Episode 20 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 part of Britain's biggest county,

they look to the skies for help.

Look on your left, man coming in on 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 man collapses in the street and a Romanian worker becomes

a local hero.

Being a first aider we just go on straight into the CPR and all the procedures that they have to do.

Fog descends on the seaside and the team struggles

to reach its patient.

We have to take a bit of a diversion round the weather.

There's a shooting and the team is scrambled to the victim.

He's obviously stable but he's got so many wounds that you never know.

And a surprised patient finds himself in the care

of a friend and neighbour.

What have you been doing with yourself?!

Don't smoke, stay fit and watch your weight.

Simple rules to avoid a heart attack.

But what if Britain's biggest killer strikes you or someone you love?

If there's someone there who knows how to perform CPR

you may still have a chance.

On a rainy afternoon in North Yorkshire,

a desperate fight is under way to save a man's life.

He's in cardiac arrest after collapsing in the street

and Helimed 98 is joining the race to save him.

Hit the box, mate. Bearing 106 22, Michael.

-SPEAKS OVER RADIO:

-My guess.

200 people die every day in the UK from a sudden heart attack.

It's paramedic Tony Wilkes's job to reduce that number.

Sounds like the ambulance crew have just got out to sea.

But it sounds quite serious. But he's in arrest in a public street.

And we're giving him assistance as soon as possible.

The team's heading to the market town of Malton.

Landing in its tightly packed streets won't be easy.

Just turning back around to the right to look.

OK, mate.

RADIO BEEPS

Ah, got him.

There's a yard of some sort just down below us now.

That looks fairly stable down there.

Pilot Chris is squeezing into a car park behind a pub,

less than 100 yards from the team's patient.

The man collapsed outside the local swimming pool.

He's now in the back of an ambulance undergoing CPR.

His rescuers are manually pumping the blood around his body

by compressing his heart.

All right, guys? You all right?

-Hey, Tony, how are you?

-Yeah, not bad.

-So what's the story then? Is he just...

-He's just gone down.

He was walking towards us, he just like...

By chance, lifeguard George Neacsu from Romania

was on his way to work.

Just walking down to go for my shift,

walking down and just collapsed in front of us

And obviously being a first aider, we just go straight into the CPR

and all the procedures that they have to do

in case something happened.

One of George's colleagues ran to fetch a heart defibrillator

from the pool.

George just went straight into CPR

and then we did CPR for the first and then I rang the ambulance,

was talking to the ambulance where they are and we just kept going.

Starting CPR early gives a much greater chance of survival.

Seize a pulse...

Finally, the crew detect a faint pulse.

They've got a return of spontaneous respiration

so he's started to breathe for himself.

Can you just open your eyes for us, mate?

-Mr Alison?

-Mr Alison?

-Open your eyes.

-Open your eyes.

Pensioner Ken Alison is fit for his age but he's fighting for his life.

He's got an output from his heart so we're going to transfer him

to the helicopter from here.

And then transfer him to York District

straight into their resus department.

It's extremely urgent that we get him into hospital

into the resus department because at this time he's really unstable.

Malton does have a community hospital

but the specialist treatment the crew's patient needs

to keep his ailing heart going is a 25-minute drive away.

OK, feet first.

So it's all going to be on my call?

It's less than 10 minutes in a helicopter.

And forwards...

That's it, well done.

Lifeguard George's quick and skilled treatment in the street

has given the patient hope.

SPEAKS OVER RADIO: I wouldn't dally around too long, if we can help it.

I'll be as quick as I can then.

The clouds base is slowly creeping down here.

Winton, Helimed 98, we're shortly leaving down York. We'll call again.

-Everybody got a bit?

-Yeah.

-Yes.

-Go ahead then...

Paramedics Tony and Daz have radioed ahead.

The cardiac unit at York District Hospital is on stand-by.

Yep, slide it.

Right, he's on. Let's go.

Ken's family is already on the way to the hospital.

He's gravely ill and his life is in the balance.

The next 48 hours will be critical.

North Yorkshire is full of villages

that look like they've changed little in 100 years.

Stone built cottages, country pubs

and another vital ingredient of any rural community - the cricket pitch.

