery on that.

Ryan's arm is very badly broken, and his elbow is dislocated.

As he fell from the forklift, his leg was also trapped.

When Gareth's finished checking your feet out,

we'll get you on the back of the ambulance,

have a look at this arm and see if we need to do anything else with that.

Then we'll get you down to the hospital. OK?

Ah!

Death rates among forklift truck drivers are high.

An average, a driver dies every month.

Ryan's mum Sonia has turned up.

One of her close friends was killed

a few weeks ago in a similar accident.

When she got the call about Ryan, she rushed straight here.

When I got this phone call, it absolutely killed me.

I said, "Is he all right?"

They said, "We don't know, we just need to get there."

When I came and I saw it was the arm, I thought,

"I can live if he didn't have an arm," do you know?

As long as I've still got my boy.

I adopted him over two years ago.

He's a good boy, he doesn't drink, doesn't smoke, doesn't take drugs.

Ryan's serious crush injury and dislocated elbow

has cut off blood supply to his hand, which has now turned blue.

Putting the dislocated bone back into place can really hurt,

so he's going to need much stronger pain relief.

He's had some morphine, but that hasn't really done the job fully,

so we'll give him some ketamine, which works in different ways.

Essentially, it's a stronger painkiller.

-Sorry, bud.

-I can feel that.

Dr Rob Anderson has arrived to administer the ketamine

and reset Ryan's arm.

-Right, just...

-Keep going on that gas, now.

-There you go, it's in.

-Ah!

There's no reaction from him when they were manipulating it.

So, the pain relief works really well on him.

Now Ryan has had pain relief,

it's time to bandage him up and get him off to surgery.

All right, Ryan?

Paramedics Tony and Daz will take Ryan to James Cook Hospital

in Middlesbrough.

Ryan won't remember this flight,

as the effects of the ketamine take hold.

Just let the wheels take it, mate.

He won't remember anything of this now.

No, he's just away with the fairies, isn't he?

There are around 8,000 forklift truck accidents

in the UK every year.

Ryan is lucky to be alive, but he's not out of the woods yet.

It's concerning, if he has one painful injury

that's masking other serious ones.

But we've worked out the mechanics of the incident,

and we don't think there's been any forces involved

that could have caused any spinal injuries,

he's not hit his head or anything.

The waiting surgeons at James Cook

will have to try and rebuild Ryan's crushed arm

and check for other injuries.

His arm has a very deep wound,

and he could have very serious long-term nerve damage.

From the cockpit, the crews of the Helimed choppers

can enjoy some of the UK's most famous tourist attractions,

and Castle Howard is certainly one of the grandest.

It was the setting for TV's Brideshead Revisited

and numerous movies.

Today, its surrounding hills are a holiday

destination in their own right.

But it's not the countryside that brings the Helimed team here.

Helimed 98's heading to the village of Scackleton, population just 100,

where an elderly woman is having a heart attack.

Paramedic Sammy Wills must save her.

-Whereabouts are we?

-Straight through this door.

-This one?

-Yeah.

The patient is 71-year-old Margaret Edwards.

-She's had GTM, aspirin and oxygen.

-Yeah.

-That's all I can give.

-That's fantastic.

-Pain went down to a six,

but it's gone back up.

We're just west of Malton in North Yorkshire.

Um, got an elderly lady who's living in quite a remote area,

who's complaining of chest pain.

We've got here, and it does look like she's having a heart attack.

Earlier in the day, Margaret had been complaining

of tightness across her chest and pains in her arms and back -

pains which have become worse.

Paramedics need to reduce her pain before they can move her.

-All right, there, Margaret?

-Mm-hm...

-Yeah.

Hello, my name's Sammy.

I'm one of the paramedics with Yorkshire Air Ambulance,

the helicopter. Hello.

I wonder if you would accept a young lady, 71-year-old,

with central chest pains.

One or more of the arteries to her heart have become blocked,

which is causing the attack.

She needs to get to hospital quickly to undergo immediate surgery.

Clots will be removed and arteries will be opened up

so blood can start flowing again.

