Episode 3 Helicopter Heroes

When the people of rural Yorkshire dial 999,

help can be a long time coming.

The Yorkshire Dales are as beautiful as they are big,

but if you're seriously injured in a landscape as gigantic as this,

your life is on the line.

But in the remotest parts of Britain's biggest county,

they look to the skies for help.

Look on your left, can you get in that grass field on your 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...

a climber plunges down the rock face they call the Hell Hole...

He started panicking, and I was saying,

"Breathe, keep your breathing."

And then he said, "I'm coming off."

..the military calling Helimed 98 for a very young casualty...

-I'm going to put you on the stretcher...

-OK.

..and you just hold him as you are.

..and there's another case for the bike medic who protects the Dales.

-Can you move your right leg?

-That's good.

They come out, they see the great weather

and they start going over like dominoes on this weekend.

This may not be Everest, but Yorkshire's rock faces

attract some of the world's best climbers, testing their skills

against some of the toughest routes in mountaineering.

But you don't need me to tell you this is a risky sport.

Many of the hardest climbs are man-made.

The smooth sides of abandoned quarries make even finding

a hand hold difficult,

and few are more dangerous than Heptonstall Quarry

near Hebden Bridge.

It's nicknamed Hell Hole, and today a climber has fallen.

-So this is looking like a straight transverse.

-Oh, yeah.

Fallen, I'd say, 30 feet.

The main concern, though, is going to be

if he's got a significant head injury which will need to be

appropriately managed at a neurosurgery centre.

The closest one for this place will be Leeds.

Because he's fallen from such a height, there is

potential for a whole host of injuries - spinal injuries,

chest injuries, pelvic injuries -

so we've just got to perform a rapid, thorough assessment

and try and evacuate him to appropriate care as soon as possible.

Pilot Ian Mousett needs to bring Helimed 98 down safely

at the very top of the cliff face. Paramedics Graham Pemberton

and Sam Burgess will need to climb down to their patient.

Fire and Rescue Service have said they've got a landing track for you,

so they will marshal you in, over.

-We've got him.

-Yeah, we've got him.

As we came in, you could see it's quite a big rock face.

But we'll see what's going on,

but it sounds like there's a lot of people down there at the moment.

It's a long trek down. Graham and Sam need to find a shortcut.

Where is it, over that way?

No, no. I just want to have a look down, that's all.

Right there, that's the clue.

Calder Valley Mountain Rescue Team have reached the stricken climber,

26-year-old Joe Lofthouse from Halifax.

He's fallen on one of the climbs, locally, I think

it was Fairy Steps, and the climbers have sort of held him

on there as the entire team arrived.

We just need his obs and his blood pressure and stuff...

He's in a precarious position

and he needs to be lowered to the ground.

Are they on the ledge?

Joe was climbing using a series of cams wedged into the rock face,

but he failed to attach the last one properly and he fell.

He carried on going, he got the next cam in and I just said,

"Clip it," and he didn't clip it, he took it out.

And then he started panicking and I was saying,

"Breathe, keep breathing.

"You won't get pumped."

And then he said, "I'm coming off," and I were like, "No, stick on."

Came down, landed on his feet and then flipped over.

With the tension of the rope, it just flipped him over onto the ledge.

The mountain rescue team has got Joe on a specially designed stretcher.

The utmost care moving him is essential.

If we ring up and say he's fallen 30 foot,

they're going to want to...

He was loaded into one of our vacuum mattresses to stabilise him,

and he's just being carried down by the other

members of the team at the moment.

Joe's life is now in the hands of the mountain rescue team.

Carrying him down the cliff face will be difficult

and dangerous for patient and rescuers alike.

Reaching remote areas is what air ambulances are best at,

and after ten years, the Helimed team is almost taken for granted.

If you live up here in the Dales,

you look to the skies for help in an emergency.

But when it comes to speed,

the Helimed team have some stiff competition.

This is Swaledale, Yorkshire's most northerly dale.

The 3,000 people who live in its isolated communities

rely on paramedic Mike Lay for emergency help.

If the weather's bad or it's too late for an air ambulance,

Mike responds alone to 999 calls from his base in Richmond.

