A busy day on Saturday 29th February

CRO

Member
We had a busy day yesterday, busy but very successful.

We received a call to assist an injured caver who had fallen down a pitch in Aquamole Pot in Kingsdale. A hasty party of team members went underground with first aid and emergency equipment to assess the casualty and report back as to what additional kit was required and also the extraction plan. Additional cavers followed with extra equipment and a surface team prepared a hauling system at the cave entrance.

The casualty was treated for leg, pelvic and possible lumbar injuries before being packaged in a drag stretcher. Due to space restrictions in the cave, the casualty was initially hauled using a counter balance technique where a team member is effectively attached to the same rope as the casualty and is used as ?ballast? to assist the other team members hauling the stretcher up the pitch of the cave. Once the casualty was suitably far enough towards the surface, he was attached to the surface hauling system which utilised a tripod over the cave entrance to assist in bringing the casualty up the final vertical entrance pitch.

Due to the nature of the casualty?s injuries, we requested the assistance of our friends at Yorkshire Air Ambulance who performed some superb flying in very tough conditions and some equally superb casualty care. After an initial assessment on the fell, the casualty was loaded into Helimed 98 and transported to LGI for further treatment.

The weather was a bit on the grim side towards the end of the incident so we didn?t waste much time de-rigging our kit and getting off the fell as soon as we possibly could.

We would also like to thank Louise and John, two Nottingham University Caving Club members who stopped their planned trip and came to assist us in hauling the casualty to the surface.
https://cro.org.uk/incident-11-2020-feb-29th-sat-12-50hrs-aquamole-pot-kingsdale-cave-incident/

Not long after team members had got home from the previous Kingsdale shout, we had a ?standby*? for some possible missing cavers at Alum pot. Fortunately the team was soon stood down when the cavers were able to inform their callout contact that they were out and safe, and we were able to relax for the evening. Or so we thought........
https://cro.org.uk/incident-12-2020-feb-29th-sat-19-50hrs-alum-pot-selside-cave-incident/
* Actually counted as an incident, because a team member went to Alum Pot looking for the vehicle belonging to the group.

The third, and thankfully final callout of a very busy Saturday for the team. We were called to assist a caver who had reportedly become stuck at a rebelay. After spending several hours trying to remedy his situation he had understandably become very tired and cold. Fellow cavers from the same group but a different party managed to get a knife to the casualty who was then able to cut himself free from his cows tail and descend the rope to the bottom of the pitch. CRO team members found the caver cold and exhausted and after treating him for mild hypothermia, he was assisted back up the pitch via a hauling system of ropes. Once on the surface, he, and his companions were able to make their own way back down to their vehicles. The CRO team members then returned back to the depot to replenish CRO1 (our cave rescue specific vehicle) for the second time that day.

Our best wishes to the casualty - hopefully he is none the worse for his experience. And also, a huge well done to the team - you all really did pull out all of the the stops yesterday.
https://cro.org.uk/incident-13-2020-feb-29th-sat-22-15hrs-rowten-pot-kingsdale-cave-incident/

The pictures are from the first incident at Aquamole. At this rate, we will actually be attending more caving incidents than surface incidents for the first time in many years!
 

Attachments

  • Aqua1.jpg
    Aqua1.jpg
    95.8 KB · Views: 712
  • Aqua2.jpg
    Aqua2.jpg
    91.6 KB · Views: 234
  • Aqua3.jpg
    Aqua3.jpg
    89 KB · Views: 219
  • Aqua4.jpg
    Aqua4.jpg
    78.6 KB · Views: 232

tras2

New member
Hello,

On behalf of the cavers involved in the first incident, I want to thank everyone involved in the recovery of our injured friend. The speed at which you all came was amazing. Witnessing first hand the professionalism and talent you have is a wonder. When we got to the surface we were amazed at how many people were involved in the operation - you are all hero's  :clap:

For anyone interested, our friend was transported to LGI where it was found he had fractured vertebrae and brusing to the leg and ankle. He was discharged later in the evening.

Once again, thank you to CRO, Yorkshire Air Ambulance and everyone else involved.  :beer:

Stuart
 

CRO

Member
Glad to hear that your friend was less severely injured than feared, and we all hope he mends soon (y)
 

CNCC

Well-known member
Many thanks to all our cave rescue teams and their volunteers.

Your devotion, especially over the last few months with such atrocious weather conditions, is outstanding. Not many people will have envied you being out in Kingsdale yesterday in what, at times, was a blizzard!

Being able to see the work you are doing here on UKC and other social media is great; it really brings home how lucky we are to have such an awesome team to support us, in the unlikely event that any of us should get into difficulty.

Great work! :clap:
 

sn

Member
Re MCR - yes, and I'd like to extend my sincere thanks for their efforts (and all fire / paramedics etc too..), as I was one of those having a longer trip in St Cuthbert's than expected!
 

JoshW

Well-known member
Great work and thanks to all involved!

mrodoc said:
MCR were busy last night on Mendip too!

Do mcr write up similar to this on here? Would help with general awareness!
 

estelle

Member
JoshW said:
Do mcr write up similar to this on here? Would help with general awareness!
MCR write up incidents on their website - https://www.mendipcaverescue.org/ and then post this information onto their Facebook page and Twitter.
 

Pegasus

Administrator
Staff member
estelle said:
JoshW said:
Do mcr write up similar to this on here? Would help with general awareness!
MCR write up incidents on their website - https://www.mendipcaverescue.org/ and then post this information onto their Facebook page and Twitter.

It would be much appreciated if MCR would also post information on the forum...

Facebook - owned by Billionaires, run for profit, mess with data, don't care a stuff about caves, caving or cavers, information on there soon disappears down news feeds, info isn't shown to everyone who follows a page/group...

UKC - owned and run by cavers on a not for profit basis, doesn't mess with your data, does care about our sport, info is searchable, visited by 100's of cavers of every day.

UKC is a much friendlier place to visit these days and has been for a long time - all support for the cavers' forum is very much appreciated (y) (y) ;)
 
Top