Episode 4 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, Matt - can you get in that grass field on your left?

'Yes, go for that...'

From high drama in the Peaks to high water 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...

That's usually a question I ask - are you all right flying with us?!

It's a routine case, until the patient goes into cardiac arrest.

-He's in VF.

-Right, stand clear. Stand clear!

Hello! You're all right. You've just had a bit of a do on us.

A young climber takes a tumble.

-Keep your head still...

-We just couldn't get to him quick enough.

It was like slow motion, it was horrible.

And, high in the Dales, a barbecue goes badly wrong.

So it sounds like the flame...the fumes, then, have probably ignited.

There's a lot to be said for living in a place as beautiful as this,

but if you're critically ill,

a rural address can seriously affect your chances of survival.

Prompt treatment for a heart attack or stroke is vital,

and in the countryside, every second counts.

The farming calendar is still at the centre of life

around Yorkshire's dales and moors.

It's midsummer, and the sheep are grazing high in the hills.

Down in the valleys, it's hay-making time,

gathering fodder for the long winter ahead.

In a village near the market town of Malton,

the traditional hay-making must stop for a very modern medical emergency.

We're going to a lovely little cottage,

to somebody who's had chest pains, requested an ambulance,

and looks like they're having a heart attack.

-Two o'clock low.

-Yep, got it, mate.

-Got somebody in the field.

-In the field, yeah. That's the one.

This morning, Helimed 98's landing pad was standing crops -

it's been cut just in time.

It was hay that depth, yes, waiting to be rolled up.

We rolled it up and baled it this morning.

So, it was just lucky.

Transferring patients who need cardiac treatment

is one of the air ambulance's more routine missions.

Put your hands on your tummy for us, Col...

For patient Colin Simpson, flying in helicopters is also routine -

he used to work on oil rigs.

Good! That's usually a question I ask,

are you all right flying with us?!

Shall we go round, give him...?

These pads are put on just in case Colin has a cardiac arrest.

Good lad. Can you cough?

And then, suddenly, the worst happens.

This is how 160,000 people die in the UK each year.

Any pulse...?

Colin's heart is fluttering - uselessly - in his chest.

The team has minutes to save his life.

His heart needs to be shocked back into rhythm.

Right, he's in VF.

-Right, no radial.

-OK, everybody stand clear.

OK, I'm going to charge...

MACHINE BLEEPS AS IT CHARGES ..at 200.

MACHINE BEEPS EMERGENCY BEEP Right, stand clear. Stand clear!

-Clear.

-BEEPING STOPS

I got him.

We've got a pulse back, mate, we've got a pulse.

-Got some O2?

-Yep...

'As we went onto the ambulance, he went into VF arrest,

'and his heart stopped beating.'

So, er, they got the paddles on,

and shocked his heart back into a normal rhythm.

And he's back with us again now,

so they're going to take him off down to Castle Hill.

Hello, you're OK, you're OK.

That's not attached...

All right, bud.

Hello! You're all right!

You've just had a bit of a do on us, giving us a bit of a scare.

Sammy and Andy need to get him straight to hospital.

His heart could stop again at any moment.

Making me feel cold, Colin!

We're not far away, anyway, Colin, from the hospital.

Colin's being flown 40 miles to the Castle Hill hospital near Hull,

where surgeons specialise in angioplasty -

opening out blocked arteries in the heart.

'We're at Castle Hill. Closing down.'

Is there any more that you need to get rid of, for the minute?

There is? Of course you can, it's just that we need to lay you flat,

so I'll wait for you if you want to be sick.

Colin's being driven round to the specialist department,

where he'll go straight for surgery.

He went all quiet and had a bit of a funny do,

as they say in the ambulance service.

It does make it worthwhile coming to work, knowing that

you've got a patient to hospital alive, and you know,

the chances are, he's going to make a good recovery.

And just a fortnight later, in the valleys below the North York Moors,

Colin is back in his workshop, as if nothing had happened.

I realise how lucky I am, actually, because things

fell into place on that particular day.

I really am very lucky to be here.

It could have happened differently. I could have been out walking,

but, er, yeah,

I just realise how lucky I was.