It's a long way from his old job as a paramedic in London,

where he spent 13 years.

London had such a diverse population, and it's a 24-hour city,

so we did get to some very strange situations there.

Whereas, here, things are a bit more settled

and people don't just call us at the drop of a hat,

so we do tend to go to more serious stuff more consistently up here.

It's the first bank holiday of summer,

and Mike's been called to the village of Aysgarth,

whose famous falls have been the backdrop to several Hollywood films.

But now a real-life drama is unfolding in the main road

through the village.

Another biker's badly hurt.

I could see straightaway it was a head-on impact,

and a quick survey showed me that his left femur was gone.

He also had difficulty breathing and pain to the right side of his chest.

Mike needs a backup as Aysgarth is an hour's drive

to the nearest hospital.

Helimed 98 is on its way.

These dales round here, Swaledale and so on, will be

absolutely crawling with bikers, all out enjoying the sunshine

and the tarmac.

So not that surprising that, every now and again,

one of them comes a cropper.

On board, paramedics Al Day

and Dave Appleby are joined by Dr Ben Wyatt.

Apparently this chap's got a broken thigh,

big bone in the top of your leg, which is quite a nasty injury.

You can lose a lot of blood from one of those.

So we're just en route to see if we can help out.

-Just coming round the corner?

-Yeah, just round the corner, mate.

Should be about there.

We've got traffic, looks like...

-Yeah, that's the traffic.

-I've got the blue light.

Their patient is 41-year-old Mike Rawson.

-Hello.

-Hello.

He lost control on a sharp bend and hit oncoming traffic.

Do we want to have a look at the leg first, Ben, or...?

Well, I can see...

Right, so we'll give him 10 of morphine to be going on with,

and then see how he is after a few minutes after that.

If it's still, you know... nothing's changed,

we'll give him some ketamine.

Ketamine is a very powerful painkiller.

We're going to see how the pain is in another few minutes.

We've given you morphine, all right?

If that's got not good enough, we've got another drug called ketamine.

-I've got pain every time I cough...

-It won't take away the pain completely,

we just want to suppress the pain, OK?

We were just coming round here,

following our friend in the red Saxo,

and he just hit a black car, bounced off that into the red Saxo

and then slid along the road and stopped just in front of us, so...

It's just a really big shock.

And it looks like he's very lucky. Obviously, he's hurt himself a lot,

but he's just very lucky that he didn't go under the Land Rover.

So that's six o'clock, the morphine, yeah, Ben?

So what we're going to have to be doing is removing this, maybe cut

this down, get the traction splint on him and get him on the board.

We can't touch him, as far as this leg goes.

He's still lying in the middle of a country road,

but Mike is being given the same sort of treatment

he would be getting in an A&E department.

Shall we hang on with his splint until we've given him

this ketamine, guys?

OK. Yeah, we'll do that.

The team has decided to use more powerful painkillers.

It sort of disassociates what we're doing to your leg from you.

So hopefully you will not feel it.

Al and Ben know straightening Mike's broken leg is going to hurt.

At least you had some good leathers on, mate. That's helped you.

You've had all the protection.

You can knock that off. Just a second, mate.

We'll just put it on top of him,

and if you can help control that leg there, all right?

Mike's leg is very swollen. A broken thigh bone can sever arteries,

causing massive internal bleeding.

Argh! I'm not comfortable!

The drugs Mike's been given are giving him

some strange side-effects. He needs reassurance.

I can't... I can't see anybody.

-Can you see me now, Mike?

-No. I can't see.

-Is this normal, feeling spaced out?

-Yeah, that's the idea.

It's the drug we've given you just to make things a bit more comfortable.

-I can't feel me body.

-Yeah, that's the idea.

I can't feel anything.

Can somebody just push from that end?

Now the drug has taken full effect, and before it wears off,

paramedics need to get his leg straightened quickly.

When somebody's got a fractured femur, you can straighten it,

what we call traction, actually pull it straight.

It actually decreases the pain and also decreases the bleeding

from the fracture, which is very important,

because you can lose a lot of blood from a fractured femur,

just into the muscle of the thigh.

This is probably not the bank holiday Mike had in mind.

Carefully, because he's jutting out at the end there, all right?

