Yorkshire Air Ambulance’s hit TV series, Yorkshire Air 999, returns after a season break this Friday, 7th February, at 9 PM on Really, bringing viewers closer than ever to Yorkshire Air Ambulance’s lifesaving missions. In this week’s gripping episode, the team races against time to save a beloved rugby coach who collapsed after suffering a sudden cardiac arrest.
Lee Garside, 48, from Sharlston, near Wakefield, had just finished a routine training session at Sharlston Rovers Rugby League Club when he suddenly collapsed. His teammates immediately called for help, with one performing essential chest compressions, under the guidance of NHS emergency 999 call handlers, while another team member rushed to retrieve the club’s defibrillator, determined to give Lee the best possible chance of survival before emergency crews arrived.
Yorkshire Air Ambulance paramedic Andy Armitage and technical crew member Richie Campbell were dispatched to the scene. With the incident just 1.5 miles from Yorkshire Air Ambulance’s Nostell Air Base, the team opted to respond by road, in one of the charities rapid response vehicles, which carries the same lifesaving equipment as the helicopter, ensuring they arrived as quickly as possible.
Commenting his decision to go by road, Andy explained, “In cases like this, the helicopter would have taken longer to get airborne and find a suitable landing site. With it being so close to base, going by road, meant we could be there faster to deliver the care Lee desperately needed”.
Arriving first on scene, with a double crewed land ambulance just 5 minutes behind, Andy and Richie worked alongside the rugby team, who had already delivered two defibrillator shocks to Lee’s heart. Despite brief signs of response, Lee’s heart remained unstable, and his condition was critical.
The team continued CPR, delivering three more lifesaving shocks while also providing advanced interventions, including IV adrenaline, in an effort to restart Lee’s heart. After more than 10 minutes of continuous resuscitation, Lee finally began showing signs of life, with a faint but detectable pulse.
With time still of the essence, and a re-arrest highly likely, Andy made the call to transfer Lee to Pinderfields Hospital by land ambulance, calling ahead to ensure a crash team was ready upon arrival while accompanying the road crew to monitor his condition. During the journey to hospital, Lee suffered a seizure, likely a result of oxygen deprivation during his cardiac arrest, further intensifying the urgency of his condition.
Lee spent three weeks in the hospital and was later fitted with an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD) to prevent further cardiac episodes. Just eight weeks later, his ICD activated again when he suffered another cardiac arrest at home. Lee recalled, “I was just sat watching TV when my vision blurred, and I felt myself slipping away. Then suddenly, the device delivered a huge shock to my heart and brought me back!”.
Now on the road to recovery, Lee continues to coach rugby and is determined to return to the pitch alongside his teammates. Lee continued, “All the lads that worked on me that day, giving me CPR and using the defibrillator, I could never thank them enough. Without them, and the help of Yorkshire Air Ambulances team, I wouldn’t be here today. It’s still nerve-wracking every time I step onto the field where it happened, but bit by bit it’s getting easier.”
Yorkshire Air Ambulance attends hundreds of cardiac emergencies like Lee’s every year. With a survival rate of less than 8% for out-of-hospital cardiac arrests, early CPR and defibrillation are crucial. Andy said, “Lee is a similar age to me, and it really makes you think—this can happen to anyone. When we handed him over at the hospital, all we could do was hope he pulled through. Seeing him doing well now is incredible”.
The episode will also follow the YAA team as they respond to other emergencies such as a serious road traffic collision, leaving a patient with serious hip and wrist injuries, an equestrian who broke her back after falling from a racehorse, and a cyclist who fell from his adapted bike in the rural dales.