The pager went off again just before the conference call – search for a missing elderly lady in Maerdy. I jumped onto the conference call which didn’t last very long and cleared a few other things off my desk before taking my leave. Heavy showers, torrential at times, slowed my progress but I managed to get there quite quickly. Taking the Landrover out I had a call telling that this was not an immediate (blue light) response. Locking base up I headed off in the Landrover down towards Aberdare for the valley-hop across to Maerdy. Traffic was medium and the road conditions a little wet so I proceeded along at normal speeds until on the way out of Aberdare my phone rang. Pulling over to answer it, my instructions were clear: “Blue-light it and put your foot down, we’ve got another job.”

Flicking the lights on I did indeed put my foot down, overtaking the surprised cars in front of me I headed over the mountain. In Maerdy the crew was waiting for me and after getting everyone on board we headed off. Information immediately started flowing in as I slapped the sired on. We had a woman with a leg injury on the mountain in Llwynypia. It’s a good drive – 7 miles, google maps reckon 20 minutes. It wasn’t that long on blues. We got there to find that St John’s were on scene and our crew went in while I got changed and waited for the two guys from Brecon team to join us. The casualty was on an archery range and before we headed up in the light rain, I turned to the large group of people beside us. Several of them wore green tops with logos of a kangaroo – not surprising since we already knew the casualty was Australian. I turned to a man in a hi-viz jacket and asked them to stop the shooting on the ranges – we’d had a report over the radio that the party ahead of us were seeing arrows flying. After a brief conversation the official with a radio saw things my way and started calling on all ranges to stop firing. Wondering where all these tourists came from I headed back to our group and off we went. Within 10 minutes we were at the casualty site. After a brief discussion over the relative merits of a helicopter evacuation, we decided to “scoop and go” and a few minutes later we were starting the journey back to the control vehicle where the county ambulance was waiting for us.

The carryout was interesting, I ran point trying to find a decent route out. Halfway out the rain got heavy. Very heavy. I had a helmet on in case we were going to call a helicopter in (like most of my teammates) and so I didn’t bother fighting to get my hood adjusted to fit over my helmet – it’s a new coat and I’m not used to all the adjustments yet. By the time we got back to control it was raining heavily and with our casualty in pain, we helped the ambulance crew load her on board the truck before stopping for a few minutes to sort our kit out. Of course, now that the casualty was in the ambulance it stopped raining. I still managed to get a soaking though because as it turned out my coat is very waterproof. I had a hood full of water that covered me when I went to shake it out. Great.

We packed the Landrover back up with sodden kit as the staff from the activity center brought us cups of tea and Welshcakes which were greatfully received, as were the thanks that were piled onto us. At last I took a moment to look around and realised that there were a few different nations and that people had some kind of badges dangling from their necks. The picture became clear when one of our crew came over and whispered to us.

“Do you know what we’ve just stopped?”

“Er…no…?”

“The World Archery Championship. We’ve stopped the World Archery Championships. The woman we rescued was a substitute for the Olympic Archery team.”

We headed back to Maerdy where the search was wrapping up soon after that. It wasn’t long before we were back at base setting our kit out to dry, buoyant in the wake of a job well done.

So, with the Met Office promising gales of up to 50mph, we headed off in the glorious sunshine on Sunday morning, with the remnants of last night’s torrential rain still making it’s presence felt on the heads of the valleys road. Down on the Gower, the wind was gusting uncomfortably high, so the pneumatic aerial mast was only raised a little and control was set up. Tasked with leading a party in an area of fields the police needed covered, we headed off and spent the next few hours making our way through fields of …well knee-high (or occasionally higher) meadow grass – that is, grass with a random spattering of wild flowers and grasses in it. In other words, hayfever hell.

Nevertheless, onwards we plodded working our way through the fields and hedgerows. In searches like this, where there’s a real possibility that the person you’re looking for is dead, you have to look under hedges and in undergrowth in case they’ve crawled in there to seek shelter and died. It’s not a particularly joyful kind of searching and, heartless though it may seem to onlookers, we joke and laugh amongst ourselves, sometimes with exceedingly black humour to try and keep our spirits high.

By 1400 I was slowly collapsing in a sneezing lump of streaming mucous and with everyone’s stomachs grumbling we headed back to the pub for a lunch of sausage and chips. It’s amazing just how good simple food tastes after hard work. With the masses fed and watered, the afternoon’s plans were outlined and with a few changes of plan as more information about the morning’s searches was acted upon, I ended up staying around the control vehicle – good for my hayfever at least!