I remember getting on, being lifted onto a stretcher

and lifted out of the house,

and getting closer to the helicopter, getting lifted in.

Then, er, whilst in the helicopter...

I fainted.

-He's in VF.

-Right, no radial.

Everybody stand clear...

'It just seemed as though I passed out,

'and you can't tell how long that was, but...

'I just passed out, and came round, and that was it, basically.'

I feel no different now than I did 2.5 weeks ago, I feel fine.

I feel fit, but I know I've got to take it easy.

I'm going to enjoy life, definitely, yeah.

Visitors spend £1.5 billion a year in Yorkshire,

and tourism dwarfs other industries in the Dales.

It's the scenery that brings most of them.

Today, Helimed 98 is heading to a village called Appletreewick,

where one visitor desperately needs help.

'They're on the scene now and you're definitely required.

'Serious, severe head injury...'

A cyclist has been thrown over her handlebars

and has a serious head injury.

Measured on the so-called Glasgow Coma Scale,

or GCS, she scores just 3 out of 15 -

close to death.

Right, then, so... So we're happy with the airway,

obs are not too bad. Have you got any lines in yet?

-One line in there.

-She's still clenching, yeah...

Paramedics Darryl Cullen and Tony Wilkes need to act fast -

their patient, Miranda Warren, also has a blown pupil.

Her eye is fixed and doesn't react to light -

a sure symptom of swelling or bleeding inside the head

putting pressure on the optic nerves.

As we were coming down the hill, I saw her on the floor,

and her bike had broken and she'd gone over the top.

Fortunately, one of the ladies nearby is a paramedic,

and was dealing with her straight away.

The rolling hills are what bring

the visitors to Yorkshire's dales and moors -

idyllic country lanes,

with breathtaking views around almost every corner.

But these roads are potentially very dangerous,

especially for vulnerable users like cyclists.

Try and keep still, sweetie.

-So, she's got that there...

-She's taken the impact down this side.

This helmet, it's cracked it, hasn't it?

-We'll take that with us, if that's OK...

-The off-duty paramedic

who found Miranda carried out life-saving first aid

until help arrived.

She's gone over the handlebars of her bike,

and she was not breathing very well.

All we could do was just try and maintain her airway,

and keep her comfortable,

and just try and relay our information back to the control,

so that the guys knew what they were coming to.

We'll put her on the ambulance stretcher and just wheel her up.

When dealing with a serious head injury,

every minute saved can be the difference between life and death.

By chopper, it's a 15-minute flight to the major trauma centre in Leeds.

'We'll have another look at that pupil in a minute.'

Miranda's head injury is serious

but, until she has a brain scan, it's not known how serious.

Consciousness level is slowly coming up, which is a good sign.

So, we're hoping she might be over the worst.

The major trauma unit is set up for critical cases like this.

Miranda is very seriously injured,

and doctors and surgeons are on hand

to provide her with the very best care.

So this is Miranda Warren, we think she's 40 years old.

She's been on a pedal cycle, she's been wearing a helmet,

riding down a hill, then she's gone over the handlebars,

onto the road - quite a lot of damage to her helmet.

The priority is to reduce

the dangerous swelling in Miranda's head.

They'll do another assessment, to see if we've missed anything

prior to bringing her in, and then they'll fairly quickly

take her for a CT scan.

Obviously, the main concern, that she's got an head injury.

The next 48 hours will be critical,

as doctors put her into an artificial coma,

in an attempt to reduce the pressure inside her skull.

You break your arm, it takes three months,

you break a collar bone, it takes five weeks,

but if you hurt your brain,

just no idea, really - you don't know what's going to happen.

For several weeks, Miranda remains in a coma.

We told her we were here.

She opened her eyes.

And it's been like that ever since, really.

It's been very difficult, but she's a real trooper,

and she's really...gone through it all and come out the other side,

it's fantastic.

After weeks in intensive care,

Miranda is finally back at home in Ilkley.

Her recovery is very slow.

The effects of her brain injury are still evident.

Two parts of my brain had, erm,

bleeds on them, which have affected

my short-term memory and speech, and also,

my, erm, mobility, and...

I get very, erm, unsteady on my feet.

Miranda's weeks in hospital

are a worrying time for her family and friends.

