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Diary - November 2008
Saturday 1st November 2008 – Fundraising at New Mills Bonfire
Every year we help out with the collection at the New Mills Bonfire. We have been involved with this for many years and it is a great fundraiser for us. Our team leader, Darren, even runs the Firework display (it is also his day job).
Sunday 2nd November 2008 13:15hrs – Callout
It is Sunday and I am lounging around with the family, having a quiet afternoon. Suddenly my phone receives a text message...”Callout, RV Hut”. I replied to say I was on my way, and started getting my things together. I soon found myself at the hut, to find out that a walker was suffering from chest pains and could go no further. The Buxton team leader had taken the original call, as he was duty controller. They had been ready for a helicopter training exercise, which had been cancelled at the last moment, so they had some team members able to assist immediately. With this type of incident, time is extremely important, so they had met up with an initial Kinder party and called for a helicopter to evacuate the man as soon as possible. I was sent up with a second team to help if we needed to carry the man off on a stretcher.
The journey up in the back of a Land Rover was an interesting one. The recent rain had washed the rack into deeper ruts than usual. Pete described it as like being inside a tumble dryer, and I don’t think he was too far off the mark. We were dropped not too far below the Casualty Site.
We headed up just in time to help carry the man to the landing site which had been chosen for the helicopter. The weather was much worse at the top than it had been down at the hut. It was cold, wet and the cloud was extremely low. We were just low enough to allow the helicopter to come in without worrying about visibility. Finally an RAF Sea King appeared out of the clouds.
He slowly approached, before winching down their paramedic to assess the casualty. The Sea King then flew back to a safe position which their paramedic readied the casualty to be winched up into the helicopter.
The Sea King came back in, this time from a different angle. The down wash from the rotors was extremely strong, and almost blew me off my feet. The man was transferred from the stretcher and winched slowly up. Once inside the helicopter flew him direct to the cardiac unit at Wythenshawe Hospital.
This was a fast turnaround and the speed involved in getting him to hospital will hopefully make all the difference in his recovery. We made our way back down to the hut to dry out and catch up in front of a warm fire in the pub.
Monday 3rd November 2008 19:30hrs- Casualty Care Training
Tonight Dr Simon has made his annual trek over the Pennines to explain the workings of the human body, and how to stick it all back together again when it all goes wrong. Simon is a consultant Orthopaedic surgeon at the Northern General in Sheffield and what he doesn’t know about broken limbs isn’t worth knowing (so he tells us!). The session was on how to care for injured extremities, what to do with them and what not to do. A significant number of our callouts are for people with broken arms or legs, so this was a very useful night. As an added bonus for those of us who have been in the team for a while, Simon decided to pick on the new members for his questioning tonight! They all did well under pressure.
Wednesday 12th November 2008 19:30hrs – Training
It’s training on vehicles tonight, which means standing around in the car park in the cold, looking at where we keep everything in the Land Rovers. I however will be sat at home in the warm, as my wife has gone out to our kid’s school fashion show fundraiser, while I babysit! I can’t really complain (too much), as it makes up for the numerous times I desert them to go on a shout. I suppose it’s about time they got their own back. I just hope Paul hasn’t changed too many things on the vehicles.
Thursday 13th November 2008 19:30hrs – Probationer Stretcher Training
We have recently taken on a new intake of probationary members. They are currently going through their training program and this evening was on the use of the stretcher. Steve went out and hid in the woods off the Sett trail whilst the probationers had to sort out kit for a reported hypothermic casualty. They had to choose their equipment, locate Steve, get him into a Cas bag, load him on to the stretcher and then deliver him to a fictious roadside ambulance at the car park.
The route back to the car park was made more difficult due to two narrow bridges and two lifts over fences. In all it was a very good exercise with the probationers doing most of the work themselves, with minimal help. They learnt that a 10 min walk soon turns into a 40 min carry and this was in fairly good conditions on the flat.
Saturday – Sunday 15th / 16th November 2008 – Collecting at Go Outdoors
Go Outdoors kindly allowed us to spend the weekend collecting outside their store in Stockport. We split the weekend into shifts and spent a few hours each fundraising. We would like to thank the Go Outdoors customers for their generosity in contributing to the funds needed to ensure the running of the team.
Monday 17th November 2008 14:00hrs – Callout
I am sat in Starbucks in Westminster, working away for the day, when my phone suddenly jumps in to life with a text message. It is a callout. I joke with a colleague that this is one callout I won’t be going to. The afternoon goes on and I finish my meeting, but no stand-down message arrives. I catch the train back from London...still no stand-down. As I arrived home, I called Kinder Base to find out if they still needed any help.