By 1700 it was decided that we’d done enough and the long job of packing up and making the vehicles ready for the next job, whenever that may be, was started. No sooner had I taken the cap off the generator to check the fuel levels than the pagers went off – area call in the Swansea area. What luck – we were already in the Swansea area. So, hurriedly repacking everything, mobiles, radios and police radios blaring all around us as more information rapidly came in, we jumped into Alpha and headed off – our destination was north of Swansea, in Glais.

The journey through Swansea was rapid – combination of sirens and two-tone air horn works well to clear traffic on what had been a very busy day in Swansea with the Race for Life on. It didn’t take us long to clear the traffic and as we arrived on scene the full details were apparent. Two men had fallen 25m down a cliff face – ambulance and fire brigade on scene, 169 en route in.

A complete contrast to the gentle start to that morning’s activities, helmets and harnesses were thrown on and within minutes the area was empty of personnel as people headed up to the casualty site. I stayed behind to man the radios and start the paperwork. It soon became apparent however that they desperately needed more personnel up on scene. Leaving the incident in the hands of a senior member who couldn’t go onto the hill, I headed off.

169 had already winched the first casualty out as I arrived on scene to help with the second casualty. Helimed was providing some medical assistance along with the paramedic winchman from 169; the fire brigade was helping us with the technical equipment and they’d already cleared a few trees to allow 169 to winch clearly. It didn’t take long for the chap to be packaged properly and his stretcher was soon being passed the 20m up to the winching point hand-over-hand, his IV bag following him. The usual clatter of rotors overhead soon drowned out any conversation and within minutes, the casualty and winchman were on board and rapidly making their way to Morriston hospital which was only a few minutes away, leaving us to clear up and get everyone out safely. Reversing down the track was interesting, and we passed Pete our team leader giving a TV interview at the bottom of the hill on our way out.

It was a good job for what was a long and fruitless search – always nice to end the day on a high note.

After doing my Ambulance shift on Saturday, I headed up to Aberystwyth. Sean and I headed out to a Greek restaurant in town, where I think I surprised the waitress by actually knowing what I was ordering and pronouncing it fairly accurately too. It was a cracking meal and as Sean and I were relaxing in his room later on, the pager went off for the first time in a while. This one was for a search in Penarth for a missing elderly gentleman. Weighing up the options, I decided to not attend – it would be a 100-mile journey to base, 2 hours minimum. Not really worth it – a decision that’s becoming harder to make with rising fuel prices, since I have to pay for my own diesel for going to callouts.

The search continued into the early hours when it was stood down – the team had an ex on Sunday which was supposed to go ahead until the pager went off again at 1000 – a continuation of the previous nights’ callout. Whilst my colleagues were scouring scrubland in South Wales, I was eating ice cream and relaxing on the beach in Mid Wales (sorry guys!). The afternoon peace was broken by another pager message – this time for an area call in the waterfalls which finished fairly quickly. With the afternoon dying away, the search was finally stood down and I enjoyed a peaceful night.

Until last night when, as I was pulling away from Tesco’s, the pager went off. I headed up to base, vaguely concerned about my frozen pizza in the boot. Once there, I found that we had a sighting of a flare in or around the Ystradfellte Reservoir and so we headed up to Storey Arms to meet the Brecon team. With people approaching the valley from all directions, it wasn’t long before we stumbled across some people who had been setting off flares for no good reason and should have known better. I can’t go into detail, but suffice to say, they’re probably not having a good day today.

As I was about to pull out of the layby after packing up, the pager went off again, this time for a possible downed hanglider north of Cardiff. By the time I got to base, we’d been stood down since no actual evidence of the crash had been found. We packed up and headed home where, at 2300, I finally managed to cook my now-deformed and defrosted pizza. I finally collapsed into bed around 0100 and fell deep asleep…

…until about 0145 when the pager woke me – search for a misper in Porth. With feet of lead, I dragged my reluctant self downstairs and headed off to base again. Not much to say about this one, there wasn’t a huge amount of information, it was a horrendously shitty area to search and he was found outside of our search area. By the time I’d packed up the vehicle in base and reached home it was 0600 and I managed a few hours’ sleep before I had to get up for work.

I just hope that this isn’t the trend for the week.