Right, we can give you something to take away that sickness.

Does Margaret take any medication?

-You're not allergic to anything, are you?

-Oh, no.

-No.

The nearest hospital that can treat her appropriately,

put stents in her heart, if appropriate,

is James Cook in Middlesbrough.

So, she's had everything we can give her as far as drugs -

she's had morphine to ease the pain and relax the heart

and one or two other bits and pieces to help.

We'll be getting off in the next five minutes

and taking her up to James Cook. They've been pre-alerted,

they're expecting us,

so hopefully the lady within the next half hour

will have had the best treatment you can get anywhere, really,

for this type of condition.

Bit of fresh air for you, Margaret, all right?

Heart problems are so common that the emergency response

and medical treatment for patients has been perfected,

dramatically increasing survival rates.

Put her down there a second.

That's it. Now, watch your head, as well, though.

And turn yourself round.

Just let me know if you feel sick, I've got another bowl.

-Just want to go straight up and down from here.

-Yep.

Pilot Andy Lister will make the ten-minute flight to James Cook.

By road from here the journey could easily take over an hour.

A heart attack victim can go into full cardiac arrest at any moment,

so Sammy needs to keep a very close eye on Margret's condition.

Margaret's heart is struggling to keep her blood circulating.

She'll be taken straight from the helipad into the cardiac unit

where surgeons are on stand-by 24 hours a day for cases like this.

They insert a small spring, or stent,

into a blood vessel in her heart to restore blood flow.

It makes a big difference,

and within days, Margaret is on her way home to Brideshead country.

In the hills close to Yorkshire's rocky border with County Durham,

mountain rescue volunteers are hard at work

helping the helimed team airlift an injured walker from the fells.

So, I take it you've slipped on the rocks...

-On those slippy stones, there.

-Back here.

-Went straight down.

I realised straightaway I just couldn't get back up.

-OK.

-Three colleagues lifted me up...

-Yep.

-..and I've been lying in this position.

-OK.

-You can see my leg is, you know...

-Yeah.

-..out at an angle.

Walker Ronald Scott is badly hurt.

He needs surgery, but that's a long way from this narrow valley

above the village of Gunnerside.

-How about round there?

-I can feel you.

-Tender?

-Tender, that's all.

-Yeah.

-OK. And is it hurting your groin?

-No.

-OK.

Ronald's friends realised the seriousness of his injury

immediately, but getting help up here is far from simple.

That's it, you're on the board. We need to go that way now.

It's now an hour since the 999 call, and the cold is beginning to bite.

This is a big, woolly sleeping bag.

-Once their stretcher gets here, we'll actually put you inside it.

-OK.

It looks like he's, um, he's broken, um, his big thighbone at the top,

where it goes round into his hip joint there.

Um, which is evident by the shortening of rotation of his leg,

but he's not in a huge amount of pain, he's fairly comfortable,

and we've got him flat now.

Communications are always difficult in this gully, um,

but from a kind of mountain rescue point of view,

relatively straightforward and very helpful,

well-organised party as well, which makes a big difference for us.

It'll be a long walk home for the rescue team,

including those with four legs.

Ready, steady, move.

Oh, perfect!

Ronald's accident happened on the site of a long-abandoned lead mine.

Today, no-one lives within five miles of this spot, and he's lucky

his journey to treatment will take less than 20 minutes.

With Ronald on board, pilot Ian is once again going to have fight

Pennines downdrafts and gravity to get his patient to hospital.

COMMUNICATION OVER RADIO

Whilst it still looks like midwinter in the Dales,

spring's in the air in urban Teesside.

Ronald's being flown to the James Cook Hospital in Middlesbrough.

It'll be some time before he can put his walking boots on again,

but he's grateful to his rescuers.

-See you again?

-No, you won't see me!

-Thank you very much indeed! Superb and professional!

-Take care.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Back in Brideshead country, the leafy lanes

of the Howardian Hills are a favourite with tourists.

A quarter of a million people look around historic Castle Howard

every year, but ten times that number visit the surrounding countryside,

and many come on two wheels.

