Incident 79/2010

At 17:14 this evening we were contacted by NWAS (Manchester) to assist with the evacuation of an injured dog walker at the rear of Haslam Park, Bolton, adjacent to Middle Brook.

A man had fallen sustaining a very serious upper leg fracture, and had lain in agony until discovered coincidentally by a friend, who was also out walking his dog.

The Ambulance Service were contacted and upon arrival requested the Bolton MRT due to the location of the seriously injured 72 year old man at the base of a slope some distance from the nearest accessible track.

On scene the NWAS crew (From Bolton North Ambulance Station) carried out casualty care on the man’s fractured leg and administered pain killing gas and drugs to lessen the man’s considerable pain.

The injured man is treated by the NWAS crew at the scene of the accident.

Our first team member (Chris Tennant) arrived at the ambulance RVP within Haslam Park at 17:40, closely followed by our Team Leader and team member John Fletcher at 17:42, with John quickly locating the casualty site.

The injured man’s friend, who had initially contacted the Ambulance Service, remained on scene to guide our members to the casualty site.

Team members prepare the Bell Mountain Rescue stretcher to carry the injured man a few hundred metres back to the waiting ambulance.

Due to the man’s pain, further drug relief was provided and the man’s leg was splinted using a specialist full length vacuum splint. He was also treated for a suspected pelvic injury.

The casualty is brought safely to the waiting NWAS ambulance in Haslam Park.

With the injured man stabilised on scene and his injuries splinted, a stretcher evacuation (using a specialist mountain rescue stretcher) commenced at 18:10 back up the slope to the waiting NWAS Emergency Ambulance, which then departed for Royal Bolton Hospital.

By 18:40 our last members had left the incident site.

Team member Mark Scott travelled to Royal Bolton Hospital to collect our equipment used in the treatment of this casualty, and subsequently learnt that the man had indeed suffered a very serious fracture of his femur.

In total, twenty Bolton MRT members were involved in this rescue alongside the NWAS (Manchester) Emergency Ambulance crew. A further four Bolton MRT members were stood down responding to this incident.