Now, she is expected to make a good recovery.

I'm completely and utterly overwhelmed

with people's kindness and generosity.

It's been amazing. And, generally, my body has healed very well,

it's just...my brain I want to heal quicker.

The High Pennines between Yorkshire and Lancashire

are every bit as bleak today as they were when the Bronte sisters

described their wild beauty.

These "Wuthering Heights"

are still as difficult to get around now as then.

Are you all right?

They've made a right job of that one.

On a moorland road, the driver of a brand-new car

has left the tarmac and rolled down a hill.

Hello, sir, how are you...?

Paramedic Darren Axe finds a familiar face on the hillside -

flying doctor Ben Wyatt has a practice down in the valley.

-In that vehicle, a 51-year-old, I think he was the driver...

-Yeah.

Erm...

-About 45 minutes ago...

-Yeah.

Er, injuries - complaining of neck and back pain.

The roads of Bronte country

have been the scene of serious accidents for decades,

but modern car design has made them safer -

two passengers have escaped unhurt.

There's no significant injury -

if he doesn't trigger the tree, we can't take him.

So... But obviously, I'd rather wait until he comes out,

make an assessment on that...

If the driver, too, has escaped serious injury, the so-called

triage tree, that grades patients by the urgency of their cases,

will mean he will go to hospital by road.

Ready?

We've arrived on scene, and you can see that we're up on the top

of the moor here at Todmorden - nothing else really in the vicinity.

There's a slight kink in the road, and I've been here before,

this little area, and it catches a few people out,

and this guy looks like he's gone straight on, over the embankment.

You can see the demolition of the car in front,

and other passengers have walked free with minor injuries,

and we're just waiting to extricate this guy.

First impressions, he's just minor injuries, so we'll just have to see.

DRIVER GROANS

The driver may be in pain but, remarkably,

he's not showing any signs of a major injury.

It's a lucky escape.

The vehicle's basically decimated, but it's done its job.

The safety cell within the vehicle has kept him in place,

and his seat belt and all the air bags

have done the job they're supposed to do.

So he's been extremely lucky.

And although he's been through a bit of a, you know,

a tumble dryer, he looks like he's had a crash in a Batmobile,

because it's smashed to pieces,

but he's going to make his way in this ground vehicle.

His brand-new car is a write-off.

The fire service has had to remove the roof.

But thanks to modern car design, an accident that could

so easily have been fatal has ended with only minor injuries.

The roads of the Pennines, tamed at last by technology.

The Yorkshire Dales are full of natural wonders,

from subterranean show caves

to amazing relics like this prehistoric waterfall.

But some visitors go home with more than a souvenir photo.

Brimham Rocks, just north of Harrogate,

have been shaped by wind and rain over hundreds of thousands of years,

and are now a National Trust attraction.

They are also a regular destination for the Helimed team.

Visitors are free to clamber over the rocks,

some of which are nearly ten metres high.

Slip from up here, and the injuries could be fatal.

Helimed 98, copied, thanks.

I'll stay with you, if I may, to the incident,

and then probably go to Leeds.

It's quite a popular tourist attraction, really -

people like to go and walk round the rocks,

and kids scramble around over them.

It's quite a regular place for people to have little falls.

They're not particularly high, these rocks,

probably a maximum of about 25 foot high.

But enough to hurt yourself if you were to fall from the top.

What about that gap there? Is that too steep...?

It's a very difficult place to touch down. The ground is very uneven,

and there are often too many people around to land safely.

OK, yeah, happy with that one. Let's try that.

Ian Mousette is a highly experienced pilot,

and has flown in war zones.

If anyone can land here, he can.

It's a compromise, if it's a little bit further away, but...

-Yeah, but it looks flat, doesn't it?

-Looks good, yeah.

OK, just the slope I'm worried about now.

Paramedic Al Day and Dr Ben Wyatt need to find their patient,

12-year-old Dan McKeen.

-You all right?

-This is Dan, this is Dan's mum.

-Hello.

Dan was on about the third lift of them ledges -

about 12-15 feet up.

He was coming down, and he was seen to slip, land on both feet.

-His pain's managed pretty well with Entonox so far.

