Dec 18 2010
At 12:25 hours today our Team Leader was directly contacted by NWAS (Lancashire) to attend a residential address on a steeply sloping housing estate in Darwen, where a 70 year old woman required stretcher evacuation from her property to a waiting NWAS (Lancashire) Emergency Ambulance.
Oct 4 2009
At 11.19hrs this morning our Team Leader Garry Rhodes received details of an incident near to Darwen Tower that had been received by Rossendale and Pendle MRT in error, and that their Team Leader Andy Simpson was passing on to our team for us to respond to. This area lying in our area of operational responsibility.
Our Team Leader immediately contacted NWAS (Lancashire) Control to ascertain more details, establishing that a female mountain biker was injured below the Darwen (Jubilee) Tower area, and that Helimed 72 was on scene and our immediate assistance was required.
At 11.25hrs a full Team Pager Call Out was made, requesting that all team members initially RVP at the Sunnyhurst Inn, Sunnyhurst, on the slopes below Darwen Hill.
Our 1st team member arrived at the RVP at 11.53hrs, followed by a 2nd at 11.54hrs and then our Team Leader and our 1st responding vehicle, BM1 at 11.57hrs.
By driving very carefully along a narrow hillside track our BM1 vehicle was able to directly access the casualty scene, where the four members on board joined in the casualty treatment with the NWAS (Lancashire) Emergency Ambulance crew, and one of the NWAA Helimed 72 Paramedic crew. Helimed 72 had landed some way down the hillside, below the casualty site, on the corner embankment of Sunnyhurst Hey Reservoir.
At this stage The NWAA Helimed 72 in consultation with the team and one of the NWAS crew, who was ex Helimed crew, relocated to nearer the casualty site, landing on the steep hillside on some flat ground at the entrance to an overgrown quarry.
Other team members provided full cordon safety around the helicopter, as all the activity was now attracting lots of onlookers from the many walkers out and about on the local paths around this part of Darwen Moor. Whilst Helimed 72 was repositioning, the injured woman was then placed on a Bell Mountain Rescue Stretcher and carried some 300 metres to where Helimed 72 had now relocated.
The injured woman who was on Oxygen and had been given Entonox pain relieving gas was stretcher loaded on to the helicopter by 12.31hrs, which then flew her direct to Royal Blackburn Hospital, landing there at 12.43hrs.
We were then faced with the difficulty of carefully getting our BM1, which had been joined by BM4, back safely down the very narrow moorland track.
By 13.18hrs all our assets and the originally responding NWAS crew were back at the Sunnyhurst Inn RVP., ah the temptation to go and have a pint, but we had kit to collect from the hospital, and we were all driving, etc etc and we all left shortly afterwards.
The following resources were used on this incident;
Thanks also to the husband of the injured woman who, obviously, stayed with her and did much to comfort her whilst we were all carrying out essential casualty care.
The team on behalf of all involved also thanks the residents of the very narrow lanes immediately around the Sunnyhurst Inn for the temporary disruption we caused to their Sunday morning and early afternoon, by having to park out of necessity across some pathways and property entrances.
Aug 22 2009
Whilst the team was providing standby rescue cover at the Darwen Gala Fell Race today, we were called upon to assist one of the competitors who had suffered severe injuries to both of his heels, after completing the race and collapsing in severe pain at the race finish.
Four team members were immediately on hand to offer assistance to the 16 year old male casualty, whose main concern (notwithstanding the severe pain he was in) was whether or not he would be fit for his next fell race in October!
The casualty’s heels were dressed by team members and pain relief was given in the form of Entonox and Fentanyl. Following the arrival of an NWAS RRV Paramedic from Blackburn, Morphine was also administered intravenously.
With his pain now at manageable level, and upon the arrival of an NWAS Emergency Ambulance from Accrington, the casualty was taken to Royal Blackburn Hospital for further treatment.
This incident again illustrated the close working relationship between Bolton MRT and our NWAS colleagues.
Dec 4 2008
At 09.36hrs NWAS (Lancashire) Accident and Emergency Control contacted our Team Leader directly for 4WD assistance, to reach a property and evacuate an elderly and poorly gentleman from a care home in Darwen, which due to icy and snowbound road conditions was preventing an NWAS Emergency Ambulance form getting access.
At 09.39hrs a call out message was paged for a limited team member response to carry out this task, with 9x team members mobilised, along with our BM1 and BM2 Landrover Mountain Rescue Ambulance vehicles.
At 09.51hrs we were stood down by NWAS (Lancashire) Control as with help on scene, the Ambulance crew had managed to get the casualty into their Ambulance and our services were not required.
Some roads & footpaths have been closed to keep people as safe as possible, you can view these road closures at: secure.manchester.gov.uk/info… This page will be updated throughout the night. 6/7 pic.twitter.com/uVmMv363aF
Dec 18 2010
Incident 103/2010
Whilst travelling back from the previous incident our BM2 vehicle stopped briefly at Blackburn services on the M65 motorway.
Upon leaving, whilst still in the services (in the petrol station area) our BM2 crew noticed a commercial vehicle with a wheel fire.
Our team members assisted the vehicle driver with extinguishing the fire using the petrol stations fire extinguishers.
Lancashire Fire & Rescue Service were obviously called to this incident but thankfully the prompt action of the vehicle driver and our team members had successfully extinguished the fire.
By admin • 2010, Incident • Tags: Darwen, Miscellaneous