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Diary - july 2007
Monday 2nd July 2007 19:30hrs – Casualty Care Training
Tonight’s training is based on trauma scenarios. It’s a chance to get some hands on practice at all the things we have been studying in the theory sessions recently. We split up into groups and were given a series of gruesome stories for one of us to act out. Each of these scenarios involved the worst of the situations we are likely to face. Generally involving someone falling off a climb and smashing themselves up or having an allergic reaction to a insect sting. The rest of us had to take turns to diagnose and treat the casualties. It was defiantly a “Hands on” night, as we had to make sure we protected the Casualty’s C-spine as we looked for injuries.
As I looked around the room, I was sure I saw one team using our Resusci Annie dummy as their casualty.
The evening ended with a short trip downstairs to the pub.
Wednesday 11th July 2007 19:30 – Rope Rescue Training
Due to an excellent piece of pre-session organization, we are attempting to carry out our rope rescue training in a local quarry. Normally, it can take ages to get everyone sorted, collect all the gear and get the systems rigged. So we don’t usually get time to practice rope work in an evening session. However, when we reached the quarry, Neale, Lofty, Howard and Pete had already set up all the gear, and were waiting to show us the different elements of our rope technique.
It was a “round robin” and we were sent to Neale first. He was showing us the raising gear. This is a fairly new addition to our system, where we swap the lowering gear over for a raising system, made up of a couple of pullies and a stopper to prevent the rope going back in the direction it came from.
We were on fairly steep ground and it was quite slippy under foot. Neale talked us through lowering down to a casualty, locking the system off and changing it over to the raising system. We then hauled Dave back up the hill and stripped the system down, ready for the next team.
Next we moved on to Lofty, who was showing us the lowering gear. He went
through how to set up the lower rack, a friction device we use to control
the lowering the heavy stretcher.
He also went through how to set up the radium release system. This is a complicated tangle of rope and prussic knots used as a back up to the main lowering system. It only comes into play if there is a problem with the main line, but it is tricky to set up and a regular refresher is always welcome.
Finally Howard and Pete had the stretcher rigged to a tree and were showing
us how it connects in to the lowering system.
This involves clipping it into the lowering line with double everything for resilience. By the time we have added in separate pulley systems for both the Casualty and Rescuer it is pretty crowded in there.
Even though we had run through this in double quick time tonight, we were still a lot later than usual. So I had to make my excuses, give the pub a miss and rush back to my overdue babysitter.
Sunday 22nd July 2007 09:00hrs – Rope Rescue Exercise
This year our Rope Rescue Exercise is back at Tegg’s Nose in Macclesfield. We use this site as it has a good sized, steep cliff, which can be viewed from the side, so that those waiting can see the action.
Once we were there, the first thing we needed to do was set up a belay. This involves hammering five large stakes into the ground for each belay we set up. As we would be setting up two independent systems for the casualty and the rescuer, it meant hammering ten, three foot aluminum stakes in. By the time we had finished this, I was nice and warm.
We split into four groups, each doing a separate training activity. Our first job was to send a rescuer down the cliff with the stretcher. The casualty team set up their system and sent their volunteer over the edge. We set up our system, rigged the stretcher for lowering and Bob decided to have a go at being the “Barrow Boy”, the person attached to the stretcher as it gets lowered to the casualty.
With the casualty in position and the lowering team ready to go, Bob was
lowered down to get Amanda into the stretcher.
It is a complicated and demanding task to load someone on to the stretcher when dangling on the end of a rope. Even with a co-operative casualty it took quite a bit of “fiddling around” to get Amanda safely secured on the stretcher, so that they could carry on down to the bottom.
Once Bob and Amanda were down, we switched round to do a single man rescue. This involved me being lowered over the edge with a rescue harness (a big nappy!) to collect Howard and lower him to the bottom. The team at the top then switched to the raising system and hauled me back up to the top.
We then switched round, so that we were now providing the casualty to be
rescued. Charlie was sent over the edge and Dave brought the stretcher down
to him.
Again, he was unceremoniously stuffed into the stretcher and lowered to the ground, while the Site Officer and Team leader stood at the top offering helpful advice.
We then moved on to the next activity of practicing our knot tying. We have a whole host of unusual knots we use to rig this system and we had to make sure we knew how to tie them all.
Finally we practiced our water rescue techniques. We went through the procedures
we use when searching along swift water. We put on our floatation vests and
practiced with the throw lines. You wouldn’t believe how hard it can
be to throw the thing straight.
Here is a video of the day’s training.
Finally, with the equipment fully
stress tested and as it was my wife’s
birthday, I thought I had better get a move on and get home!
Friday 27th July 2007 20:00hrs – Team Meeting
Tonight’s team meeting started with a presentation. Peter & Diane
Scottney had kindly donated a collection from the funeral of Harry Scottney
to the team. We used these funds to buy new medical kits, which were badly
in need of replacement.
Once the main meeting started, the first item was the fact that Ken, our chairman was away again. This time, to explain his absence, he sent us a few photos. This was a reminder of of who he was:
This one was along the lines of “I pray you will not miss me too much tonight”.
The rest of the meeting was quite straight forward, with the exception of a request for people to attend the “Battle of the DJ’s” evening. This is not the usual social engagement most of our team members are accustomed to. In fact I think a few were under the impression that it was something to do with who had the best Dinner Jacket. However, they were offering the proceeds of the evening to team funds, so a few of us would be going along to support the event.
Following the meeting we adjourned downstairs to the pub to catch up on recent
events.
Additional…..
Following a request from a TV production company, one of our Landrovers had
agreed to be an extra in the TV show “Waterloo Road”. They were
filming an episode involving an accident on a cliff face and they wanted
to Mountain Rescue to show up at the end. Ken and Colin went along for a
couple of days of “Cut…no let’s go again”. Watch
out for them all you Waterloo Road fans!
Here they are with the “Star” – Neil Morrisey.
And here is Ken, hanging around on the “set”.
Monday 30th July 2007 19:30 hrs – Casualty Care Training
We don’t normally have any training sessions in august (even though
technically this was the end of July), but we have a large number of members
who need to renew their Casualty Care certificates in the next few months.
This is the strict medical exam that we all need to pass to be allowed to
carry out any medical work with casualties. The main focus of this is to
ensure that we understand the implications of the drugs we use and can use
them safely. We are also tested on our procedures for diagnosing medical
conditions and how we handle trauma situations. It is a testing exam, so
those of us who are due to take the exam were keen to get in some extra practice.
The evening started with a demonstration from Neale and Steveon our Primary
survey techniques.
We then had a hands on session where we practiced our newly improved technique.