Helimed 98 has been scrambled

to a minor road on the edge of the estate.

-Yeah, Roger.

-Might be going towards a place called East Grinstead.

The team has sat nav, but pinning down the scene of an accident

is always done the old-fashioned way, with a map and a marker pen.

Yeah, this is pretty good access, mate.

We're good on the left, well clear of the fence line.

How you doing, you all right?

His name's Gareth, they think he's dislocated his hip and that.

-All right, no problem. Hello, there, you all right?

-Yeah.

-All right, mate, how you doing?

-OK.

-What we call you?

-Gareth.

-Gareth.

Can you remember what happened?

-Yeah, I just came round the corner hit the gravel.

-OK.

Did you slide here or worked your way here?

-Er... I slid here, I think.

-Slid here.

-I think I slid here.

-OK.

And who took your helmet off?

-Did somebody...?

-I think I did.

-You did, OK.

44-year-old Gareth Jones has a suspected broken hip.

He's slid down, rather than got thrown off,

so he's kind of laid the bike down and slid this way.

-He's took his own helmet off, he's got no neck or back pain.

-OK.

Just the left hip, running to the front...

Many of the lanes of Brideshead country were laid out

at the same time as Castle Howard's ornamental grounds.

They were fine for horse-drawn carriages,

but modern bikers, like Gareth, are often caught out.

-There?

-Yeah.

-OK.

Out in this part of Yorkshire, the roads can be very quiet,

and Gareth could have been lying here injured for some time.

We just came down this road here, I was in front, doing about 40-45,

I went round that corner down there, didn't see him come round

the corner, turned round, came back, saw him laid on the main road.

I can't see what happened.

You can see the gravel on the main road there.

So we'll give him some painkillers

and we'll take his left leg trouser off and see what we're dealing with.

It's gas and air, laughing gas, makes you feel a little light-headed,

but works really well.

GAS HISSES That's the noise I need to hear.

-Right.

-Pop it in your mouth. It will take effect really quick

but wears off just as quick, so keep going.

Gareth has a modern bike and all the right gear,

which makes this case all the more concerning for fellow biker Sam.

I'm a biker as well,

so, obviously, it does heighten your senses a little bit

when you do get called out to another biker,

cos you do it yourself, you're painfully aware

how vulnerable other bikers are, and this just illustrates it.

If, you know, he's only come off at 20-30 mph,

but he's potentially got some quite nasty injuries to his hip.

All I'm going to do is pop this little board under you,

little yellow board, we'll pop it behind you

and just get you to roll onto it, if that's all right.

Now Gareth's pain has been reduced with gas and air,

the paramedics can carefully rolled him onto a spinal board.

HE GROANS Keep going with that gas and air!

Nice, deep breaths, keep going.

Gareth's injuries are not life-threatening,

so she'll be taken by road to hospital in York, but paramedics

need to get him comfortable before they can go anywhere.

There are some problems there, on his girdle.

His injuries could have been far worse

had he not been wearing the right bikers gear,

because simple accidents like this can happen at any time.

If you worried about stuff like this, then you'd never do

anything that you kind of enjoy. It's just one of those things,

you've got to be a bit careful,

and, unfortunately, this guy's come a cropper.

Their patient is flown to hospital in York,

where doctors confirm he has broken his hip.

It'll be some time before he's able to enjoy

the roads of Brideshead country again.

On the edge of the North York Moors, one of Yorkshire's

smallest ambulance stations is among its busiest today.

The paramedics of Kirkbymoorside have been called

to an industrial accident, and it sounds serious.

Helimed 98 is backing them up.

16 miles.

It's actually in Kirkbymoorside itself, is it?

-Yes, northern edge, mate.

-OK, mate, no worries.

We've been dispatched to a...

digger that's overturned and ejected the operator

out onto the road.

Um, well, big machine and squashy bodies don't mix very often.

And if he's been ejected out of it, the likelihood is

he's gone through some kind of Plexiglas window

or a windscreen or otherwise to get down,

and he'll have gone from height as well to get to that location.