But today, Captain Ian Mousette and the Helimed team

may be about to stop play.

Anybody see an ambulance around here?

-OVER RADIO:

-I might see something between the bushes at your three o'clock

-on the double line street.

-Police officer in the field lane.

Oh, yeah, visual. Yeah, got it.

A cyclist's been badly hurt after an accident involving a car

and the local cricket pitch looks like the best landing site.

Good on my side.

But air ambulance pilots try to stay away from the public

and Captain Ian manages to squeeze Helimed 98

onto a patch of grass just outside the boundary.

Keen cyclist Nigel Simms has been in a collision with a Merc.

His wife's just arrived at the scene, alerted by a family friend.

I think he's been driving along and this car must have been

trying to pass him, maybe, as you do cyclists,

and it's knocked him off as he's gone past.

The wing mirror's damaged which is there.

It's feared 60-year-old Nigel has a broken thigh bone or pelvis.

It's hard to diagnose which.

It's your hip that hurts you the most. OK then.

Is there an open wound or is it just...?

Nigel's a joiner who cycles to keep fit.

He was wearing all the right gear.

Can I get you to straighten your leg for me, sir?

-Nigel, pop that left leg down.

-This is your good one.

Straighten it down flat, best you can. Where is that hurting?

-He's had his first five milligrams of morphine.

-Nigel.

The team is still struggling to control his pain

and he can't bear to have his leg straightened.

-He's going to need more powerful painkillers.

-No more...

No, we're not going to...

Take deep breaths on that, best you can.

Paramedic Sammy suspects Nigel's broken his pelvis,

an injury which can lead to severe internal bleeding and organ damage.

He urgently needs x-rays and scans.

His son ran to the scene from the family home.

We only live up the top of the hill, he's only come about 200 yards.

And he's been knocked off.

Pretty impressive, the amount of people that are here.

I'm sure all the traffic's not too impressed though.

It's the day of the local country show so that's probably true.

The locals have rallied round to help.

We've got a lovely GP that's stopped.

Her mum spotted the ambulance. The crew have done absolutely everything

that they could have before we got here and it's a team effort.

Straightening Nigel's leg will prevent broken bones causing

further internal damage.

Now, then, can we straighten this leg?

He's not been able to bear the pain until now.

Good man. Take me some deep breaths, lad, let that oxygen do its work.

All right then, lad. Yep, we know, we know.

HE GROANS

That's the worst of it done now, lad. Put your hand back up there.

-There we go, well done.

-Are you ready, guys?

-Yes.

-Ready, steady, lift.

-Fabulous.

Show day traffic and the jams caused by his own accident would

have made the road journey to hospital long and painful for Nigel.

Helimed 98 will be taking him

straight to the nearest trauma unit at the James Cook Hospital,

on Teesside.

THEY CONVERSE

Are you are right there?

You'll get a view of the sky in a bit.

-How's that pain doing at the moment?

-Oh, there isn't any.

You haven't got any now? That's good.

As the NHS opens more trauma centres, more patients like Nigel

are going to find themselves carried longer distances to specialist care.

But at least Nigel should feel at home here in Middlesbrough.

One of his nurses lives in his hometown.

Nigel, it's Gaynor, Sammy's wife.

-Hello.

-Hello, how you doing, my love? Oh!

-Had better days.

What have you been doing with yourself?

He's done lots of good jobs for us at our house,

so, yeah, he's a good bloke.

So we're going to look after him very well.

We would look after everyone very well, of course. But, yeah.

Nigel's pelvis is broken

and it'll be some time before he can climb on his bike again.

But, despite the dangers, he's determined to do just that.

RADIO CONVERSATION

For more than a decade,

package tourists heading off for the sun have shared the runways

of Leeds Bradford Airport with some rather more important flights.

This is the Helimed team's main base. Not any more.

When we first started, we operated out of a Portakabin that had

two rooms, no toilet and no running water.

And we've advanced to this. But Nostell, purpose-built? Can't wait.

The removal men are packing up to move to a new

helipad in the village of Nostell,

near Wakefield which means Helimed 99 is asking for take-off clearance

at the airport for the last time.

Our forces, we're finally on our way.