Apparently the team had been out all afternoon searching for a man missing on the top of Kinder. He had made contact by Mobile phone, but as he was unsure of his location, and due to failing light, and potential size of the search area, extra teams were called in. Teams from SARDA (Search & Rescue Dogs), Glossop, Buxton, Edale and a Sea King from RAF Leconfield were involved in the search. By the time I finally arrived, the man had been found by a Kinder search party. I joined the other people waiting at base to see if we would be needed in a carry off.
Apparently the man was very cold and out of energy. The helicopter was asked to take him to hospital, but by now the mist was down below the plateau and the wind was getting up. After several attempts to get in through the cloud, the Sea King had to give up and return to base. Fortunately the team managed to persuade the man to walk out with them, otherwise it would have meant a long stretcher carry for the rest of us waiting at base. By 10pm the man was back at base and the job closed down. This has to go down as the furthest I have ever travelled to get to a callout!
Tuesday 18th November 2008 18:00hrs – Callout
It’s Tuesday evening after work. My wife and daughter had just gone out to see a play, leaving me at home to look after my son. Not long after they had left I received a callout text to meet at the hut. As I had to stay with my son, I had to give this one a miss. Here is Chris H's account of the night:
I had just finished doing the veg ready for a roast pork tea when my phone goes off, Dawn just looked at me and I showed her the message "CALLOUT RV HUT", that's another ruined tea for you! "Put kettle on for me flask ! I shout, as I quickly get changed and grab a pastie from the freezer and zap it for 5 mins.
I arrived at the hut and before I knew what was happening I was in the Land Rover heading for Upperhouse. The owners had been pre-warned that we would want to use their track that led to where Nigel Taylor thought the 3 casualties were. It took a while for the automatic gate to start opening and then we were off again.
Vinny did a great job getting the landy up part of the track but we came to a halt when all traction was lost ********* went Vinny and backed up. After a few goes he decided to go off road as it was easier and less greasy. We came over the brow of the hill to be met with a single light. We all yelled as we spotted this light but it wasn't reacting to us so Mike suggested turning the lights off. Having done this we realised it was only a sheep! On approaching another brow with the blues and twos on a message from base said the casualties could hear but not see us. A few seconds later we spot a light about 200 meters away in some scrub and bog. Chris B and myself approached the light but two wire fences blocked the way. Chris went off to find a style whilst I climbed over and got to the two elderly men, cold, tired and embarrassed. Both of us helped the men over the fences and up to the Land Rover for a quick check over, but they just wanted to get home. Where was the 3rd casualty? Well it was the mother of one of the party who had alerted the police and not on the hill at all !!!!
After the usual paper work we just had to have a pint to lubricate the tonsils
before going home for the best tasting tea EVER!
Friday 21st November 2008 15:00hrs – Callout
With my job, I can often be working hours away. Today was the opposite side of the coin, I was working at home. Mid afternoon and I was just finishing off my last few urgent e-mails, when my phone rang its familiar text message music. As we are holding a night exercise that night, I was half expecting it to be some information about the exercise. However it turned out to be a callout at the hut. I quickly made up a flask, got my gear together and headed out.
When I arrived at the hut, the first four people to arrive have just gone out. A man had been reported to have collapsed at the bottom of Kinder Low and as this had the potential to be a cardiac problem, an Air Ambulance had been dispatched. I was sent out in the second Land Rover to help out in case this turned in to a stretcher carry.
As we were heading up we heard that the first team had made it to the Casualty and that although he was feely unwell, it didn’t appear to be a serious cardiac incident. As it would soon be dark, the helicopter were happy for the man to come back down to the land Ambulance, so that they could get back to their base before nightfall. We collected the Ambulance and escorted them to meet our other Land Rover on the way down with the casualty.
The man was transferred over to the land Ambulance and transported to hospital. We took his friends back to our base, where they were given a lift back to their vehicles.
Here is a short video of the callout:
More Photos...
Friday 21st November 2008 19:30hrs – Night Exercise
It had been all of two hours since we wrapped up our last callout. Not quite long enough to cancel tonight’s exercise. Now in the past, the night exercise has often turned in to an epic. One year we didn’t get home until lunchtime the next day. So we were all holding our breath to see what was planned for this evening.
When the scenario was finally revealed, it came as a bit of an anticlimax. Two people were allegedly missing, last seen at South Head (which is only a short walk from the road). I kept waiting for the “Ah, but...” moment where the next gruesome stage of the plot was revealed, but it never came. “Search dog” Ian was sent out with Nick and Sandy to sweep the area and we were sent in after him to follow up. Other teams were sent to various escape routes and we would widen the search from there. We were dropped off at Peep-o-day and began to walk in to South Head.
