HorseRiding

At 11:50 this morning, the team was paged by NWAS (Greater Manchester) Emergency Control Centre, who were requesting our assistance at an incident in the George’s Lane, Rivington area.

Already in attendance at the scene of the incident was an NWAS RRV Paramedic who had been called to the scene a short time earlier.

With several team members already working on maintenance tasks at our Ladybridge Hall Base/HQ, and two team members Ged Clarke and Mark Scott responding directly to our base at Bolton Central Fire Station, an immediate response was made with two team vehicles going mobile at 12:00.

The scene of the incident involving the Horse Rider.The team was requested to attend to a female who had fallen from her horse whilst riding with a friend on a moorland track below George’s Lane, which itself runs below the base of Rivington Pike.

The North West Air Ambulance Helimed 08 had also been called at the same time and had landed near to the scene shortly before our first team vehicle arrived at 12:12.

The casualty is loaded onto NWAA Helimed 08The female had suffered several injuries which were serious enough to warrant evacuation to Royal Blackburn Hospital by helicopter. After being treated for her injuries by a responding NWAS Paramedic and the crew of NWAA Helimed 08, Bolton MRT team members assisted the crew of the North West Air Ambulance in carrying the casualty approximately 100m to the helicopter, which promptly left the scene at 12:35 with the patient on board.

NWAA Helimed 08 departs the scene for Royal Blackburn HospitalThe team would like to thank the off-duty Lancashire Fire & Rescue Service USAR team member who was out riding his mountain bike and passed the accident shortly after it had happened. His local area knowledge and accurate description of the location to the 999 operators helped the Ambulance crews and BMRT vehicles to easily find the incident site.

This evening the team was paged at 19.45hrs by NWAS (Lancashire) regards an accident on the moors involving a 51 year old female horse rider who had fallen from her mount, sustaining injuries.

Shortly afterwards a full team pager call out message alerted the entire membership to the vicinity of the incident location.

The horse rider involved had been out riding in the company of a friend from the nearby yard, when she fell from her horse, on the lower eastern slopes of Turton Heights, just above the track to Clough House Farm off the B6391 Greens Arms Road.

Around 20.15hrs our first team members (John Dickinson, Neil Warburton and our Deputy Leader Geoff Seddon) arrived on scene to meet the responding NWAS (Lancashire) Emergency Ambulance crew (From Rossendale Ambulance Station) and a solo crewed NWAS (Lancashire) Rapid Response Vehicle from Blackburn.

The injured woman, who is from the Bolton area, sustained a suspected fractured femur, and was treated on scene with powerful pain killing drugs and gas.

One feature of this incident was the unseasonal low temperature, made worse by a very strong wind.

By 20.23hrs our first team vehicle arrived on scene, our BM6, followed by two further team vehicles at 20.30 / 20.31hrs respectively.

The injured woman was partly evacuated from the moorland hillside, firstly on an NWAS Long board, and then on a Bell Mountain Rescue Stretcher, to the B6391 Greens Arms Road, where she was put into the NWAS Emergency Ambulance at 20.47hrs, which then departed shortly afterwards for Royal Bolton Hospital.

In total twenty one Bolton MRT members were involved on scene with this incident, a further three Bolton MRT members were stood down responding.

Three team Land Rover Mountain Rescue Ambulance vehicles responded, alongside NWAS (Lancashire) resources.

At 15:30 today the team was contacted by NWAS Paramedic Emergency Control at Manchester regarding assistance to an injured woman within the Moses Gate Country Park, Farnworth, area.

Both our Team Leader and Deputy Leader collected relevant information from Ambulance Control ascertaining it was an injury to a horse rider who had shoulder and suspected spinal injuries.

A full team pager call was made at 15:39 resulting in an immediate response by our Mountain Rescue Landrover ambulances BM1 and BM3.

Our Deputy Leader Geoff Seddon was the first MRT member on scene, joining the Ambulance crew and establishing that the casualty site was on the bridle path system within the country park overlooking the River Croal just beyond the “Red Bridge”.

At 16:00 our BM1 arrived at the roadhead near to the “Red Bridge”, followed at 16:01 by our BM3 vehicle.

At the casualty site, the 26 year old experienced female horse rider (from the Stoneclough area) was given self-administered Entonox initially.

With her serious shoulder injury splinted she was then placed on a long-board completed with head blocks and cervical collar due to a possible spinal injury.
She was then further treated with a Fentanyl Lozenge opiate for pain relief.

The stretcher evacuation of the injured lady (on a Mountain Rescue stretcher) commenced at 16:22. By 16:27 the casualty had been evacuated to the waiting NWAS Emergency Ambulance at the “Red Bridge”.

She was then transported to Royal Bolton Hospital in the ambulance with team member Mark Scott accompanying the ambulance crew in their vehicle.

In total, 10 Bolton MRT team members were involved in this incident with a further 7 team members stood down responding. The NWAS Emergency Ambulance crew were from Bolton South (Highfield) Ambulance Station.

As an aside, former team member and current long-serving GMFRS Firefighter Ray Clift was walking his dog in the country park at the time of the incident and was aware of the NWAS Ambulance RVP; Ray gave directions to responding team members as they entered the country park.

At 13:26 today the team was paged by NWAS (Greater Manchester) requesting our assistance in extracting a difficult to reach casualty in the Whitefield area of Greater Manchester. On gathering more information on the incident a full team callout was issued at 13:33.

The female casualty had been horse riding in a party of four on this bank holiday Monday when she had fallen from her horse.

Two of our LandRover Ambulances were out in the teams’ area and responded to the incident, with 5 call out contact personnel on board. A further 6 personnel responded in their own vehicles to the rendezvous point on Philips Park Road West. Another two call out team members stood down responding.

On locating the casualty the easiest extraction was determined to be straight up the M60 embankment where an NWAS ambulance was parked on a wide section of the M60 hard shoulder waiting to transfer the casualty to hospital.

After loading the casualty on to one of our Bell rescue stretchers the team carried the casualty up the steep embankment using ropes to aid the ascent.

The casualty was transferred to the waiting ambulance and the incident concluded at 14:43.