It's quite sad to be leaving but we're moving on to bigger,

better things and it's very exciting.

The new headquarters puts the team closer

to the big centres of population in South Yorkshire.

3 million people live within 10 minutes flying time.

It also promises better weather with fewer days grounded by low cloud.

And it's not long before they're scrambled again.

-RADIO CONVERSATION: All looks clear.

-Thank you.

Yep, looking clear. Right...

Got a passenger aircraft, looks like it's coming into Leeds

-but it's a good distance above.

-Thanks, mate.

Paramedics Pete and Matt are on their way from Yorkshire's

newest airbase to one of its oldest.

RADIO CONVERSATION: Helimed...

023 service...

..to Breighton.

The airfield at Breighton

was home to bombers during the Second World War

and now a collection of vintage planes.

We're on us way up to East Yorkshire,

had a report that there's been a work's accident.

Someone's got their hand trapped in machinery.

Initially, the call to the ambulance service didn't seem too severe

but it appears now that the patient

may have actually had his hand amputated.

Things we need to need to look at is obviously treating the wound

so we want to make sure that patients stop haemorrhaging

and control the wound but also, if there is any viable tissue

from the amputation, we need to package that up correctly

to make sure that it's got every chance of being reattached

to the patient when we get to hospital.

-OVER RADIO:

-Breighton Radio, Helimed 99...

We're about two miles to the south-west to land.

Any traffic at Breighton?

OK, I'm not getting any response from any aircraft

so I'm assuming there's nothing flying, just seeing

given that there's no more police...

-There's a workshop on the airfield.

-All right, mate, thank you.

We're a mile away, on the nose.

This looks like a timber yard underneath us and that's...

-Yeah, it does, doesn't it?

-I'm sure that's where he said the job was.

The accident happened at a woodworking plant

built on one of the old runways.

This is from 99.

If you could get someone to call the caller back and ask them

to identify themselves. We're overhead this complex...

Several businesses are based here.

Air ambulances can't just look out for street numbers or

stop and ask for directions.

-We need somebody to wave their arms frantically.

-We do.

Yeah, you've got even that complex out to our rear now.

-That's a wood yard as well.

-Yeah.

In the end, they must take an educated guess.

And luckily, they are right.

We're in the right place here, yeah? You called an ambulance?

What happened?

-Lad's got his hand trapped in one of our planing machines.

-Right.

There is an ambulance coming round as well so I don't know

if somebody could look out for that.

Did you manage to get the bits of tissue that come out?

No, it's just...

Quite clean cut, it bled a bit at first but it's slowing down.

Hiya, fella, how we doing there on the...?

Paul Hilton was using machinery

when his hand became caught in the cutters.

I'll just get some gloves on,

we'll have a look at that and get a dressing on, yeah?

How's the pain at the moment?

-Not bad. It's just numb, not doing a lot.

-Numb?

To prevent bleeding, Paul's hand has been raised.

A simple precaution that's surprisingly effective

if the blood loss is not too severe.

Do you want to just look away, Paul, while I...?

You just carry on supporting him there.

Surgeons can sometimes reattach severed fingers

if they've been cut cleanly.

But the machine Paul was using has left his too badly damaged.

How you feeling now you've sat up there?

Not feeling dizzy at all?

No.

Workmates have dressed the wound but he's in great pain.

Paul has lost the tips of several fingers.

He'll need reconstructive surgery.

Injury wise, actually from sort of knuckle all along so it's not...

-Not clean?

-No, and the tissue -

there's nothing viable cos it's gone into machinery

it's been extracted.

So there's three fingers gone

and it's from sort of the knuckle across, yeah.

There's some soft tissue there as well.

There has been some bone gone from it.

Like I say, there's nothing viable at all.

Can you manage round to the ambulance with us, just a nice,

steady walk?

The team decides that now Paul's pain is under control,

it's safe for ground paramedics to take him to hospital.

The guy had been working on a plane and for whatever reason his

hand had gone into the plane rather than the wood and he'd sliced off

from his sort of knuckles, he'd taken off the ends of three fingers.

Unfortunately, there's no viable tissue remaining.

Cos of the nature of the machine, it's just extracted away with

the board shavings and from his point of view it's a clean cut.