It worked really well. A couple of minutes after he had the ketamine,

he couldn't feel anything at all.

It was like we were messing with somebody else's leg

rather than his. He just stopped being bothered about it,

which is exactly what we wanted when you straighten a horrendously

broken leg with a great big thighbone of somebody

that weighs probably 15 stone.

Mike will be at A&E in Middlesbrough in about ten minutes.

It'll be some time before he'll be allowed back on his bike.

But the Dales isn't just a leisure destination.

For some, this landscape is deadly serious,

preparing men and women in uniform for life in Afghanistan

and the war zones of tomorrow.

The British Army goes into combat with skills learned here

in the Yorkshire Dales.

Almost every squaddie does their basic training here,

and specialist regiments like the artillery have major bases here.

Helimed 98 is stationed next to a Royal Artillery barracks,

and today the team has been brought one very young military casualty.

Little Logan's dad is a serving soldier,

but today it's his 18-month-old son who's in the wars.

He has serious burns.

-What I'm going to do is I'm going to put you on the stretcher.

-OK.

-You just hold him as you are, OK?

-OK.

-Have you ever been in my aircraft before?

-No.

-All right.

We'll get you there as quick as we can.

Do you want to come around this side with me?

Logan's mum Leanne had left him with his older brother

in his bedroom for a few minutes to go downstairs.

The boys then went into the bathroom

and Logan's older brother turned on the hot tap.

But Logan managed to hoist himself into the bath.

Logan has second-degree burns.

He has redness and blisters on his arms and legs.

-Just check that for me. Yeah?

-Yep.

-We're just going to give him some medicine.

-OK, yeah.

Does he normally take medicine OK?

-Yeah.

-Smashing.

-Medicine.

Here you go, darling. Here you go.

There's some medicine.

HE WAILS

-There, you take that.

-Come on, baby, you like medicine.

Oh, smashing.

-Is he all right to go to sleep?

-It's fine.

With all burn victims,

it's vital the skin is kept clean

as the risk of infection is very high.

That's why clingfilm is used to cover burned skin.

355, 47 miles.

He's relatively pain-free now so we'll not give him

-any more of that just yet.

-OK.

-Are you all right keeping hold?

-Yes.

-All right.

-ETA about 12, Matt.

-Thank you.

The pain Logan is feeling is actually a good sign.

The most serious burns cause little discomfort

because nerves have been destroyed.

Do you want to just sit him up a touch?

We'll get that right arm underneath.

The sound of the chopper often sends young patients to sleep.

In Logan's case, that's a blessing.

Helimed 98 is now minutes

from Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary,

home of the regional burns unit,

the very best place for Logan to be.

We're coming in to land, OK?

Burn surgeons are already on stand by,

and as soon as Logan arrives, he'll be taken in for assessment.

He will also be given stronger pain relief.

-All clear left.

-Thanks, mate. All clear my side.

We couldn't see everything because, obviously, babe in arms.

Quite bad blisters.

Some had popped, some hadn't,

which is always the risk of infection and losing fluid.

Main concern were to get some pain relief on board

and get him going up to Newcastle.

It's taken us 22 minutes to get here.

Logan's burns are more serious than first thought.

Skin grafts are taken from the back of his legs to repair the burns.

Three weeks later and Logan is back at home.

He's only 18 months old,

so will remember very little of the events of the last month.

Are you going for a bath?

But for mum Leanne, it's something she will never forget.

I came up the stairs with the boys, we took him into the bedroom

and then I remembered I'd forgot the bottles.

So I went back down the stairs and then I heard the water running,

so I ran halfway up the stairs and then I heard Logan screaming.

So we ran in and got you out, didn't we? Yes.

He's climbed up on the toy box and up on the side of the bath

and we think he's fell in that way.

Logan was in the water less than 30 seconds,

but it was so hot, it was long enough to cause serious burns.

A simple accident and every parent's worst nightmare.

Have you got your cream on?

I actually thought he was going to die,

because I didn't know how bad it was, and you've heard about things

like this on the TV, and you never think it's going to happen to you.

But obviously it did.

He's doing really, really well, doing well now.

He's got three skin grafts, which are all healing nicely.