-OK, magic...

Dan has a nasty break to his left leg.

It's not clear if he has also banged his head in the fall,

but he is conscious, and controlling his pain, using gas and air,

so signs are good.

Dan's mum, Lesley, saw him fall.

He's been to the top of this one, and he was just coming down,

he was kind of sat on that ledge, had his foot on the edge,

lost his footing, and he just slipped,

came down, against the rocks all the way down,

and jarred both his, like, feet.

I was just there and we couldn't get to him quick enough.

It was slow motion, it was horrible. I'm all right at the minute.

Once I get to hospital, I'll probably burst into tears

but, at the minute, I'm all right!

Think his little brother's been a bit more shook up than anything.

Considering how far he fell,

if we've only got one broken leg, it's...

I'm quite happy.

A fall of 20 feet headfirst can be fatal,

but Dan managed to stay upright as he slipped down the rock face,

his left leg taking the full force of the fall.

Dan? Keep your head still.

Can you wiggle your toes for me on your left leg?

OK. Lovely.

It looks like he's probably fractured his left lower leg.

So far no other significant injuries, so probably be...

Fingers crossed, but up to Harrogate for a pot on his leg.

We're going to roll on three. One, two and three.

In order to get him anywhere,

we have to get him onto what's called a combi board

to immobilise his spine safely, just in case there's a spinal injury.

and then position him carefully on that, strap him down

and then get him some insulation to keep him warm.

Because although it's May... it's actually quite cold

if you're lying on the ground for any length of time.

Are you warm enough, Dan?

He's coping with his pain and is ready to be carried to the chopper.

Despite Dan's fall, management say

accidents here at Brimham Rocks are rare.

Nice and steady down there, yeah.

That's lovely, that.

When you consider that we get something like 180,000 people

visiting a year here,

the number of accidents we have is pretty small

and most of them are just simple slips and twists.

You know, it's rare that we get a fracture.

It seems Dan has just been unlucky.

It'll be an uncomfortable few weeks as his leg heals,

and it'll be next year before it's strong enough

to take on Brimham Rocks again.

Yorkshire's full of well-preserved reminders of its eventful past.

When York's ancient Minster was built nearly 1,000 years ago,

the average life expectancy in these medieval streets

was probably around 35.

Now ten million Brits are over 65, most enjoying an active old age.

For some pensioners, sight-seeing isn't strenuous enough.

Gardening is the most popular retirement pastime,

but tending your blooms isn't without risk

when you're getting on a bit.

We are on our way to Reeth near Richmond,

where we have reports of a 70-year-old chap whose fallen

over ten feet off of a ladder.

He's not making a lot of sense and, unfortunately for us,

the land crews are about another 15 minutes away.

This little flat bit here looks pretty good,

-if you can nose on to that.

-Yep.

You've got plenty of space this side before you go onto the fence line.

OK, mate.

Hello, how are you?

-I'm all right.

-Good.

-This is Robert.

-Hello, Robert.

Robert was on the roof of this building here

and he thinks he just...a tile broke and he fell off.

He's got a nice abrasion on his chest.

From the top, his airway is clear.

He's got a cut to his chin and the inside of his lip,

so he's possibly gone right through the lot.

Take a really deep breath...

Robert Hughes is 70.

He'd gone up a ladder to trim the ivy on his house.

-They're false that have come out.

-Half of them are, yeah.

Well, he was cutting this back...

You all right, guys?

..and he was on the porch.

I'd just come in. I was here and I was just walking away,

and I heard this bang...

..and a cry.

-How old are you, sir?

-70.

That's what I heard. And you're up ten-foot on ladders and...

cutting your ivy? I think you deserve a bit of VIP treatment from now on.

Robert's accident is common.

300,000 gardeners need hospital treatment each year,

and a third of them fall off ladders.

Ready, steady, roll.

Just a little bit more so we can...

Stay still, sir. That's it. We're just fitting round you.

This chap's just been out taking advantage of the nice weather to

do some gardening on clearing some holly from the side of his house.

It sounds like he's overbalanced a bit and fallen off...

a small extension to the house,

and he's hit his ribs and his back as he's fallen.