But obviously, there's nothing to reattach so he's going to

have that disfigurement for the rest of his life.

In the market town of Malton, people are preparing for Christmas.

But for one family, this festive season won't be as happy as usual.

A week after he collapsed in the street, pensioner Ken Ellison

passed away in York Hospital.

It was thanks to local pool lifeguard George Neacsu

and his skilled CPR that his relatives were able to

say their farewells at his bedside.

And today, Ken's niece Lorraine has come to thank the man

who gave her the chance to see her uncle one last time.

-Hello there, George.

-Hi.

-Pleased to meet you. Hello there.

-Nice to meet you. How are you?

-Thank you.

So what actually happened then? Did he just...?

As we were crossing the street here,

he just basically walked towards us and just fell.

As soon as we've realised that he's going slowly,

that's a heart attack sort of fall.

I mean we've put a defib machine on him four times which...

-Did you?

-Yes.

Three times it engaged and it actually give him the shock,

-you could see.

-He was trying.

-Even the colour of his face, he was like,

he was getting better and better every time.

We're like, carrying on doing the whole thing.

Well, that's an amazing testament to your skill

but also your determination because when he reached the hospital

he went into intensive care quite quickly.

They cooled him down to help him with his recovery

because the issue was really with the brain, with the starvation of oxygen.

That was really 20, possibly 25 minutes without oxygen

was really the issue.

For the Helimed team, people like George are the real heroes.

Without his work, paramedics Tony and Darren

wouldn't have stood a chance of saving their patient.

You would be surprised how many people would walk past

someone in the street in that dire situation

and it takes a certain kind of human being to put themselves forward,

step up to the plate and give assistance where they can.

This is um, a photograph and this is what he loved.

He had a great love of vintage tractors. That is the man.

I mean, that is absolutely everything.

He lived and breathed for his tractors.

-And his personality shines through, I think, with that photograph...

-Yes.

..because he was never happier than when he was sitting on a tractor.

-Yeah...

-If they have a cardiac arrest in the street and you can

give CPR very, very quickly, the potential that they can, you know,

get their heart started, give them a chance to live is massive

and more people should do it.

We'd like to thank you for kind of helping him

to end his life in a way that, you know, he wasn't on his own.

He had people there that cared and fought for him

-and you know, that's the thing that we...

-Thank you very much.

I really appreciate that. It's really like...

Yeah, thank you very much. I can't really find my words but...

-Well, can I give you a hug now?

-Of course.

-Sorry. Thank you.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you so much. That's really fantastic.

What you've done, George. Thank you.

To meet George today is an absolute privilege.

To meet a young man as well, who has been so dedicated.

That team of staff from here didn't give up. They just didn't give up.

And that to me is a fantastic example of how as communities

we just look after each other. And I think when we're going through

tough times which everybody is at the moment, I think to know that

people are like that, is incredibly gratifying to know, really.

A holiday at home has a lot going for it.

But very few ads for a break on the British post feature the sea fret.

It's ruined many a break by the beach

and it's spoiling a few more today.

From Whitby to Bridlington,

trippers are enduring a traditional pea souper.

The next thing we've got is a child that's sustained a head injury.

Don't know if the child's fallen off a bed or whether the

bed's actually fallen onto him.

But the reports we've got is that he or she is unconscious and the

crew on-scene have asked for us to attend with a view to taking him down

to Hull, but at the moment as you probably can see,

the weather's not great so we're not able

to progress to the incident as we'd have liked.

Pilot Ian Mousette and paramedic Al Day

aren't enjoying it much either.

Inland, it's just mist and low cloud.

But it still makes navigation difficult.

Do we think it's worth telling Sammy that we're going to be grubbing

about through this weather?

And it might be worth advising the crew to set off

and we could always try and catch up with them.

-OVER RADIO:

-Yeah, 98, we still got over 20 minutes to run.

We're having to take a bit of a diversion round the weather.

Can you liaise with the crew and ask them perhaps if they set off,

we perhaps can meet up with them en route if we can make it there?

RADIO BEEPS

That's received likewise, thank you.

The team is trying to reach the seaside resort

of Bridlington where a child has fallen at home.

It's feared he may have a spinal injury.