And one of them is a bit funny,

he might need further operations to fix them.

But he, in himself, is doing a lot better than he was.

It's in the bath!

He's not scared to go in the bathroom any more, which is good,

because he was to start with. He wouldn't go in at all.

But now he's back to having baths,

and back to being his normal self again, so he's doing really well.

The Yorkshire Dales is famous for its dry-stone walls,

ancient boundaries that often date back more than 1,000 years.

Built up stone by stone, to protect sheep from prowling wolves,

if they were laid end to end,

they would measure 5,500 miles, from here to LA!

But these walls can be lethal.

Two wheels is the best way to see the Dales.

Many of the cyclists grinding up the inclines are

doing it for charity on sponsored bike rides.

One of the most popular routes is the 170-mile-long Way of the Roses,

a tough cycle trip coast to coast from Morecambe to Bridlington.

It takes in some of the country's most stunning scenery,

but also brings serious risks and today,

one charity cyclist has had a serious accident.

Helimed 98, we have lifted 1205.

At the moment we're a bit sketchy as to what actually has happened

and what injuries he's sustained, but there is someone on the scene saying

that he appears to be deteriorating, so we're heading over there.

Nigel Vickers was heading down this steep hill

when he lost control and crashed over a dry-stone wall.

-Just came over the wall.

-Just over the wall, landed down here.

Querying loss of consciousness. He's been down for about...

It took us 20 minutes to get here,

so he's been on the floor a good 20 minutes. He's increasingly drowsy.

He was coming down the hill. He was coming down a little bit too fast.

When he hit his brakes, it didn't stop the bike in time and he hit

the wall and went straight over the wall and onto the soft ground here.

Can you remember what happened then, Nigel? From all this?

-Yes, I was trying me brakes but me brakes weren't coming on.

-No?

And it just wouldn't grip as I came around.

-I bet that weren't a nice feeling, were it? Approaching that wall!

-No.

You're not the first one here, though, are you?

There was a guy killed on a bike last week coming down this same route,

just last week.

Lost it just on the corner further up and died,

so it's a really dangerous road.

I got there just as he had come over,

so people were flagging me down, so probably I was 100 yards behind.

You can see the shape, it's obviously straight,

so his handlebars are to one side.

Nigel had organised the trip.

-They're raising money for a local hospice.

-We started from Morecambe.

Went to Grassington last night

and then we have to get to York this evening.

And then York to Bridlington on the last day.

He's the guy who organised it as well. Sadly.

His mates have a difficult decision to make.

Do they call off the challenge or carry on without him?

In the end, they know what Nigel would want them to do.

-It's flat all the way to Bridlington now.

-Are we off?

-Thanks, guys.

-Appreciate it.

-Is someone coming with me?

-Afraid not.

We can't go in the air ambulance,

but we'll give Shell a ring in a bit. They'll keep us up to date.

You're in the best hands, mate. We can't come with you, though.

Nigel is still confused and dazed, so Pete is keen to get him

into Harrogate Hospital's A&E department quickly.

Helimed 98, lifted from the scene for Harrogate.

We've informed the hospital. 98, over.

It's funny how I think this is the second cyclist this week

that has been out on charity events,

so it's unfortunate when people are trying to do good that they

come to harm but hopefully, in Nigel's case,

it's not anything too serious.

Landing now, Nigel.

For the next 24 hours, Nigel will be under observation in hospital.

But his mates plan to finish his challenge.

And the following evening, they have made it to the east coast.

That's it, lads! We've done it.

I'm looking forward to them fish and chips.

They'll taste great after this bike ride!

Apart from Nigel's accident yesterday,

it's been absolutely fantastic. I've done it for a good cause.

And get well soon, Nige.

CHEERING

From the moment he went over the wall

to when he was in the air ambulance,

he can't remember a thing, so he obviously got very dazed

and knocked about the head a bit,

but he says he feels a lot better today,

he's just disappointed to have missed it all,

but fair play to him, he's done all the fundraising. We raised

about £3,000 for cancer research, and most of it is down to Nigel.

Even though we've had one injury, one accident,

we've all done really well, I'm really pleased we've done it.

We can make a little bit light of it now.