Paramedic Darren Axe Began his medical career

as an underground first aider in a coal mine.

He knows accidents involving heavy machinery can be lethal.

-Looks very wet.

-Yeah.

-Mind as you go, looks a bit wet out to the left.

-Roger.

What's happening?

-He knocked himself out.

-Is he awake now, then?

His awake now. He's really sick.

The injured workman is 26-year-old Mike Thomson.

He's concussed and feeling very unwell.

He's got pain in the head. No neck pain, nothing else.

-Can you remember what happened to you?

-Yes, I can, mate, yeah.

-OK.

Keep that neck still.

Any pain anywhere?

My shoulder and just my head up here.

-You've got this pain in your head and your elbow?

-Yeah.

We work for the electric board.

We're laying a new electric cable

and one of our fellow workmates has come up round this corner,

turned round and maybe gone a bit too quick, I don't know,

but we was tarmacing over there and looked round the corner

and the dumper was lying on its side and he was just on the floor.

Mike, you need to go up to hospital.

Cos you've had your bell rung a bit, haven't you?

Yeah, and even though you had a helmet on

you still managed to knock yourself out a little bit. OK?

Can you wiggle your fingers for me?

There's a chance Mike has a head injury.

Beneath the humour, Darren's trying to diagnose his patient's condition.

-Does that hurt at all?

-No, not at all, mate.

-No pain here in your ribs?

-No.

-Or on the other side?

-No.

Take another deep breath.

OK. Can you straighten your legs out for me?

Will you just lift that leg? Just lift it.

Push as hard as you can on my hand. Lift it.

Can you lift it higher? No?

Finally, Darren decides Mark's probably not badly hurt,

he can afford to go to hospital by road,

leaving Helimed 98 free for a more urgent case.

-You could quite easily be sick?

-Yeah.

Well, you're pointing the right way, mate.

Away from me and towards that police officer.

In fact, if you tried enough,

you probably would be able to hit his boots from there.

He's been knocked out for a few seconds.

He feels quite nauseous as well.

So...

Because we've got that blank period in what he's done, erm...

It's better for us to sort of immobilise him,

get all the examinations done when he gets down to hospital

and then we'll let them clear his C-spine from that point on.

He's got a distracting injury to his elbow, which has given him

some pain and he's banged the top of his head.

It turns out Mike has been very lucky.

170 people were killed in accidents like his last year.

Sorry, mate, it's a bit bumpy, but blame your mates digging the road up.

But his injuries were found to be relatively minor

and he was released after treatment.

For more than 200 years, the hills around Castle Howard

have been a major centre for horse racing.

Some of the UK's most famous trainers live around the estate,

and many jockeys.

It's a dangerous sport, but today Helimed 98 has been scrambled

to rescue one rider who's come a cropper off the track.

We've just been asked to attend a detail just north of Bolton.

A crew request.

They've got a patient there who's fallen and sustained a back injury.

On board Helimed 98 today is Doctor Jez Pinnell,

a doctor who's able to administer more powerful pain relief.

-What's it like your side?

-We've got this high tree.

There's a few wooden stakes sticking up out of the ground on this side

-and we're over a fence.

-We're just over a fence?

We're over a fence.

Just try and leave that collar on...

Having survived a career in the saddle, veteran jockey

Tom O'Ryan is now an award-winning racing journalist and TV pundit.

-It's all in the back.

-It's in your back.

-Yeah.

He was cutting the grass in a paddock

when he was badly hurt in a freak accident.

He was trying to top the grass.

he moved the fence tape, the electric tape,

cos it had come away, so he was moving it before he actually

went over it, and it's somehow got caught in the cutters of the topper.

It appears that it's just ripped him over

and he's suffered a very bad back injury, lower back injury.

It's snapped the post off and thrown it from there to here.

Possibly hitting him.

But it's a fairly thick post. As you can see, it's probably

four inches across, and it's thrown it a good 10-15 feet,

so something's happened with fairly heavy force.

