MountainBiker

As team members were just getting into the start of one of our routine Wednesday evening search and rescue exercises (the scenario being a fallen climber and missing informant, in the Ousel Nest Quarry area overlooking Jumbles Reservoir), our Team Leader was contacted directly by NWAS (Greater Manchester Area) Paramedic Emergency Control at around 20:26 requesting the immediate assistance of the team at an incident on the fringe of the moors above Horwich.

The initial report was of an injured Mountain Biker in the vicinity of Georges Lane, near to Rivington Pike, and team members quickly returned to the exercise RVP and as quickly as possible those in their private vehicles followed the responding three Team Landrover Ambulances.

Our first Landrover Ambulances to reach the incident location, BM2 and BM4 arrived on scene at 20:37, locating the casualty site as just off Georges Lane in the vicinity of Wilderswood, above Horwich.

A 24 year old very experienced male mountain biker had fallen from his bike and eventually came to rest face down complaining of back and hip pains.
His equally experienced companion (an ex-RNLI Lifeboatman apparently) correctly made sure his injured friend didn’t move and contacted the Ambulance Service.

Within minutes more team members arrived and very quickly commenced treating the injured mountain biker for suspected hip and lower back problems.
By this stage the responding NWAS Emergency Ambulance also arrived, with one of the crew knowing us from working with us on #article#1619#Incident 89# this year.

The 24 year old man was carefully placed onto a full length vacuum mattress, whilst all the time under the self administration of Entonox pain killing gas.
By 21:05 the injured mountain biker had been carefully transported on one of our mountain rescue stretchers into the Ambulance, which then departed for the Royal Bolton Hospital.

Team member Chris Moody then kindly transported the man’s mountain bike to hids nearby Horwich home.

In all 21 Bolton MRT members were involved in this incident, working alongside the responding NWAS (GMA) Emergency Ambulance crew from Standish Ambulance Station, all with considerable help from the Emergency Dispatchers at NWAS (GMA) Belle Vue Paramedic Emergency Control.

At 15:40, our Team Leader was contacted direct by NWAS PEC Control for some help with an incident location in the Wigan area that was for a short time proving difficult to locate (they were using our local area knowledge of local place names).

A young boy had fallen into the rocky bed of a stream in some woodland, had correctly phoned 999, but was not able to give a location other than a local place name.

It was quickly established where he was, and due to his location the team was requested to also attend, with a full team pager call going out at 15:45.

Our first team members in a Team Landrover arrived on scene at 16:09 in the vicinity of Ackhurst Hall Farm, Gathurst, followed by the NWAS Ambulance also dispatched (which had arrived in the vicinity shortly before but could not locate the boy’s position).

As other team members arrived, and faced with a large area of woodland to look into, two local residents suggested and then led an initial party into the woods, saying “if there’s been an accident, it’ll be in this area.”

Team Leader Garry Rhodes, checks the Troll Stretcher, before the carry to the waiting land ambulance.

Well they proved the wisdom of following such advice, as they led us and the NWAS crew straight to where the 12 year old boy had fallen off his bike whilst in the company of two friends (who had stayed with him) and had landed in the rocky stream bed of Ackhurst Brook, sustaining a knee injury.

His leg was quickly placed into a vacuum splint, and a small party of Bolton MRT members then stretcher evacuated the young boy out of the steep sided wooded stream valley and into the comfort of the nearby Ambulance – throughout this incident, it was raining steadily. We also recovered the young boy’s mountain bike for him.

Casualty, waiting to be transferred onto the Ambulance stretcher.

By 16:51 the Ambulance departed for Wigan Hospital. We later established from the boy’s family that he had fortunately only suffered bruising and soft tissue injuries to his knee.

Three Bolton MRT Landrover Ambulances responded to this incident, with 15 team members directly involved and a further six stood down responding as not required on this incident (not forgetting of course the NWAS Standish Ambulance Station crew also involved)

Thanks also to the staff at NWAS Belle Vue PEC, who constantly guided and assisted us to the (ultimate) casualty location.