We took some pictures of him yesterday while he was

getting airlifted with a few light-hearted things that we

thought we'll show him later, as long as he's going to be all right.

Thankfully, he's now all right, so they can go on Facebook and YouTube.

Nigel hopes that he too will reach the east coast by bike...

perhaps next year.

But as he and his mates have found out,

taking on Yorkshire's outsized landscape involves

a lot of dangers the Helimed team are only too familiar with.

In the Pennines above the town of Hebden Bridge, a major

rescue operation is underway to save novice climber Joe Lofthouse.

He was badly hurt half an hour ago when he slipped

and fell off a rock face called Hell Hole.

Is it quite painful just around the back there? Just here?

Joe was climbing this rock

when he failed to connect his rope to a clip and fell backwards.

Joe's friend John and a fellow climber are by his side.

This is part and parcel of it, OK?

You've not done anything wrong, apart from not flashing it.

Despite reassurance from his friend, Joe is disorientated

-and showing signs of anxiety.

-It shakes you up.

I mean, we've climbed here umpteen times and nothing has happened,

but it's one of those... You can't do anything, you know?

ETA with you is approximately 17.00.

But if it changes significantly, we'll let you know,

because we're just at the bottom of a cliff at the moment.

More mountain rescue volunteers are on their way to help with

what is going to be a very difficult rescue.

When we get there, mate...

As Joe is already strapped into a stretcher, the priority

is to keep him conscious and get him up to the chopper quickly.

We're going to have to peel off when we get to this corner, folks.

The path to the top is perilous.

We've got probably in excess of 15 people, which is

good for a nice, sunny day, a good day for us,

so it's been a good job from our point of view.

This is the first time Joe has ever been involved

in a climbing accident,

but for the Calder Valley Mountain Rescue Team,

this is one of over 60 similar rescues they carry out each year.

We'd still be down the bottom of the hill without mountain rescue,

so, yeah, absolutely invaluable in these situations.

It's what they practise all the time, so they're really

good at it, and they've got the right kit for it as well.

Because you banged your head... You just fell. That's all.

You just felt, not far.

Not high. You just banged your head, that's all.

That's why you feel dizzy. That's why you can't remember what happened.

Joe's vital signs are good, his blood pressure is OK

and he's conscious,

but his head injury is concerning paramedic Graham.

Do you know what day it is?

-Is it Sunday?

-It is Sunday. You know what month it is?

Erm... No.

Not sure? Don't worry about it.

These guys are going to take care of you, OK? All right, Joe?

-Don't worry about it, pal. All right. See you soon.

-See you in a bit.

Clear to the rear, mate, just the one on your right.

He's got quite a significant injury which is to the

rear of his head, whether or not it's a soft-tissue injury or

involves the bone structures underneath,

we don't know at the moment, we have to wait until he has a CT scan.

As with all of these things, head injuries can be quite slow,

they can get slow bleeds and take a while to develop.

At Leeds General Infirmary,

Joe and his rescuers will find out the results of scans

and X-rays to his head.

There's a danger this accident could affect him for the rest of his life.

The dales and moors make Yorkshire one of Britain's

most beautiful places,

but if you're seriously ill or critically injured,

this is a dangerous place. Hospital can be an hour away

by road, and the emergency services are thin on the ground.

Mike Lay is a paramedic biker who brings life-saving care on

two wheels to the 20,000 people who live in the Yorkshire Dales.

Like the Helimed team, he can bypass the jams,

but his job is riskier.

From stray sheep to landslips, these lanes are littered with

potentially lethal hazards for bikers.

As soon as the good weather hits the Dales in the spring or

the summer, the bikers just flock to these roads.

Probably the bank holiday weekend, the start of May,

that's probably the first big biking weekend. We're almost

guaranteed to have a few motorcycle accidents.

People can be caught unawares,

they might be skidding along at high speed on the road

and might go round the corner

and there might be a micro-climb or a bit of wet on the road,

and before you know, you might be into a little slide.

The bikers here at this caff

are all wearing the right protective gear, but Mike believes

accidents happen because many are out of practice on the roads.

A lot of people, they have probably wintered their bikes over winter

and haven't been out riding.