Hi, fella.

-He's a little gem. His name is Sean.

-Hiya, Sean.

How you doing?

SEAN MUMBLES

Talk to me. Don't pull that off. All right.

Tell me, where's hurting most? Is it this strap that's hurting?

Sean Green was playing upstairs when the accident happened.

His mum, Veronica, is understandably concerned.

He were just upstairs, playing with Nathan and Emma

and these two came downstairs but he didn't and I thought it's was a bit

too quiet so I went up and checked on him and...

he was laid there.

He's got a little bump on his head, he's got no other injuries.

All he says to me when I went in the back was he's bored

and he wants to go out and play.

That was it.

HE LAUGHS

Sean's condition doesn't appear serious.

He may be well enough to go to hospital in Hull by road after all.

How we doing?

He's just, compared to two minutes ago when he were on here,

he was chatting away, wasn't he?

But we've just... We've completely subdued.

How are you feeling now?

SEAN MAKES A NOISE

You what?

-Feeling dizzy now.

-Feeling dizzy?

Yeah?

But Sean takes a turn for the worse.

Drowsiness is a worrying symptom in children.

They're wanting us to take him now.

He says he's not happy with him, he thinks he's subdued.

With fog still shrouding the coast especially to the south,

instead of taking Sean 30 miles to Hull,

the team will fly him north to Scarborough.

Bridlington's a long way from the nearest A&E unit.

We do get this bad weather come through with no warning.

So it just cut us off little bit.

Each hospital is a good what? An hour away to each hospital by car.

Let's go, mate. Let's start up.

Al's navigation skills will still be needed

but at least this time they can follow the coastline.

The crew said that he had a period of unconsciousness

or semi-consciousness.

So they stopped and asked us to transport him to Scarborough.

We would normally have liked to have taken him over to Hull but with

the weather being as it is, it's unlikely that we'd have got there.

But Scarborough's just up the road so we're just going to take him

for assessment there first.

And it's got to be over there somewhere, hasn't it?

Somewhere over there, yeah.

It's just in the shadow of that next ridge, isn't it?

Sea fret.

Sean's still subdued.

Doctors at Scarborough are waiting to examine him

and he's already scheduled for a series of x-rays.

Only then will he be allowed off the uncomfortable

stretcher that's keeping his neck and spine rigid.

Sean?

How you doing?

OK?

Is that all right?

You enjoy that? You didn't see much of it, did you?

You see any birds flying around?

-Yeah.

-No... Yeah?

Oh, did you? Oh, good.

Right, just going to move you then...

The team knows most of this is just a precaution and so it proves.

Sean's injury turns out to be minor

and he's soon allowed home to Bridlington.

The rolling hills of the North York Moors are an exclusive

playground for sportsmen and women in pursuit of game birds.

From billionaires to weekend marksman,

this is a popular pastime.

Even at £200 a day.

OVER RADIO: You are reaching out to the Upton

area which is just south of Pontefract...

The Helimed team covers an area where more than

100,000 guns are legally registered.

But every year, the paramedics are called to deal with

the victims of accidents involving firearms.

-OVER RADIO: Just briefly, what are we going to again?

-Gunshot.

-Gunshot wound.

There's lots of shotgun wounds to...

All over, everywhere, apart from his head by the sounds of it.

Obviously it's going to be quite a big incident

of the emergency service.

We assume the police will be on scene and involved,

probably the ambulance service, their HART team

that has a response team and obviously they called us in

for the critical side-effect of his injuries.

Got the wires on the right-hand side, the end there.

-Got them visual.

-OK.

Got those wires over there as well.

OK, I'm happy with that.

The team's patient is bleeding from wounds to his chest and arm.

Ground paramedics have already put him on an intravenous drip.

He has had a drink of rum today. Couldn't get out of him how much.

The victim says he was walking his dog behind a hedge row

when a man shooting rabbits nearby accidentally hit him.

As far as I know, he were walking down usually where

loads of kids are walking down as well and they've shot him

with farmer's gun.

Are you all right, buddy?

You've probably gathered we've come from air ambulance.

Come to check you...

You got a helicopter?

Aye. Going to take you down to Leeds. Are you all right with that, bud?

