Incident 29. DSRT(Tavistock) was called at 13:25 by the Ambulance service to attend a casualty on Kings Tor, who had fallen between 2 rock stacks and injured her lower leg. 16 members deployed, despite being during working hours, with all 3 vehicles despatched to ensure adequate rope rescue kit was on hand should it be needed.
The first team went out in Land Rover ’63’ to assess and provide casualty care. By the time reinforcements arrived to help extricate her and move her onto the stretcher they had splinted her leg and administered analgesia for pain relief. A short stretcher haul to 63 followed, in which the casualty was evacuated to the RV and a waiting ambulance, accompanied by the HART Paramedic we had escorted to the casualty site.
Both the casualty and her daughter were tending towards cold stress having been stationary and rained on since the incident occurred, even though some other walkers had very kindly lent their spare clothing. It really shows how quickly you can get cold if you stop moving, especially if injured.
Fortuitously, our training on Wednesday had included extraction from awkward locations and a refresher on hypothermia ready for winter, which helped ensure an extra swift and efficient response. We wish the casualty a speedy recovery.
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