So, he's got some pain down his side...

and in the lower part of his back.

So, we're going to fly him up to James Cook, for his comfort,

and just to get some X-rays done

to exclude fractures or anything more serious

underlying that we might have missed.

Please let us know if you start feeling uncomfortable.

Ten feet is a significant fall, so don't feel a fraud.

We're glad you're OK, but we're still going to take care of you.

-Thank you.

-Brilliant.

It's easily an hour's drive along twisting country roads

to get Robert to hospital.

And, with a suspected back injury,

that would be a very painful journey.

He's doing remarkably well, but he is complaining of back pain, flank pain.

It could be indicative of a bleed.

It could be indicative of a spinal injury.

His obs and everything are absolutely fine

and he's actually claiming to be pain-free,

but his wife tells me he'd say that anyway.

Robert may have escaped serious injury,

but Sammy is still worried.

He's taken straight into X-ray

to establish the extent of his injuries.

Tests reveal he's just a bit battered and bruised,

and doctors have told him he will be able to go home tomorrow to recover.

North Yorkshire's a magnet for active pensioners

looking for retirement homes,

and you don't have to stop DIY when you're an OAP.

Today, paramedics Sammy and Sam are on their way to another pensioner

who has fallen from a ladder and is now badly hurt.

This is a patient that's has fallen through a garage roof...

They're saying he's virtually scalped himself and has spinal pain.

Pilot Andy Lister's circling the home

of the team's 86-year-old patient.

He was clearing a gutter.

Sammy knows older patients are much less likely to call 999,

and much more likely to be seriously hurt if they do.

Her patient's fallen through a carport roof onto concrete.

Is there any obvious fracture or depression or...?

Their patient is Geoffrey Wilson.

He's conscious, but the wound to his scalp is deep.

Land crews have already prepared him for flight,

and Sammy needs to brief the hospital

ahead of Geoffrey's condition.

I'm currently with an 86-year-old gentleman

that's fallen eight feet through a garage roof.

He's complaining of thoracic mid-spine tenderness.

He's got a laceration described as partial scalping

with exposed bone, but no obvious fracture.

Such a severe head injury to someone of Geoffrey's age is a concern.

It's a worrying time for Millie, Geoffrey's wife of 57 years.

He was cleaning the gutters out and he...

He was coming back, and we've got a carport,

and he fell through that.

So, he fell about seven-foot something.

And it was Perspex, so I don't know whether that's cut his head.

It's all his head, you know.

-Right, Geoff...

-It hurts me.

Well, let's get you checked out down at the hospital.

Don't die on me, will you, pet?

PARAMEDIC LAUGHS

I'm sure he won't, all right?

-Come on.

-Let me go.

-No, don't, Geoff.

Right. I'll take you back...

Flight confirmed and handsets off.

Geoffrey's always been fit for his age

and his good health carries him through this crisis.

He needs minor surgery to his head wound,

but the rest of his injuries are relatively minor.

He'll soon be home with a new insight into the dangers of DIY.

Grabbing a bite to eat outdoors is one of the pleasures of summer,

but paramedics will tell you that your back garden barbecue

can ruin your weekend.

It's approaching 30 degrees Celsius in North Yorkshire,

but we can't all cool off like this.

So, one man has decided to dine al fresco.

Now Helimed 98 is on its way to a barbecue

that's given its owner serious burns.

98...

Just lifted out on route to...

It seems that somebody's burnt themselves are a barbecue.

Beautiful weather and one is expected

to have a barbecue at this time,

but it sounds like they've burnt their hands and their face,

which is quite significant.

The team on board Helimed 98 is trying to find the injured man

in a garden high in the hills of Wensleydale.

I've got you the map. You're not going to like it.

Have you seen what he's given us?

It's a grid reference in an often featureless landscape.

Just stood. Here they are waving. Coming back around.

It's going to be straight back along.

Burns victims are usually in serious pain

-and their wounds need to be kept cool and clean.

-Hello.

Their patient, Steve Davies, is in agony

and is pouring cold water over his burns.

-What's your name?

-Steve.

-Is it hurting?

-Aye.

Bad.

Hurting bad, is it?

Steve was trying to light his barbecue

when he mistake of pouring lighter fluid over hot coals.