And so, probably it would be their first taste of going

out on their bikes in the summer.

Mike is about to be proved right.

He's on his way to his first bike crash of the year.

-And the Helimed team will be joining him.

-98 has lifted.

South of the buildings.

It's Saturday morning on the first bank holiday of the year

and the weather is good. And with the sun comes trouble on the roads.

On scene, the update is the patient is now conscious.

Cyclist versus road sign. Nearest hospital is James Cook. Over.

Thanks for that. We'll give you a call, over.

Paramedic Mike has also been called to the incident, which is

close to his base in Richmond. Helimed 98 is right behind him.

The motorcyclist has come off and hit a lamp post.

Initially, this guy was unconscious,

so we're not sure what injuries he's got at the moment.

Quite often, they're sort of fast off,

so it could be quite traumatic when they do come off at speed.

Too close to the wire.

Priority for paramedic Daryl Cullen is to speak

to his colleague Mike, who is already at the scene.

This is Chris. Going about 60. He's tumbled from where his bike is.

-Knocked out for about 30 seconds.

-We had gone ahead.

There was a friend of ours that was behind.

And we got further up the road and realised he wasn't there,

and then we thought, "Oh, this looks naughty," so we turned around,

came back and found out that he had been in an accident.

Mike is concerned that the biker has a serious back and head injury.

Between them,

they need to make a full assessment before they attempt to move him.

Can you move your right leg?

Can you pull that glove off for us, mate?

That's all right. Good.

First bank holiday, good weather, so we tend to get all the bikers

who have wintered their bikes, they come out, they see the great

weather and they start going over like dominoes on this weekend.

-You were also knocked out for a while as well.

-Was I?

You were, yes. You were really confused when I got here.

Quite a cut-through is the 1263, for people coming from Teesside,

like this gentleman, heading across to the Dales, going across to

Richmond, so it is quite a popular road, and it is quite a nice

road for motorcycling with the type of bends that there are on it.

What we will do then, Chris, in a second, basically, potentially,

you could have hurt your back. You probably haven't.

The biker was wearing all of the right protective gear,

so he appears to have escaped serious injury.

But he will be strapped to a rigid spinal stretcher

until he gets the all clear in hospital.

Probably the first nice weekend we have had this year,

so everybody is getting their bikes out of the garage,

they haven't used them since the autumn.

Their skills are a little bit rusty.

Just one little mistake, at this kind of speed, and you're off.

Land crews will take Chris to hospital,

freeing up the air ambulance and motorbike paramedic for what

Mike hopes will not be a busy weekend.

Fingers crossed, but we'll see. The day's just warming up.

Like Mike, all of North Yorkshire's country paramedics have

to get used to coping with patients alone, and with little

of the backup their colleagues in the cities take for granted.

They are often based in tiny stations in small towns to help

them reach their patients in remote areas and today, on the edge

of the North York Moors, they have been called to a major accident.

-They are not alone.

-It's very popular.

This area of the country's really, really nice.

The road between Helmsley right across through Kirkbymoorside

towards Pickering and Malton and Thornton-le-Dale,

very, very popular with tourists, popular with motorcycles as well.

-You've got Flamingo Land coming in on your right, there.

-Roger, Dodge.

It's a busy Sunday afternoon.

The roads are clogged with slow-moving traffic.

Caravans, motorhomes and coaches can add extra time to journeys.

Can you just confirm for me that this is a motor vehicle rollover?

We've been dispatched again on this lovely day out towards

Thornton-le-Dale, right on the edge of the North York Moors.

We've got a road traffic collision

and reports of a vehicle that's rolled over.

Pilot Chris Atril brings Helimed 98 down at the scene of the crash,

where a car overtaking slow-moving traffic has left the road.

I'm assuming that's it.

-You're clear, left. You're still clear left.

-Roger.

-OK. Thanks for that, Chris.

-What have you got?

He's been conscious since we've been with him,

whether he was conscious beforehand or not is debatable.

Their patient is 24-year-old David Smith.

He's still trapped upside down in his now wrecked hot hatchback.

When I got in, the chap was conscious, speaking to me,

but not aware of where he was.