Technorati Tags: callout

I’ve not really been responding with the First Responders recently because of something that happened to me that has caused huge repercussions through my whole life – my car died. Now, I believe in Bangernomics – running cheap cars with higher maintenance costs instead of newer more expensive cars who depreciate quickly. However, I was expecting my little Rover to last another year or two, so it was a little bit of a shock when the head gasket blew and I had to get towed back from halfway to London. I have a temporary fix and I have someone looking for a more permanent fix for me, so I’m not too bad for now but it does mean that I’m not really able to respond for now.

We have had a job with Mountain Rescue – apart from a standdown after a request for assistance for a search in Redditch that is. It was a call to New Tredegar to assist the fire service with two youths stuck on a rock face. They were in a pretty nasty little gully, lots of loose rock, very unstable and we had a bit of a job getting them down. It was nice to be at the sharp end of a fairly technical job for a change, so I was happy with that.

Right now, I’m sat in a fantastic flat in Battersea in London getting Sean and his Dad ready for his Dad’s wedding. It’s going to be fun event I think, I’ve even got a reading to give and I’m taking the groom to the wedding in a rental car. The first of four wedding-type events of this year so far, Sean and I are going to be all weddinged-out by the end of the year I think.

Right, time to wash the car I think.

The shift started off quiet with no calls from Ambulance control until Saturday morning, meaning that I could get a decent night’s sleep. Of course, a lie in was out of the question as the phone rang at just before 0900 for a call to an elderly lady with a PR bleed. I headed off to the home – it’s a fairly decent place, but it’s more of a sheltered home than a nursing home offering full medical care. Apparently, the lady had been sent home from hospital the week before with a perforated bowel, though that seemed unlikely. Either way, she was in pain and so after only a few minutes of getting her details the crew arrived and she was rapidly taken out to the ambulance. I headed back for some breakfast and a cup of coffee.

Off into Caerphilly at lunchtime to meet an old friend. We managed a decent meal without interruption and I started thinking that I might even be able to get some DIY done today. Of course, on the way back from Asda I had a call, so seeing as I was 20 yards from the house I dropped Sean off, he grabbed the shopping and off I went. The call was for a 54 year old female who’d fallen and had a back and shoulder injury. I found the house OK and headed in – the husband pointed me upstairs where I found the lady bent double over the bed. She’d slipped while showering in the bath and fell backwards onto the taps. She was fairly comfortable so long as she maintained that position and just as I started getting some basic obs the crew turned up. They listened to her chest and suspecting a pneumothorax caused by a broken rib, we got her out to the ambulance quickly and she was blued into A&E.

On the back from that call, I had another, this one to a 98 year old female who’d fallen. Off I went across Caerphilly to find the lady had fallen coming out of the kitchen and had bruised her knees. I took some basic obs, reassured myself that she was ok – the walking around the house proved that. Control called to get an update while I was there which is unusual – they asked if I could clear and since there was a crew pulling up and I said yes. Things had suddenly kicked off with an RTC, a collapse, chest pains, several Difficulty In Breathing calls and a “?CVA – unresponsive”. So I got the CVA. When I got there, the “unresponsive” part was true – he was sitting up and breathing fine but wasn’t responding to us. The crew was coming down the road as I walked into the house, so I gave the chap some oxygen and let the daughter bring the crew up to speed. I assisted in getting him out to the truck and headed back to the car. There was an RRV on as well and I heard him heading off to another job as I packed the car up.

Hoping to go home to get a cuppa, I was still a mile away when the phone rang again – 41 year old female, ankle injury. Ok, no worries I said, where? The answer – “The burger van, Caerphilly Mountain.” “Excuse me?” I queried how far from the road she was and was told that the caller said that she was near the road. I asked to put Mountain Rescue on standby, just in case. I got there quickly – it’s an easy run from where I was and traffic was light – the rain however, wasn’t. I got to the top and there was no sign of anyone with a broken ankle. Back to control who called the reporter, asking me to keep a look out for a woman with a dog. Spotting her across the car park, I asked her for some details. Apparently the lady was some distance from the road. I headed back to the car – by now the rain was heavy and the sky gray – or was it the other way around? Either way, it was cold and wet and getting wetter. I called control back and asked them to arrange for Mountain Rescue – I’d need some backup on this one especially if she was any serious distance from the road. I slung a decent coat on, grabbed my MR kit and my Ambulance bag and off we went.