It exploded and burning fluid splashed over his head and hands.

It looks quite... Quite horrendous, doesn't it?

-But these are fairly superficial burns, all right, Steve?

-Yeah.

Can I have a look in your mouth?

-Did you feel like you'd got any in your mouth?

-No, no.

I kept my mouth closed. I was just trying to roll on the ground.

The most lethal burns are to the windpipe.

Patients can asphyxiate,

but, thankfully, Graham has just ruled that out.

-So, did it just flare up?

-I was leaning right over it.

-Right.

-I put some fuel on it...

-Ah.

So it sounds like the fumes have probably ignited.

Burns victims suffer waves of severe pain.

We'll give you some morphine.

Now the morphine takes a few minutes to start to work.

All right? So it won't work immediately, but it will...

You will start to feel...

some benefit fairly quickly, all right?

Paramedics need to cover Steve's burns with clingfilm.

This acts as a protective layer to keep the wound sterile and cool.

Clingfilm also doesn't stick to the skin

and allows doctors to see the injury.

Yeah. I've got a 55-year-old male who's...

His barbecue's flared up.

He's got partial thickness burns to his right hand.

Partial thickness burns to the right side of his face and his ear.

Steve is suffering another major wave of pain.

Is that pain getting any easier, Steve?

It was until I took my hand out the water.

Oh, right. I know it's probably not what you want to hear,

but it's actually quite a good sign that it hurts

because that means it's not that deep. All right?

Really deep, full-thickness burns don't hurt, so...

Yeah, we're good for that.

Steve is understandably in a hurry to get to hospital.

Stephen's burns, although they're not life-threatening,

because they're his hands and his face,

they are cosmetically important.

And with your hands as well, it kind of...

Sort of manual dexterity,

so we want to make sure that they get dealt with properly,

so we're going to take him straight to a burns unit.

Feet in the back there.

Once the drug takes effect, Steve will not feel or remember a thing.

Give me this hand.

Straighten your arm. Straighten it. There we go.

-Is that helping a bit now?

-Aye.

Yeah. It's good stuff that, isn't it?

Steve is being flown 40 miles north to Newcastle.

Burns often take weeks to heal,

but getting the right treatment in the hour after the accident

makes a lot of difference.

Burns are very painful injuries.

Burns on hands are particularly painful

because your hands are very sensitive,

got lots of nerve endings in there, so we're giving him morphine.

But that's not been effective enough, so we've had to give him

a bit of ketamine as well to try and control the pain.

Steve's burns are so serious he spends a day in the RVI's

high-dependency unit, but he doesn't need skin grafts.

And, a month on, he's almost fully recovered from his accident.

The flame shot above my head. The vapour stuck to my head and my arm,

and set my whole head on fire.

It's the worst nightmare

and I was trying to put it out with my right hand cos I'm right-handed.

I tried to roll on the floor to...

to try and put it out, but it was actually...

Literally my whole head was on fire.

I remember very small bits of the horror of the burning,

and the sensation for me was the fact

that I couldn't get it to go out.

And, you know, you just had that horrible thought that that was it.

There was a little bit of bad luck to get the injury,

but a tremendous amount of good luck.

I was lucky the air ambulance was available.

I was lucky they could land so closely to me.

And I reckon I was pretty lucky to go to Newcastle

because the attention I got there was staggering.

I think I'll give barbecues a miss from now on.

More than 1,000 miles of footpath

meander through North Yorkshire's national parks

and many of them are bridleways open to riders, too.

But when an accident happens out here,

the victim can be miles from the nearest road.

And, today, Helimed 98 is off to a horseman in trouble.

-Have you got Felixkirk on your map?

-Yeah.

Put that as your IP then.

It's right on the edge of the map, mate.

Many riding are injuries are minor, but this case looks different.

The patient's been crushed by his own horse.

Only motorists outnumber riders

in the Helimed team's accident statistics,

and finding this one is proving tricky.

-That village - that's that one to the right.

-Yeah.

There's the ambulance.

Oh, hello, here they are. No, no, no,

-they're here in the middle of the field. OK?

-Yeah.

Experienced rider Michael Wood

is lying where he fell half an hour ago.