Not long after we set off, we heard on the radio that Ian had already found a casualty, he’s starting to get too good at this. By the time we got there, they had the casualty stabilised inside a tent and had a possible location for another casualty. As it wasn’t too far away, Ian left the rest of his team with the casualty and took a couple of my team to go on and search for the next one. I popped my head under the tent and found that Nick and Sandy had the man wrapped up in a sleeping bag. It was a bit clammy in there, but it was noticeably warmer than where I was sat outside.
It wasn’t long before his dog Anya had found the next casualty at the top of South Head. It was now down to deciding which one was the priority for evacuation. Casualty 1 where I was, had a compound Tib / Fib fracture (both bones of the lower leg), which is quite serious, but not usually life threatening. Casualty 2 had severe Hypothermia and was presenting not signs of life. In this case we evacuate gently but quickly. This casualty needed to be evacuated urgently, so I had to sit around and wait before my casualty could be removed.
Eventually everyone arrived at my site with all the equipment. We loaded the casualty on to the stretcher, then carried him down to the waiting Land Rover. A short Land Rover ride back down the track and we had him back to our base.
This was a nice smooth exercise and everything was wrapped up in time for last orders in the pub. Just the way a night exercise should be!
Sunday 23rd November 2008 17:30hrs – Callout
It had been a quiet Sunday, though the weather had been foul all weekend. We had been pottering around catching up on jobs and my wife was just about to dish up the Sunday dinner she had spent the last hour making. As a walked through the kitchen, my phone started blasting out its text message tune. I read the message, then showed it to my wife - Callout RV Hut. “Fine!” she said, “But don’t expect there to be anything left when you get back”. I got my gear together and headed out as quickly as I could.
When I arrived at the hut, we had a report of three people missing somewhere around Kinder Low. Buxton and Edale Teams were searching the southern edges of Kinder, several SARDA dogs were out as well as the Police Helicopter. It was very dark, the cloud base was low and it was very windy. The missing group were reported to have no torch or whistles, so this was going to be difficult.
I was quickly put in to a team and given the job of Casualty Care. We jumped into a Land Rover with Kinder 3 and both teams were driven up to Moorgate, to start our searches from there. Kinder 1 were to clear a track around one side of Swinesback and Search Dog Ian, was clearing the other side.
We were dropped at Moorgate and began our lung bursting route (well for me anyway) up the front of Kinder Low. Once on the top, we began our full search. Visibility was very poor and the strength of the wind was making things very difficult. If the missing group could see our lights and were shouting to us, we would have very little chance of hearing them.
We kept going until we eventually reached Kinder Low trig point. Another of our teams had also completed their route and were waiting at the trig point.
Not long after arriving, we received a radio message to say that the Police Helicopter had noticed a heat signature, which looked like the three missing people. We were told to hold position while one of the Edale search dogs was sent to check it out. I put on my extra layers and tried to get out of the biting wind. It was now getting very cold.
After half an hour of foot stamping and joking about the cold, we finally received the message telling us that the missing people had been found and were being walked down to Edale base. We were allowed to head back to our base – we didn’t need asking twice!
Back at base, we packed our gear away, ready for the next callout and headed home to warm up. There was even some leftover food when I got in. It may have been sat in the oven for four hours, but it tasted great to me.
Wednesday 26th November 2008 23:30hrs – Standby
I had just drifted off into a deep peaceful sleep, when my phone started its blaring text message tune again. I got up and checked the message. It was a standby, warning us that there might be a Callout in the morning to search for someone in Alderley Edge. I had a meeting the next day that I couldn’t get out of, so I wouldn’t be going. I went back to sleep....half an hour later I was woken again by an e-mail from work.
Thursday 27th November 2008 07:00hrs – Callout
First thing in the morning, the team were called to Alderley Edge to assist the Police with a search for a missing person, who had been spotted in the area the previous night. Buxton, Kinder and Cheshire Lowland SAR plus 4 dog teams from SARDA searched the surrounding areas for approx. 3 hours before the police decided to call a halt.
Friday 28th November 2008 20:00hrs – Team Meeting
A longer than average team meeting tonight, partly due to catching up on all the recent callouts. In addition to this, Lofty had put forward a suggestion of changing our Rope Rescue technique. This would mean purchasing new equipment to switch over to the new system, which requires whole team approval. After checking the constitution, the team requires notice to hold this vote, so it will have to wait for next time.
We also received notice that Paul and Neil have decided to resign from the team. We would like to thank them both for the time they have given to the team, and remind them that if circumstances change, they are more than welcome to join the team again.