Incident 77/2008

At 16:55 late this afternoon the team was contacted by NWAS (GMA) for assistance with the evacuation of an unconscious male within Lilford Park, Leigh.

At the time of our contact, the NWAS ambulance could not gain access into the park due to locked park gates, but with the gates being quickly unlocked access was gained to near the casualty site.

The male casualty had apparently been mountain biking in a family group when he had a biking accident resulting in fractured ribs and a possible spinal injury.

It was at this stage that the NWAS emergency ambulance unfortunately became bogged down in soft mud on the track it was using to access the casualty site.

The North West Air Ambulance, Helimed 08, was also called to this incident and was able to land near to the casualty site.

One of team’s KED splints was used to help immobilise the casualty prior to him being transferred to Helimed 08. The casualty was then taken by air ambulance for onward transfer to Royal Bolton Hospital, with Helimed 08 leaving the scene at 18:18.

Team members then remained on scene for a short while to assist the NWAS crew in getting the ambulance successfully unstuck from the muddy woodland.

In total 11 team members and two team Landrover ambulances were involved on scene with this incident with a large number of other team members stood down responding in the local heavy rush hour traffic made considerably worse by the many roadworks in the Leigh area.