He's confused and complaining of severe back pain.

I'm just going to stand over you mate, OK?

The horse fell on Michael's pelvis.

His blood pressure readings are low,

which is a possible sign of internal bleeding.

Bleeding inside the pelvic cavity can be fatal.

We just had a nice quiet ride out.

We do this route regularly. I was in front.

It's only...wide enough for single-file canters,

so it wasn't a race or anything like that.

Horses were quite controlled, quite a steady canter,

and I heard Michael cry out.

And when I looked round...the horse and rider were on the ground.

The horse got up straight away. She ran over to me, so the horse is OK.

We just have to hope that Michael's all right now.

Be nice and still for us.

Paramedics have set up a drip to raise Michael's blood pressure.

Saline will replace lost blood, but only for so long.

Been found here, quite confused.

It seems like he's got some concussion going,

but he's got a low blood pressure at the moment,

which is just concerning us.

So we're just having to do some interventions,

give him some fluid therapy for that,

and can just see where we go and get him up to James Cook.

If we lay that out, then he can go straight on to there

when we get him on it.

Graham, have you got any pain anywhere?

HE MUMBLES

He's being quite repetitive.

He was talking, but...

I thought he was slurring his speech, really, and his colour

was not good, and it just looked like there was something wrong.

I'm just going to straighten those legs.

You tell us if you get any pain anywhere.

-All right.

-Ready, steady, move.

There we go. OK. Let's just have a feel. Is that painful?

Can you see there?

A few markings, but no real bruising.

Any pain there at the bottom? No?

Paramedic Lee fears Michael may also have a spinal injury,

but it's his lack of colour that's disturbing him.

OK. Ready, steady, lift.

Crush accidents can lead to severe internal bleeding.

Just go up to the middle of this field.

Michael's being flown to the trauma unit in Middlesbrough.

His blood pressure is still dropping

and the team fears he may have serious internal bleeding.

Pilot Andy Lister knows the speed of Helimed 98 has saved many lives,

but it's rarely as critical as today.

Michael's taken straight to an X-ray machine,

where doctors make a startling discovery.

He has internal injuries so serious he needs immediate surgery.

His family are warned he may not survive.

The next few days will be critical.

For more than 1,000 years, the dry-stone wall

has been keeping the sheep of the Dales from straying,

but this traditional skill is far from dying out - no wonder.

The building materials are free, you don't even need mortar,

and when one falls down, it can be instantly recycled.

Right, mate. The valley, as we know, will take us to...

But today, paramedics Darren and Sam, both keen bikers,

are about to see why motorcyclists dread dry-stone walls.

We've got a cyclist road traffic collision in Hawes,

which is one of the popular motorcycling routes

around North Yorkshire.

I've been up and down it many times myself on my bike.

Also, unfortunately, I've been to it many times on the helicopter.

We've got a young lady, apparently,

that's gone through a dry-stone wall.

Reported to be unconscious at the time.

If you impact into a solid object like that,

significant injuries are going to result more often than not.

What we're obviously going to try to do

is get on scene as quickly as we can.

-Got people in the field.

-Visual?

-Yeah.

Whoops. That is well and truly spankered.

How the hell's it gone through that?

-Can you remember everything that's happened to you?

-Yeah.

-You've not been unconscious.

-No.

-Yes, she had.

-Yes, you have.

-All right, sweetheart. So just your shoulder?

-Legs.

-I don't know really where.

-You don't know really where. OK.

-I've really put my bum out.

-Right. OK.

-Is it this shoulder?

-No, right shoulder!

-Right shoulder.

Veronica Turner, or Sid as she's known to her mates,

was part of this big group of bikers off for their Sunday afternoon ride.

And the arm's at a funny angle. It is, isn't it?

OK. This pain that you've got, Sid, on a scale of one-to-ten,

-if ten is worst pain you've ever had...

-Oh, yes.

-It's about a ten.

-Aye.

-Well, that's good.

I'm just going to have a little feel at this hip. Any pain?

-Not in that one.

-Not in that one, but you think in the other one.

She's come across the grass, totally missed the corner...

and just over the wall. Somersaulted over the wall.

