Bury

At 18.36hrs this evening we were paged by NWAS (Manchester) EOC Parkway requesting the team’s assistance.

The call was answered by our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE, who was informed a woman who had fallen was being tended by a NWAS crew on scene, but they needed help in getting her to their nearby Ambulance.

A full team pager call out was made at 18.45hrs by which time members were ready to respond in the two Land Rover Mountain Rescue Ambulances mobilised to this incident.

This evening was the night of our Annual Team Dinner, with the response being made up partly of team members who were not attending the dinner.

During our response, Rossendale and Pendle MRT were paged directly by us for their assistance should we require additional personnel on scene. (Their Call Out Officers liaising with our Team Leader and Mike Marsh, one of our ‘Call Out Contacts’)

The incident location was land immediately off Hinds Lane, Lower Hinds, Bury.

At 19.02hrs our first team member Phil Crook arrived on scene to liaise with the NWAS crew on scene, followed at 19.05hrs by John Dickinson, with our Land Rover BM3 arriving on scene at 19.12hrs and BM2 at 19.18hrs.

The 23 year old woman involved, from a local residence, had fallen whilst out walking with a companion, incurring a suspected lower leg fracture.

At 19.18hrs we paged Rossendale and Pendle MRT to stand down their response as being no longer required, given we had sufficient personnel on scene to deal with this incident.

The NWAS crew from Heywood Ambulance Station, splinted her leg injury and offered pain killing gas to the casualty, who was then placed on to our SAR Alpine Lite MR specialist stretcher, for the short distance yet awkward carry to the nearby NWAS Emergency Ambulance.

By 19.38hrs the incident was complete on scene, with the woman involved on her way to hospital.

In total we had nine team members on scene, one other assisting with liaison tasking’s, a further team member stood down on scene, and three team members stood down responding.

For on scene team member Ged Clarke (accompanied by his wife Penny) it was then straight on to the Team Dinner, along with Steve O’Hara and Steve Fletcher – who all changed back in to their smart clothes / suits for the Team Dinner…… guess which Team Leader went straight to the Team Dinner dressed in his team kit?

At 12.50hrs early this sunny and warm afternoon, we were paged by NWAS (Manchester) EOC Parkway, for our assistance with the evacuation of an injured dog walker in the Radcliffe area.

The 48 years old woman involved, from Radcliffe, had been walking her dog on open land north of the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal off Cams Lane, Radcliffe, when the dog ran back to the her causing her to stumble and sustain a very painful right knee injury, which was initially reported as a dislocated knee, and was non weight bearing.

A responding NWAS Emergency Ambulance was first on scene, and an initial request was made for the NWAA Helimed, which was not available. (Being tasked elsewhere)

NWAS (Manchester) EOC then requested NWAS HART and ourselves to attend.

At this stage one vehicle, our BM4 was immediately available and responded at 13.01hrs, followed by our BM2 vehicle going mobile at 13.08hrs.

Our first team member, Samantha McKay arrived at the Ambulance RVP off Sion Street / Mount Sion Road at 13.20hrs and by 13.25hrs was at the casualty site meeting with the NWAS Emergency Ambulance crew who had stabilised the woman’s knee injury, who was also on pain killing gas.

At 13.25hrs our BM4 vehicle arrived at the RVP in the company of one of the responding NWAS HART vehicles (Solo crewed by NWAS HART member Peter Goble, who also happens to be the Team Leader of Rossendale and Pendle MRT!)

Meanwhile our BM2 vehicle had arrived on Cams Lane itself and approached the casualty site from a different direction.

By 13.40hrs our Team Leader and other members were at the casualty site (Webmaster; Our Team Leader actually carrying the Bell Stretcher – along with Trainee member Martin Battersby, to the casualty site!) joining the NWAS crew and responding NWAS HART personal.

The woman was placed on to our Bell Mountain Rescue Stretcher, and at 13.53hrs an evacuation over the fields commenced, with team members aided by the NWAS members on scene and three responding Police Officers. (Webmaster; even our Team Leader was spotted carrying the loaded stretcher!)

By 14.00hrs the woman was receiving further treatment in the NWAS Emergency Ambulance, which departed shortly afterwards for Bury Fairfield Hospital.

By 14.31hrs all our responding vehicles had left the location heading back for our garage locations.

This incident was yet another excellent example of joint Bolton MRT / NWAS / NWAS HART / GMP emergency response successful working.

The following resources were involved in this incident;

• NWAS (Manchester) EOC Parkway, Control Room.
• NWAS (Manchester) Emergency Ambulance and two crew members from Blackrod Ambulance Station.
• NWAS HART, from Trafford Park, Manchester, four responding vehicles including their Polaris ATV and its transporter, four HART team members, including Peter Goble (Who alongside his full time NWAS employment is also the Team Leader of Rossendale and Pendle MRT)
• Greater Manchester Police; 3x Officers all from Bury Police Station.
• Bolton Mountain Rescue Team; Eleven Team Call Out list members on scene, and our Mountain Rescue Land Rover Ambulances ‘BM2’ and ‘BM4.’

And for anybody wondering, the woman’s dog which started all this, was taken home by the woman’s son!