Witnesses were not sure what had happened,

so basically I just crawled in that side to keep him stable,

because he was just hanging by his belt upside down,

and just to take some weight off of that

so that I could check his c-spine and various other things.

Paramedic Darren Axe cannot make a proper assessment of

David's injuries until he is out of the wreckage.

The police are also on scene,

working out how the accident happened.

You just saw his tail end sway as he lost control.

The back end spun round and he flipped sideways through the hedge.

You saw him bouncing across the field.

Then he went up on his front end.

He seemed to hit this fence and bounce back into the field again.

Cos we thought...

We didn't know what we were going to find when we got to the car.

This car was David's pride and joy.

He kept it in immaculate condition

and only took it out on special occasions.

Now he is being asked the simple questions that paramedics

use to diagnose the confusion that can result from head injuries.

Do you know what day it is?

-Sunday.

-Sunday, that's good. I'm happy with that.

It takes six paramedics

and a flying doctor to very carefully slide David out.

-He's coming to you, Lee.

-OK, I've got him. I've got him.

-Let's just relax, there.

-Easy, easy.

One, two, three.

Right, David, is anything hurting now?

Arms across you.

-OK, bud?

-One, two, three.

-A bit more.

-OK.

All right, David. Anything hurting now?

David is not in any major pain and he's conscious.

Sorry, mate.

He was just sort of pinned in place by his seatbelt.

He's a little bit confused about what's happened to him but,

as you can well imagine, looking at the distance he's travelled,

he's gone a good 50m.

His car's come to rest upside down and he's still strapped in it,

so it would have been a wild ride, that one.

Lift.

Yep. Super.

Even though David seems OK,

there are signs he may have been knocked unconscious.

So, to be on the safe side,

he'll be flown to hospital to be thoroughly checked over.

-How long have you had that car, Dave?

-Was it the blue one?

-Hmm?

-Was it the blue one?

-Yep.

I've got news for you, mate. It's going in a skip.

But you're in one piece, that's all that matters.

As pilot Chris takes Helimed 98 up,

their patient takes a turn for the worse.

Just leave him a minute, I'll deal with him in a minute.

He's nauseous.

If he blows, get your legs out the way.

While air sickness can be a problem for our ambulance crews, there is

another more sinister explanation for their patient's nausea.

It could be the result of a head injury.

If you just let James Cook know that we have had quite extensive

vomiting from the patient in flight, so just let them know.

Darren has got his airway clear currently.

He's got, probably, a minor head injury,

er, which has caused him some concussion.

He's been unconscious, definitely,

which is obviously what made him really nauseous,

and that's why we had all the fun in the back having to get him

onto his side, conscious that we don't want him

to aspirate on his vomit, and if he's going to swallow it,

so we had to get him over.

Are you going to be sick again?

The team is taking David for scans and X-rays,

but one member, pilot Chris, has another task on his hands.

Not the first time, and it won't be the last time.

Well, someone has to do it!

Paramedic Darren likes to follow the progress of his patients,

and since he's a performance car nut too,

he's taking a close interest in David's case.

I think back to starting in the Ambulance Service, I've seen

some horrific accidents, seen horrific damages

and vehicles that have been torn apart.

The vehicles stand up to it better these days.

In fact, driver David escaped from the wreckage of his car

with no significant injuries, the result of the roll-cage that stops

the roof of modern cars caving in.

The strength and integrity of the vehicles

and the way they're built obviously afford a level of protection

that, you know, that can't be stressed enough.

The downside of that, ultimately,

is that people feel that they're completely invulnerable,

and hopefully, that doesn't produce an increase in the speeds that

they're travelling at.

The end of the Bank Holiday is in sight

for Dales paramedic biker, Mike.

After two visits from the Helimed team, it's been a busy day,

but he wouldn't swap his Yorkshire job for his old commute into London.

It would take me half an hour of

fighting through the traffic on my motorbike.

If I was in a car, it would take me at least an hour

to get to work each way,

whereas here, I just live down the road, next to the park,

so it's an eight-minute stroll through the park to get to

work here, so it just couldn't be more different.

I can most definitely say that I would never move back there.

I'd much rather go back there as a tourist,

because it is a fantastic city.

But I wouldn't go back there to work.