Doctor Jez is concerned that Tom could be bleeding internally.

He's complaining of a lot of lower back pain

and the slightly worrying thing is that his blood pressure's

been a bit low when the land crew arrived.

We can't explain that, it may be cos of an injury to his spinal cord,

it may be cos of bleeding.

He's a bit cold.

Erm, he's had some fluid, we're trying to keep him warm,

give him a bit of pain relief and we're going to take him

up to the nearest major trauma centre which is at Middlesbrough.

Just going to check your blood pressure, all right?

Tom's fit for his age and used to shrugging off pain.

But the team knows patients like him can be more seriously hurt

than it first appears.

-Surrounded by trees, then.

-Yeah.

Helimed 98 is flying Tom directly to the James Cook Hospital

in Middlesbrough, the nearest trauma unit to his rural home.

We're going up slowly.

But there's a problem. Visibility is bad and getting worse.

With high ground to cross,

pilot Ian knows he may soon have to turn around.

Apparently James Cook's out of limits,

so it's apparently got about 400 at the moment,

so we need to change the plan.

It's no good. Ian must divert to another hospital.

-Erm, York is... What's closest to here?

-York.

Flying from landmark to landmark, Helimed 98 gropes its way to York.

OK, there's the Eye. There's the Eye.

We should find the other railway line...

Yeah, we need to find the railway line.

The ancient city centre, with its walls and minster,

is a welcome sight.

The hospital is just down there.

Yeah, got it now, I think. Yeah, Happy.

It's the start of three long months of hospital treatment for Tom.

He undergoes complex surgery, and when summer arrives

in Brideshead country, he's still on the road to recovery.

Get well soon messages from racing celebrities like Clare Balding

are piling up on the doormat when Tom finally arrives home.

And he still has to wear a full-body brace.

It was a routine day as far as I was concerned.

I got the tractor out

and it's a job I've done hundreds of times before, not a problem.

My spine had...

I think there was about three or four fractures in it,

but one particularly with a vertebrae that needed sort of rebuilding.

So there was six screws and a fair bit of metal work to put into

my spine to sort of rebuild that.

There was three fractures in my pelvis,

one at the front that didn't require surgery and the two at the back

were either side of my spinal column, and both of those needed pinning.

Tom has received messages from some of the biggest names

in the racing world.

He believes he's lucky to be alive.

I'm just very fortunate that I'm still here. I'm not paralysed.

You know, I got great assistance.

The helicopter crew were fantastic

and everybody did such an efficient job and have got me to be able

to sit here today in the sunshine and have this conversation with you.

Tom's not alone in taking months to recover from a freak accident

that took moments.

Teenager Ryan Ball, injured when his forklift truck overturned,

has lost much of the use of his right arm.

Surgeons had to repair nerves badly damaged

when it was crushed under the weight of the truck.

They said I might not be able to get my arm fully straightened again

and it might take 12 to 24 months to get my nerve endings back.

Ryan has to wear this state-of-the-art lightweight brace

for many, many more weeks.

All I remember is the forklift tipping,

so I just basically just went with it and my arm's gone first to try

and cushion the landing but I had an open fracture and dislocated

my elbow and that's all, that was all and obviously broke that bone.

They've cut from the middle of my hand right up to just about here.

They've stitched as much as they can.

But where they couldn't stitch I've had a skin graft. It's really weird.

It's just not a pretty sight.

Ryan was delighted to get a job so soon after leaving school and he's

frustrated at no longer being able to work in the recycling business.

But he's determined to get back into employment

as soon as his injuries have healed.

With the Tour De France due to start in the Yorkshire Dales,

these hills are alive with cyclists.

From Lycra-clad athletes with carbon fibre frames, to muscle men

and women on mountain bikes, this is a two-wheeled paradise.

You have to be fit to cycle the Dales.

A one-in-four climb here is nothing

and of course, freewheeling down the other side is great fun,

but every year several cyclists discover

that steep hills have a downside, too.

The Dales are preparing for the big race by opening new cycle routes

and promoting two-wheel holidays.