-Yeah, go for it.

-All right.

I'm quite lucky as I've come down

I've dropped behind armed response vehicle

so I've sort of parked up back there and then they've waved us down

but could have been a lot worse than what it were to be fair.

With it being a shotgun injury,

he's basically got little pellets that have gone everywhere.

All in his arm and all down the back of him.

There's no major sort of bullet wound that's there, or entry, or exit.

He's basically got a lot of pain.

We've given him some ketamine which has settled him right down.

I've got to itch my arm, I can feel...

We don't know what underlying injuries he's got cos there's

so many gunshot wounds all over him really.

With shotgun wounds from a distance they're more likely to be

superficial but you never know. He's obviously stable but

he's got so many wounds he's just got such a lot of pain.

A police investigation is under way.

Officers know that this incident could so easily have been fatal.

It's getting sorted, I promise.

The victim's being accompanied by a cop on his flight to hospital.

He'll want a statement as soon as possible.

OK, we're going to go backwards, out, we'll reach it back in here

and then we'll be away, OK?

-OK, mate.

-Quickly.

-House coming up.

-Quickly.

OK, that's where were going to go behind. I've got the wires behind.

Car coming in.

The patient is in good hands and his vital signs are good,

but gunshot wounds are difficult to treat and the removal of pellets

that peppered his arm and body could take hours.

Helimed 98, Arthurs.

OVER RADIO: Right arm. Shooting...

It's a few days later that the good news reaches the Helimed

team's North Yorkshire airbase.

-Morning, chaps. How's it going?

-All right, Tony?

It's confirmed that the patient has had a very lucky escape.

In a way, it was lucky that he was shot by a shotgun not at too close

a range, so the pellets had had time to sort of spread out

but the impact wasn't that severe

that actually was it powerful enough to kill him as such.

Because he was turned side on it obviously missed his vital

organs - his heart, et cetera, so, in a way, he was really lucky

the position he was in and the distance away.

The victim has now been released from the Leeds General Infirmary

and is making a good recovery.

Police have charged a man with firearms offences.

When the summer holidays arrive in Yorkshire,

the local emergency services know their workload is about to increase.

The end of term means thousands of young pedestrians on the roads.

And today, Helimed 99 is on its way to one of them.

We're off down to Thurnscoe which is near to Rotherham.

We've got a road traffic knock down there. Child knocked down.

We are coming up towards the end of the kids' school holidays

so there's lots of them running around.

And one of them's managed to get knocked down.

There's been a high-speed impact

potentially with some head injury involved.

We'll need to transfer this patient rapidly

to Sheffield Children's Hospital once we've got on scene

and made an assessment.

Five children a day are killed or seriously injured on the UK's roads.

And it's outside school term times that they are more likely to

be involved in a road accident.

Anywhere around here.

Got the ambulance crew down here. Got the green patch.

We're going to come round and land just north of this football pitch

at one o'clock.

There's a little head thing there which we can carry them

over that if it's a little kiddie, so we can go...

Yeah, over to that field... To that green...

Let's get the aircraft down, get you off, and then

I can always reposition.

A land ambulance crew is already treating 11-year-old

Tiffany Greenfield.

All I can say is although she's got some scrapes and bruises.

they're doing a full second secondary survey right now.

The extent of her injuries is as yet unknown.

But a bleed from the ear is giving the team cause for concern.

This can indicate significant head trauma and they know that

although Tiffany is conscious and talking to them now,

that could all change very quickly.

Her left ear has been filling with blood.

They damped it out but it's filled up again.

Tiffany, what we're going to do is, I'm not going to do anything to you.

I'm not going to poke you, prod you,

I'm not going to stick you in anything, OK?

But I'm just going to take you to hospital

so they can give you a bit of a checkup.

Yeah, let's carry it. There's enough of us and she doesn't weigh very much.

Can we get some police officers to clear the deck out there because

there's every Tom, Dick and Harry and their grandad.

-Are we going to Sheffield?

-Yes.

-Great.

Definitely taking her, yeah?

The decision is made to fly Tiffany

to Sheffield Children's Hospital, a 40-minute drive away.

But a journey Helimed 99 can make in four minutes.

Turn her round, feet first...

Tiffany's mother has been comforting her daughter.

Now the reality of the accident is hitting her.

Well done, Tiffany. You're doing really well, sweetheart.

Quite superficial injuries we can find although she is

bleeding from one of her ears which is causing some concern.

First crew on scene decided that it was maybe a pertinent job

to call for the air ambulance so I've got the air ambulance on scene now.

She's all ready to go to Sheffield Children's Hospital.

Tiffany's understandably upset.

Paramedic Darren's a dad and he's dispensing his best bedside manner.

You can't move because we've strapped you down, so you can't move, OK?

TIFFANY CRIES

Wait, wait a minute.

Until they've taken some pictures, we don't know what you've done.

So we need to be sure, don't we? Yeah?

So nobody's going to touch you, nobody's going to prod you

or poke you. We're just going to go for a little ride.

Do you understand?

TIFFANY GROANS

-OVER RADIO:

-OK, then. Doors.

Sheffield is the regional children's hospital.

Its A&E department specialises

in treating the young victims of accidents.

The main thing we were concerned about is that she had some

form of head injury which she might have. She was crying, she was alert.

They're all good things normally, for me.

I prefer that to a child who's very quiet and not alert

everyday of the week.

It's the start of a traumatic few weeks for Tiffany.

Doctors at the Children's Hospital identify several broken bones

including her jaw and pelvis.

But a few days after she returns home,

a fire destroys the family's semidetached house.

But children are very resilient and she's soon out

playing again with her brother.

I went to ASDA. My mum and dad trusted me to go.

I put my foot out to cross over and as I put my other foot out it,

I were on the floor.

She was screaming her head off, wanted to get up.

But she weren't bothered about her face.

She were bothered about a little graze she got on her knee.

I'd stay here all day.

Tiffany's a nervous flyer but Darren's patter

meant she barely noticed her short flight.

She doesn't like loud noises to start with

but he were talking to her. They were talking to her

all the time and you know, trying to make a feel comfortable.

By the time she barely noticed it, we were there.

We were at Sheffield.

The family's home was beyond repair, and they've now been rehoused.

My sister Sarah phoned me

while I were on my way to hospital to have her jaw checked.

She just says, "Your house has burnt down." I were like, "You what?"

She says, "Your house has burnt down."

It were the electric socket on the wall.

Mum hopes their luck will now improve.

It can only get better, can't it? It can't get any worse.

Keeping an eye on the weather is second nature for most of us.

For these guys, it's a matter of life and death.

Even in the age of sat nav and radar, pilots must be

able to SEE the ground to fly safely in country like this.

It never rains but it pours in most parts of North Yorkshire.

The peaks of the Pennines encourage clouds sweeping in

from the Atlantic to empty themselves on the Moors and Fells.

And that's a constant problem for the pilots

and paramedics who must navigate these squally skies.

SPEAKS OVER RADIO

98 Alpha lifting, departing to the south, towards...

It's another misty, wet and miserable day

and the crew of Helimed 98 is off on a short flight to a serious call.

-Whereabouts is it?

-Just come left a little bit for us, Ian.

Pretty much looking it's probably this farmhouse,

right on the nose where these green silos are, I'm guessing.

Roger that.

On a remote farm, just a few miles from base,

a builder has fallen, landing on his head.

He was just reaching up and that timber just came off.

It just knocked him off the scaffolding.

It just came round and knocked him off.

He couldn't have his breath.

I was just worried about him not breathing.

So I was saying, "Breathe, breathe, breathe." You know.

The grid's taking us towards that farm I think on the right.

-This one here?

-Yeah.

Right, there's an ambulance low right, three o'clock.

The heavy rain makes flying difficult

but it also means landing becomes trickier too.

-It's well boggy.

-Yeah.

And if you can come bit further left, Ian, we've got massive

puddles and stuff, there's a bit harder surface just here.

Sam, just look out your side please, mate,

see what we're looking like.

-Have we sunk?

-No worries, mate.

Feels like we have.

No, looks pretty good, mate. It's...

-OK.

-It's not encompassed the skids.

-All right.

LS98 Land and Sea.

All right, Darrell.

He's gone over backwards,

banged his head on that as he's come down and landed on his bottom.

He's got a bit of swelling, it's a bit soft round that area.

And he's got bony tenderness here.

OK.

Darrell Lawson had been replacing the timbers on this barn roof

but his tumble onto concrete has left him with a serious head injury.

-He's hit his head on...

-On the scaffolding pole, yeah.

-The one where that came down.

-That's come down from there.

-All right, so he's hit it on...

-Yeah.

-He's hit his head on that.

This feels a bit soft and...

-Round here.

-Soft and boggy. It's only a...

-It's only a small mark but...

-Yeah, it's...

-Were you wearing a helmet, mate, when you fallen?

-I wasn't, no.

You weren't, no? OK.

This type of wet, boggy swelling can be a sign of a fractured skull.

And bits of bone could be pressing against Darrell's brain.

Yeah, mate I think we're going to take this.

-OVER RADIO:

-He's fallen about 12ft,

he's hit his head on some woodwork on the way down.

He's got quite a small, boggy area just to his occiput

so from a query fractured point of view

I think he's going to be best there rather than Friary.

Yeah, no worries.

-Get out there and get muddy.

-That's me committed.

That's you committed. Get out there and get muddy.

You got any pain in your chest or in your tummy, mate?

-No.

-Just having a quick feel.

Take a deep breath in for me.

Just give your toes a wiggle.

Darrell's workmates saw him fall

but were just too far away to be able to do anything about it.

I could have caught him, do you know what I mean? But it just...

HE SIGHS

I just wanted to go over but I don't know what it was with me.

I just should have gone over and broke his fall.

He's not been knocked out.

He can remember everything that happened but...

Just with the mechanism of this boggy swelling, I think

up to James Cook for a CT.

People with head injuries like this can quickly deteriorate,

but the paramedics can't move too fast.

Darrell could also have fractured his spine.

We don't want you to move at all,

-I'm going to keep my hands either side of your head.

-OK.

My colleagues and your mates are going to gently roll you back onto a

bit of a hard board that's behind you.

Might be a bit uncomfortable, bear with us whilst we do it.

-OK.

-OK? Ready, steady, roll.

Keep your head nice and still for me. Perfect.

Right, you can relax it back.

With the weather getting worse,

it leaves just one option for the paramedics.

We've got a northern weather front moving down the country

at the moment. North to south, so...

Although LGI's a little closer, we're going to fly to

James Cook just so we don't hit any of the low cloud.

So we're going to lift then, guys. Ready, steady, lift.

You're not going to be able to speak to us in flight

but I will keep a close eye on you.

Any problems just wave, grab me and we'll get you sorted. OK?

Especially if you start to feel sick.

This wet weather's going to make the flight trickier than

normal including a sticky take-off.

It will plop out.

It won't be a smooth take-off, it will plop.

And then it'll jump up.

Here's the plop coming.

-There you go.

-Beautiful, Ian, beautiful.

Silky smooth.

LS9 we've left the scene. En route to James Cook.

BEEP

He's got a number of lacerations to the right-hand side

of his head which we're not too concerned about.

But there is an area of quite a soft swelling to the occiput

which is the bone at the rear of his skull.

There's always a risk with these

that he could have fractured the bone underneath.

That'd cause a slow-bleeding head injury

that we wouldn't be able to detect for a while.

So that's my main concern.

But upfront, pilot Ian has other things on his mind.

OK, things to worry about up here is the wind farm, but we'll be fine.

Yeah.

-Wind farm's all over to our two o'clock.

-Yeah.

-Clearing it.

-Just got the masts.

-At the pylons I'd turn left.

Closer to the hospital, the weather starts to improve.

-OVER RADIO:

-Helimed 98...

Darrell will soon be able to get the emergency check over he needs.

Priority is to get the pain he's in under control

and then taking him round to scan.

And then if that looks clear, hopefully it shouldn't

be too long hospital.

And hopefully, the scan will be a positive result.

Raise...

Right.

Darrell's scans prove he does have fractures but not to his skull.

The fall broke three vertebrae down his back

while his head injury turned out to be nothing more than a flesh wound.

After five days in hospital he's able to return home.

But it's many weeks later before he's back on the building site.