Miscellaneous

Late this cold afternoon as dusk was approaching, NWAS (Greater Manchester) Parkway EOC received a 999 call, regarding an injured 17 year old in Leverhulme Park, Bolton.

With the quick arrival of the first NWAS responding vehicle, it quickly became apparent that mountain rescue would be required to stretcher evacuate the injured youth from the incident location, within woodland at the bottom of a steep muddy track.

At 16.46hrs, we were paged to assist NWAS, as co-incidentally three team members Deputy Team Leader Chris Greenhalgh, Training Officer Alistair Greenough and Equipment Officer – Medical Nigel Booth, were just departing our Ladybridge Hall Base / HQ at the same time as the pager call.

They were in a position to make an immediate response, with two other Team Land Rovers, also crewed very quickly, and all three mobilising by 17.05hrs.

Despite some initial difficulties establishing the exact RVP, all three Land Rovers were on scene at the Leverhulme Park Sports Hall complex car park by 17.20hrs.

Joining NWAS personnel on scene at the incident site, and alongside responding Police Officers, by 17.30hrs the injured youth had been placed on a specialist scoop stretcher, which was then placed on to one of our mountain rescue stretchers, for the short evacuation back to the NWAS Emergency Ambulance.

At 17.38hrs a team stand down pager call was made, with the Ambulance departing for Royal Bolton Hospital, with the injured youth on  board at 17.52hrs.

The following resources were involved in this incident response;

• NWAS (Greater Manchester); EOC Parkway, one Emergency Ambulance, two crew, and one Rapid Response Vehicle, solo crew.
• Greater Manchester Police; 4x Police Officers, 1x PCSO, in three Divisional Police vehicles.
• Bolton Mountain Rescue Team; Three Land Rover Defender Mountain Rescue Ambulances, 14x Team Call Out members involved in the rescue, with a further nine stood down responding.

We would like to pass on our reciprocal thanks to the great many interested children and adults who witnessed this incident unfolding and its aftermath as we were packing away our kit used, and who passed on kind comments of support in regards to the work we do in the local community, many noting that we are “volunteers who do a great job.”

NWAS (Greater Manchester Area) EOC contacted our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE directly this afternoon, requesting any assistance the team could provide, given a very high number of calls upon the services of NWAS (Greater Manchester Area) that were being experienced today, and the implementation of their ‘Step up’ procedure plan.

With five operational members (Including our Team Leader and Deputy Team Leader) and two probationers still at our Ladybridge Hall Base / HQ, from the Christmas decorations ‘packing away,’ and two other very experienced team members (Mike Marsh and Steve Fletcher) on route to our Base / HQ, we were in a position to immediately assist, and help out within our local community.

Incident 14 came quickly at 12.47hrs, when two of our Land Rover Defender Mountain Rescue Ambulances, and our Incident Control Vehicle were asked to respond to a report of an RTC involving a car on its side, on Dark Lane, Blackrod.

Upon arrival, the female occupant had been removed from the scene by a family member, and we briefly stayed on scene with GMP resources (two Divisional vehicles and a Traffic Unit) as the incident site was made safe.
Seven team members were involved on scene.

About to leave this incident at 13.35hrs we were then tasked to the report of an injured male at a farm in Radcliffe, which became our Incident 15 of 2015.

All three vehicles and their seven team members made their way to Crowtree Farm, Withens Lane, Radcliffe, where the injured male was actually found to have fallen upstairs in the farm, sustaining a fractured ankle.

His injury was splinted by team members, using one of our specialist vacuum splints and NWAS EOC Parkway requested we transport the injured 53 years old to Royal Bolton Hospital.

This was done in using our Bolton Mobile 3 Land Rover, which departed the farm at 14.35hrs for hospital.
Meanwhile Steve Fletcher and Mike Marsh, now with our Bolton Mobile 2 Land Rover, at 14.35hrs were despatched by NWAS EOC Parkway, to a property at Darcy Lever, whre a 76 year old male was ill with a medical issue.

This, our Incident 16 – 2015, involved Steve and Mike on scene, assessing the man, whilst awaiting the arrival of a NWAS (Greater Manchester) Emergency Ambulance to take him to Royal Bolton Hospital.

The last tasking of the day, our Incident 17, came at 15.00hrs, when we were asked to respond to the report of an RTC involving an 18 year old male, at a farm at Little Lever.

Our Incident Control Vehicle (Which carries appropriate emergency equipment, alongside its normal taskings) and Our Land Rover Bolton Mobile 1 responded, arriving in the vicinity of Five Acres Farm on Radcliffe Road, Little Lever, to find the accident was not on farm property but on the public road, involving a single car driven by the 18 year old male, which was on its roof, following a collision with the road side and a lamp post.

The male was out of the vehicle and being looked after by responding GMP Officers, whilst GMFRS who were in attendance (One Pump appliance from GMFRS Bolton Central Community Fire Station) made the vehicle safe.

The males parents were also on scene, and with the male feeling unwell, as a precaution, in liaison with NWAS EOC Parkway we were tasked to transport him (with his mother) to Royal Bolton Hospital, which was done in our Land Rover Bolton Mobile 1.

By 17.00hrs all our personnel involved in these four incidents, and our vehicles were back at our Ladybridge Hall Base / HQ.

At the conclusion of these incidents, we had a nice visit at our Base / HQ from former Bolton MRT team operational member and very long time friend of our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE, Trevor Briggs, who was over for Christmas and New Year from his (now) home in Evergreen, Colorado, United States of America, visiting his family in the UK.