It's just been such a contrast to the positive up here,

so I'm more than happy up here.

But as Mike heads home, the Helimed team is still on duty, and another

biker has come off, this time near the seaside town of Whitby.

This makes three bikers in 24 hours for Helimed 98.

'Car V and the motorcycle RTC.

'Ambulance team was requested due to serious leg trauma.'

Paramedics Dave Appleby and Al Day need to be quick.

Helimed 98 cannot be flown at night, and the sun is going down.

The car's just there, I think, where the back of the ambulance is.

Land crews are already with their patient,

a biker who's been in a collision with a car.

Is he still on the road, or is he...? Hiya.

He's ready to go if you want him off?

Yeah, we're pushed against the time, yeah. Briefly, what happened then?

-This guy'll tell you.

-This is Matt. Motorbike, side on to car.

So he's hit, where's...has he been going up this way, or...?

Matt's been going towards Scarborough.

Yeah, and how's he hit the car, then? Has he...?

The car's, I think, going the other way.

So he's got pain, lower right leg, ankle area.

The patient is 26-year-old Matthew Howard from Whitby.

He appears lucky to be alive.

He's had 10 of morphine at 20:02 and 20:10.

Whereabouts is the, is it general...?

-It's my ankle.

-It's your ankle. And anywhere else hurting, is it?

-No, just from, just from the scratches down my side.

-Right.

How have you hit the car? Have you glanced it, or have you...?

-At about a 45 degree angle.

-Right.

He hit the verge on the other side

and then came straight across the road and into me.

OK, just take a nice deep breath for me.

That all right? In and out.

Matthew has already had a full dose of morphine and is now ready

for the 15 minute flight to James Cook Hospital in Middlesbrough.

On lifting, ready, steady, lift!

The impact of the crash was considerable.

As well as a suspected broken ankle,

Matthew has a long list of superficial injuries.

The team's patient has been fortunate in one way.

Matt, I've got your phone and I've got your glasses...

Official statistics show that on average, one rider dies every day

on the UK's roads, with spring

and early summer the most dangerous time to be a biker.

'Straight back, helipad departure.'

In the meantime, he will receive the

best medical care once he arrives in hospital in Middlesbrough.

He's escaped serious injury and will be home in the next few days.

Sadly, even seemingly minor injuries

can have a big effect on the victim's life,

and in the Pennines, another

of the Helimed team's patients is finding that out the hard way.

It's six weeks since the rock face named Hellhole

claimed yet another victim.

Climber Joe Lofthouse fell 30 feet onto rocks,

but he has lived to tell the tale

and returned to the fearsome cliffs that nearly killed him.

Where is he? Over that way?

It turns out he was a first-time climber on real rock.

It started at the end of January this year.

A friend of mine at work asked me

if I'd like to the indoor centre at Brighouse.

So I thought, "While the weather's nice,

"I'll go outdoors and try that."

I came down, did a couple of climbs, felt confident

and then, on the third climb, unfortunately, I fell.

I remember starting to climb, getting a few feet up,

I put two wires in and hooked on so I was safe

and then, when I started climbing up,

I tried putting a cam in and then I slipped and fell.

I fell all the way down to the ledge where I'd started

and then fell backwards, onto my head.

Hello. All right, mate. You?

With him that day was experienced climber John Gale.

John is used to these rocks, and when the accident happened,

he knew not to try and move Joe and call 999.

I heard the crash as Joe fell.

And, um...we were at the other end of the crag,

working on some other techniques.

My first reaction was that he was quite severely injured.

We just got off the ledge that we were on as quickly as we could,

ran straight for my phone and, before I'd got to Joe,

I was on the phone to the paramedics.

A 30-foot fall onto rocks can be fatal. Joe was lucky.

I sprained my left wrist but I had a big bruise for a few days

that was, like, the size of the back of my hand but here.

I have damaged my rotor cuff in my right shoulder.

I have concussion

and I've damaged the fourth cranial nerve behind my left eye.

Worst of all, Joe's fall leaves him with double vision.

But that slowly improves over the following three months,

much to the relief of the friends who introduced him to climbing.

And I'm pleased to tell you Joe is now well on the mend

and keen to climb again, despite the risks.

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