But not all breaks have a happy ending.

99 alpha Explorer helicopter...

Inbound to an incident near Clapham which is A65...

Paramedics Andy Armitage and Al Day are heading to

the border between Lancashire and Yorkshire

to a report of a cyclist who has come off a bike at high speed.

Cyclist. Very exposed to a lot of injury. Quite a lot.

He's come off just going downhill and lost control.

The majority have got a helmet on. Which is good.

If you don't have a helmet on, then you're going to have a bad head.

The many hills of Yorkshire mean cyclists can reach very high speeds

so even with the right protective gear,

injuries can be extremely serious.

Yeah, yeah, that's him, yes.

Paramed 99 landing on scene.

It's only been 20 minutes since the 999 call was first made

and already Andy and Al are on scene and tending to their patient.

Doctor Nigel Cockrell from Worcester.

Hello, mate. What happened?

Just on the... landed on his right shoulder.

One thing you should never do is move someone after an accident

as it can cause more serious injuries, but his friends, who are

all doctors, knew that leaving him in the road could be more dangerous.

-We've moved him because he was in the road.

-Yeah, fair dos.

We just lifted him to the side, yeah.

Luckily for Nigel, his doctor friends were able to

diagnose his injury straightaway and move him safely.

We knew he'd fractured his collarbone, we both,

we're all doctors so, yeah, he had the big bump in his collarbone.

Lying there in quite a lot of pain so, luckily we had a mobile phone

signal, called the ambulance and quite surprised to see a helicopter.

You know, we thought it would just be an ordinary ambulance.

You've got a bit of pain in your shoulder and your scapula.

I'll talk medical because you know what I'm on about.

And we're looking at taking you to Preston, but what we'll do,

I think we'll put a collar on you, get you on a board

because you've got a bit of a distracting injury,

-make sure that neck's clear because you've come off at some speed, by the sounds...

-Yeah.

-Were just going to try to remove...

-Broken collarbones are very common in bike crashes

as bikers often put their arms out to soften the fall.

Paramedic Andy is concerned Nigel might have other serious injuries

so moving him must be done very carefully.

Keeping his head and neck as straight as possible.

We were out for a 60-mile bike ride,

come through the Trough Of Bowland, heading back to Settle.

We've done about 40 miles.

Just taking it easy on the way back, coming down this hill,

and he was, Nigel was behind me... Saw him come off.

He was doing about 20mph so it was quite a crash.

I was OK while I was lying on my side but now...

We've moved you, is the worst pain your shoulder blade?

-It's behind me. It's my shoulder blade that's the painful thing.

-OK.

Now he is lying flat, paramedic Al can check him over thoroughly.

That's all right.

Just going to feel down.

He knows exactly what he's done because these chaps are all doctors.

So they are well aware of what's happened, what's going on.

Which means we have to be on our best behaviour(!)

Further x-rays will establish if he has any additional injury but it

appears he's had a very lucky escape with only a broken collarbone.

Just let me know if it gives you any grief, OK?

Well, we'll ride back to where we are staying.

Dave's house in Whaley.

So we'll ride back through Settle, back to Whaley,

then we'll come up to Preston and see how he is this evening.

The main thing they've done for him is picked him up and moved him

off the road because he was lying in the road in a dangerous situation.

I mean, first aid books will tell you not to move somebody if they've

been involved in a traumatic incident, but that only applies

if the patient's not in danger,

in this situation he was lying in the middle of the road.

This sort of road can have cars

and bikes hurtling down here at high speed.

To come round that blind bend

and there's somebody in the middle of the road is going to end up with

far worse than just shoulder injuries.

While his colleagues enjoy the rest of their ride,

Nigel's being flown to hospital in Preston

in pain from his broken collarbone but thankfully nothing worse.

It wasn't the best end to a bike ride but at least

he was in the right hands before, during and after his accident.

And I'm happy to tell you Nigel is now back on his bike

after what he knows only too well was a very lucky escape.

But it'll be a while before he's back on the roads

of the Dales again.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd.