Last week saw Davie involved in a fairly large SMRT exercise involving 4 other rescue teams, the Ambulance Service and some police VIPs.
The objective of the exercise was to split all the various teams and visitors up into small teams of 5 or 6 and then to 'round robin' around 5 set scenarios thus allowing the teams to learn from each other and to share best practice.
I was in team 5 made up of three probationers, one full member and two USAR paramedics from Yorkshire Ambulance Service and, if I'm really honest, we really worked well as a team.
Our first 'emergency' was a CasPac scenario. Casualty care and packaging (stretchers, vacuum mattresses etc) are bread and butter stuff, but our team were without a Cas Carer, leaving Davie to do the honours.
The casualty had been trying to jump over a stream and had broken her lower leg. So, as well as our personal kit, we had to get to her quickly carrying a vacuum mattress, entonox, oxygen, medi bag and other bits of MR kit. Quite a load... and not a bloody helicopter in sight.
We quickly got the casualty splinted, gassed and packed up and reviewed our performance - ok so far.
Next scenario was a search on a hillside about 800m away. We tabbed over to this and dropped our kit to start the search. We were to search an area roughly a square kilometer in size, which had some ruins in it, a snow field up the slope and some boggy ground. We were looking for anything from a Mars Bar, to a shoe, to a coin and had 30 mins to do it.
Searching is a key team skill and we soon had our first of many 'finds'. We found the Mars Bar (naturally) but the coin is still missing (damn).
We then headed off to our next incident. A long descent down into the valley found us at an abandoned mine entrance, where there had been a 'terrible accident'. A caver had been coming back out just as the roof had collapsed, crushing his leg. He had been underground for 12 hours.
We had to CasPac him and get him out to the air assets, which were already on their way and would arrive in 20 mins.
On first inspection, the entrance was quite well lit, but it soon disappeared in to something a Kenyan marathon runner would struggle to get through.
At this point, I'll point out that second biggest fear in life, just above heights, is caves and enclosed spaces.
From the moment of entry, through the casualty packaging and extraction, it felt that I had only breathed twice.
Using a REACT stretcher we had him through the tunnel and back out side in 12 minutes.
Not bad.
Next scenario was again a search, this time for a despondent man who had been missing since the night before. We were to search for the guy and make him safe. Once again, I was nominated as Cas Carer when we found him.
We had a river on our left and a steep slope on our right and as we started our sweep, about 30 ramblers wandered round the bend.
This posed two problems: first, was our man hiding in amongst them? Second, every old biddy kept stopping us mid search to say they needed saving...could I carry them?
Oh to be popular.
As we swept up the the ruins, one of the USAR paramedics shouted that he had found him so I moved over to control the scene and went straight into the protocol for finding someone who is 'unconscious'.
As I conducting the primary survey, I noticed that his hands had been tied to his feet. Simultaneously, the paramedic who found him was asking me if he had a pulse and was he breathing.
Strange questions I thought, as he could plainly see I was into the survey.
Someone then whispered 'he has a label'. I suddenly noticed a white label that was atttached to his jacket that read 'nil respiration, nil pulse'.
My man was as dead as a dodo and under suspicious circumstances and this wasn't a CasPac scenario.
When this type of incident happens (more often than you think) it's 'Mike 1' (dead) and extract the team the way they came in, then secure the area.
For the next 5 minutes I had the p*ss taken out of me over a brew for 'not reading the label' .
If only it was that easy in real life.
Our last scenario was a steep ground rescue. When we arrived up at the top of the crag, we were told that the team had started to raise a stretcher with a casualty in it and the rope had broken, resulting in the stretcher falling down onto a ledge.
Our task was to get it and the casualty back to safety.
I had a quick look round and realised that life fear number one was staring me in the face.
Heights.
In our team, I was the most experienced climber, so I was going to have to go down to get it. One of the USAR paramedics volunteered to come with me and we both started to get roped up.
However, as I abseiled down to the stretcher, there wasn't enough room for me, let alone another rescuer. I radioed the guys at the top and told them the predicament. Looking over the edge of the stretcher, I could see there was a 60 foot sheer drop on the other side.
My worst nightmare. But saying that, having the stretcher there and a job to do made it a lot easier. I secured the stretcher and requested a second rope to allow the team to do the haul. My role was then to help guide the stretcher over any obstructions and, in real life, look after the casualty.
When I normally climb, it's after consultation with a guidebook; the route is known, the difficulty level understood.
In MRT, sometimes you have no idea what you're abseiling into. I have no idea what difficulty the climb out was as I was concentrating like hell on the stretcher.
But it was hard.
We finished up and tabbed back to the Control at the top of the crags for a team debrief.
Average pack weight is about 20kgs, but as this was the last exercise, we also had to lug the stretcher, the ropes, the anchor stakes and all sorts of other stuff.
After a nice cuppa in the 50mph gale that swept the tops, we all packed up and headed for home.
ENDEX.
An absolutely fantastic day with a great team of guys.
I'm lovin' it!
Davie