She was some 500m from the road on a muddy and slippery path. The ankle in question was swollen and slightly deformed and moving it was causing some pain, so I got my KISU tent out (naturally, it was the first thing I thought about this time) and insulated her from the ground. There were 3 other family members and her son, so I put them under the KISU tent too. Meanwhile, I had Mountain Rescue and Ambulance control to coordinate. The ambulance arrived and held at the RV which was the burger van. Police arrived soon after with 2 WPCs slipping and sliding their way up. Helimed – the air ambulance – was rejected due to the fact that the casualty was in trees and Gwent’s helicopter couldn’t fly in this weather. Rescue 169 was an option and after a discussion between myself and one of our MR Incident controller’s, was stood to and asked to make their way to us. The police were happy to leave things to us – the terrain wasn’t good and although they offered the fire service, we really needed MR. Our stretchers are designed to have people strapped into them instead of balanced on top and on this kind of terrain I wasn’t happy with anything else. I had a few conversations people and I think it did show a little of the fact that people aren’t that aware of our capabilities as mountain rescue.

Pretty soon we had plenty of people there and with a blast of entonox, we packaged the lady’s ankle in a vacuum splint and stretchered her off. The team had assessed the path on the way in and stood down 169. Within half an hour she was in the back of the ambulance on the way to Cardiff. I called Ambulance control and advised them that I was going off-service for a while – I had to follow the vacuum splint to Cardiff to retrieve it and then head home to get changed out of my soaking wet clothes. I had a thanks from control and from the police Sargent whom I’ve now seen on a few incidents in the area. I had a chance to chat with the lady in A&E and found that she had indeed fractured her fibula right on the ankle. I wished her well and picking up the splint headed home for chips and a shower and some dry clothes. Despite going back on service the rest of the night was nice and quiet as was the rest of the weekend – I’ve even managed to (finally) finish painting the bathroom.

How was your weekend?

Jamming my shoes and jacket on quickly, Sean and I ran out and drove off. Arriving on scene, I texted one of our senior guys who I knew was en route and quickly changed into my boots and a hi-viz. I could see someone standing up by a small quarry uphill from us and Sean and I headed up the scene. A young lad had broken his leg and the ambulance crew were already on scene. We had a few interesting moments but apparently they’d already called 169 to come and assist and apart from covering them in a KISU tent and trying to organise a winching location for the helo, there wasn’t much for us to do. I had the amusing moment of clearing the scene of helmet-less people (mainly police) but other than that it was a fairly rapid and uneventful callout. 7 mins from pager to being on-scene and I think we were stood down within about an hour.

Couple of things come to mind though as I look back and analyse my own actions. I was very aware that although I’d joined First Responders to get some experience of dealing with scenes, this one threw me because I’d concentrated so much on the medical and there was nothing for me to do here – there was a paramedic on scene. I did have concerns about their health at one point since it was damnably cold up there, but 169 shocked us all as it suddenly appeared from over the hill and we were gone before it became an issue.

So, in retrospect, and knowing that hindsight is 20:20, what I could have done better:

• Got a better handover from the ambulance crew. To be fair, the paramedic was being a little brusque and somewhat territorial with his casualty, and while I could have been more assertive, it wouldn’t have benefited the casualty any unless 169 would have taken another hour or so.
• Got my KISU tent out. It was cold up there, but I was mainly trying to get a handle on the scene and get in contact with the rest of the team whilst Mike (who arrived a few minutes after I did) got his KISU tent out.

I think I did OK, certainly room for improvement, something I suspect will come with experience. I certainly think that had we remained there for any length of time I would have chosen a number of actions – got the ambulance crew out before they got hypothermic; got the casualty in a cas bag; moved him onto our stretcher off of the ambulance’s scoop stretcher; certainly I would have offered the casualty some Entonox I think - the Paramedic was sure that the kid was OK with his pain (until he nudged his leg), but I’m not sure how much of that was bravado on the young lad’s part. He refused my offer of Entonox since the casualty was hypothermic – it’s a controversial subject since it’s not technically contraindicated for hypothermic casualties and so long as the cylinder is above -4 celsius it should be ok (you have to shake it first when it’s cold just to make sure it’s mixed). My biggest concern would be monitoring his consciousness levels given that both hypothermia and Entonox can in extreme cases affect it.

Anyway, some food for thought. Good result and the young man seemed to be happy as he got his first helicopter flight, his leg momentarily forgotten as 6.5 tons of noisy, yellow helicopter thundered overhead.