Whilst the team was assembling for the all-day GMP search management exercise on the outskirts of the Horwich area, our Team Leader was contacted direct by Ambulance Control at Manchester, requesting the team’s attendance at a nearby road traffic accident. A member of a large group of cyclists belonging to the Lancashire Road Club, whilst enjoying a moorland road cycle ride, had come to grief on Sheep House Lane. Team members and vehicles at the exercise RVP in Lever Park immediately responded to the 09:45 call with our first vehicle arriving on scene alongside an NWAS Emergency Ambulance within minutes of the team receiving the call.

The scene of the accident site on Sheep House Lane, Rivington

Fortunately the cyclist involved was able to walk, with care, into the ambulance whilst team members and vehicles protected the scene on this sometimes dangerous stretch of moorland road.

The cyclist was taken to hospital accompanied by his stepson and as they lived locally the team agreed to transport their bikes to a team member’s house nearby where they could be collected at a later time.

A group of very experienced mountain bikers were enjoying their weekly ride on the moors, when one of their members, a 44 year old man from the Cuddington Heath area of Cheshire, suffered an accident, resulting in him being unmounted from his bike.

The incident location was on the Darwen Moor access track to Darwen Tower, directly above the local place name of Aggies Staircase. From within the group a GPS reading was obtained and a 999 call was made to NWAS (Lancashire locality) A&E Control. At least two other members cycled down the Stepback Brook track to the Roddlesworth information centre to meet up with the responding ambulance.

Because of the moorland location, LAS Control immediately paged out at 19:48 Hrs for the Teams assistance.

Thanks to the excellent information from the informants LAS were able to pass accurate RVP and incident location details to our Team Leader.

Team members arrive on scene and assist the LAS crew with the casualty

With this evening being our training evening 31 Team members, some already at our base and some on route, were immediately dispatched to the Roddlesworth Information Centre RVP.

The casualty is helped onto the team’s Bell Mountain Rescue stretcher

Our first two members reached the RVP at 20.05 Hrs and met up with the informants and were guided to the moorland incident site. Our Team Leader then arrived at 20:08 Hrs, followed by BM2 at 20:10, BM4 at 20:12 and BMs 1 & 3 at 20:20. At 20:21 our first two members had arrived at the casualty site, where the casualty was being well looked after by his companions. The casualty had suffered a very serious fracture of the upper arm. Shortly afterwards our main rescue party arrived on scene, having escorted up the responding LAS crew.

A large stretcher party begins the descent from Darwen Moor

Continuing into the sunset, the team approaches the bottom of the moor/

The injuried man was in considerable pain and was treated with Entonox (MRT) and then with painkilling drugs (LAS), a stretcher evacuation commenced at 21:05 Hrs, fortunately just as the midges were coming out on this very warm and muggy evening. Although Team vehicles had accesed to within half a mile of the scene, the track was too bumpy to consider transporting the man down in a Team vehicle, instead he was stretcher evacuated back to the ambulance RVP at Roddlesworth. By 21:42 Hrs the ambulance departed for Blackburn Hospital.

Team members form a handover chain, used when carrying stretchers over particularly steep ground

Arriving safely back at the roadhead, the casualty is assisted into the LAS ambulance

This is turning out to be a very busy month for the Team this being our 20th seperate incident of the month so far.

Whilst providing standby rescue cover on the Horwich Carnival Race event, the team responded to an accident involving a 17 year old female competitor in the women’s road cycling event, who had sustained grazing injuries and possible internal injuries. She was treated on scene by team members who were positioned nearby for such an eventuality, and was then transferred to a responding GMAS vehicle that had been called to the event by the team, in direct liaison with GMAS Paramedic Emergency Control.

Team members fetch equipment from the nearby vehicles to treat the injured female cyclist