The latest episode of Yorkshire Air 999, airing on Really and discovery+ this Friday 7th November at 9PM, follows the Yorkshire Air Ambulance (YAA) team as they respond to an unconscious teenager found on a remote moorland track in Upper Nidderdale after a late-night quad bike crash left him exposed to the elements for more than seven hours.
18-year-old farmer Edward Suttill had been riding home in the early hours when his quad bike flipped on a rugged track near Scar House Reservoir, just east of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. With no phone signal and no witnesses, Edward lay injured, unconscious and alone through the night.
It was only when his parents woke in the morning that they realised Edward hadn’t returned home the previous evening and set out looking for him, before calling 999.
Yorkshire Air Ambulance’s Topcliffe-based Critical Care Team, consisting of Paramedic Andy Armitage and Paramedic Stewart Ashburner-McManus, were scrambled to the scene, flying the 20-mile journey in just ten minutes. With the nearest major trauma centre more than an hour away by road, the helicopter was crucial to Edward’s chances of survival.
Paramedic Andy said, “When we flew overhead to try and locate the patient, we spotted a very large overturned quad bike. Seeing the size of it immediately raised concerns about the force involved and the injuries that could follow, from head and chest trauma to pelvic fractures or internal bleeding”.
On arrival, the crew were told by Edward’s familythat he had stopped talking around 20 minutes earlier. The outside temperature overnight had dropped to around nine degrees, putting him at risk of hypothermia, which can slow the brain, weaken the heart and quickly become life-threatening.
Andy said, “I was really concerned because his level of consciousness was low, he had blood around his head, and we knew he’d been there all night. When someone’s been exposed to the cold for that long, you’re thinking: is he unconscious because of hypothermia, because of a head injury, or both? Either way, we needed to move quickly”.
The team gave Edward oxygen through a mask to support his breathing and carried out an urgent primary assessment, cutting away his clothing to check for hidden injuries. With his Glasgow Coma Scale score at 11, indicating a moderate head injury, and his skin already cold to the touch, the priority was to move him fast and protect him from further heat loss.
Edward was carefully lifted onto a scoop stretcher, before being placed in a thermal sleeping bag to help retain heat and begin gently warming him. He was then carried to the helicopter for the 12 minute flight to Leeds General Infirmary, where trauma teams were standing by.
Edward was treated for hypothermia and underwent scans that revealed two bleeds on the brain and a fractured shoulder blade. After four weeks at Leeds General Infirmary and a further two at James Cook Hospital, he returned home to continue his recovery and is now back on his quad bike.
Speaking about the accident, Edward said, “We’d had a good night, and I set off home on the quad, but I didn’t quite make it. The next thing I remember properly was being in hospital. I had two bleeds on the brain, but luckily they didn’t have to operate. They told me my short-term memory had taken a hit, but the only thing I’ve forgotten is the accident, so I think I’ve done quite well”.
Alongside Edward’s story, this episode also features a 55-year-old man who suffered a heart attack after collapsing at home, a sailor knocked unconscious by his boat’s hull, and a 33-year-old woman thrown from her motorbike into a dry stone wall.