We just stopped, not five minutes ago, and she was saying,

"I need to get my leathers cleaned - they're getting dirty."

And then...

She'll need new ones now.

This quiet Dales field is now bustling with activity.

The paramedics treating, the police investigating

and the farmer already trying to rebuild his wall.

She's gone through a dry-stone wall, been ejected into a field,

travelled approximately 20-to-30 metres and landed in the field.

She's complaining of quite severe pain in her right shoulder,

right hip, lower back and the top of her right leg.

Darren needs to be able to control Sid's pain.

Is somebody else cutting my back off?

Yeah, that's my mate, Sam.

Unfortunately, he's not as good-looking as me,

so he's keeping out of the way.

But, before he gets a start to start treating her,

she stops responding.

-Can you open your eyes?

-Open your eyes for us.

-Sid.

-Come on.

HE WHISTLES Sid.

Just hang on, mate.

Sid.

Open your eyes.

Sid, come on.

Yeah, she's still pink.

She is still conscious, but now time is against them.

Darren turns to their strongest painkiller, ketamine,

but it can have unusual side effects.

Sid, I'm going to give you something for the pain.

This is going to make you feel funny.

Timing, Sam, please.

Sid, I need you to keep talking to me.

What sort of bike have you got?

I've got two.

-What's this one?

-A CBR.

A what?

A CBR. Honda.

Honda. Yeah, I've got one of those.

Mine's a lot older than yours, though.

Yeah, but yours is still working.

Well, that one looks like it's going in the skip....

unfortunately.

-I've does a good job, have I?

-Yeah, you've done a good job.

-How you feeling, love?

-On another planet.

You're on another planet? That's exactly where I wanted you to be.

Greg, mate, that's enough. She's had 20 and she's gone.

-She's high.

-Yeah, she's gone for a flight.

Darren and Sam are worried about Sid's shoulder and back.

The force needed to throw her so far into this field

could easily have broken bones and caused internal injuries.

Right. Let's get her covered up, get her strapped in and let's go.

So now she's flying back out the Dales on a 50-mile journey

to hospital in Middlesbrough.

She was in a lot of pain from her right shoulder

and her right hip and her lower back,

and the worst thing we could do is start manipulating her about,

cos she would have just screamed her head off,

and we're not here to do that.

We only gave her a dose of 20mg but it's achieved what we set out to do.

Because, at the end of the day, we don't have an X-ray

and I can't see what's happening with her back and her hip,

and the shoulder, and the last thing I want to do is cause her more pain

than she's already suffering.

Doctors discover the dry-stone wall has taken its toll on Sid.

She has broken her shoulder and her hip.

You still here? Good.

She spends six weeks in hospital. Her bike is a write-off.

It's high summer on the North York Moors

and the timeless attraction of Heartbeat country

is pulling in the tourists.

In the idyllic village of Boltby,

this is a summer the family of Michael Wood thought he'd never see.

Crushed by his horse, he was very lucky to survive the accident.

I could feel the front end rising. Very shortly after that,

she bounced up and down and she'd gone high enough to unseat me.

Arguably, I should have dropped the reins

and fallen on the ground - ouch.

But in this particular instance, split-second timing,

not thinking fast enough, I put more weight on the reins, stupidly,

and that pulled her right over backwards.

I'm just going to stand over you mate, OK?

A horse can weigh nearly half a ton

and Michael's body took the full impact.

It caused a long list of serious injuries.

I punctured my diaphragm. For good luck, I broke a few ribs.

The spleen was removed...

and then the left hip was dislocated the right one was severely damaged,

so they've had to reconstruct that

with some plate work and various things.

Michael has been in intensive care for weeks,

and, even though he is home, he still needs constant care.

His injuries nearly killed him.

One of the senior nurses came to see me in privacy and said,

"Michael, this is your time. We very, very nearly lost you."

That sounds melodramatic. I've no idea.

They're the ones that were in charge of me,

but I'm fairly, fairly confident that,

although the paramedics made it to me,

if they tried to get me over land to the hospital,

I'm fairly sure that would have been the end of my life.

When I did hear the helicopter, it was a big, "Wow. Fantastic."

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

and keen to get back in the saddle soon.

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