Cave rescue in Germany

[martinr]

Best of luck to him, although I wouldn't worry too much about the effect of daylight on his eyes - the number of Scurrions appearing on the stills and videos of the rescue suggests he hasn't spent much time in the dark

Photophobia following a severe brain injury is a genuine concern. I know, because I am recovering from a chronic subdural haematoma and have experienced photophobia myself (very unpleasant). Whist his head injury is probably many times worse than mine, I can understand what he may be going through. I wish him all the very best for his recovery which is going to take a long time.

This rescue was a massive effort. 202 cavers from at least 6 countries, 3 caving doctors, 728 other rescuers, not to mention the members of the emergency services (medical, police, fire and rescue and helicopter). The bill for this will be enormous, and I hope that UK cavers will be generous with their contributions if and when an appeal for donations is made.

Very well done by all involved.

 

[cap n chris]

It would be interesting to know which personnel are charging for their time and at what rate(s); clearly there are huge costs attendant with a helicopter though. Do cavers get paid for rescues? Don't emergency services workers receive salaries whether or not they have to do anything specific? Clearly there are consumables/supplies and travel expenses.

Because of the rare occurrence of a rescue of this enormity my hunch is that it will need to be covered by the German government pending a workable solution to whatever invoicing gets drawn up.

Any donation to the slush fund should be with the express understanding that it is dependent upon the cave not being closed.

 

[David Rose]

The BBC reports that the cave will be "sealed" because of its accessibility and the difficulty of the rescue. What do we think of this? I don't like the sound of it one little bit.

 

[hoehlenforscher]

Couple of points.
They are talking about closing the cave to the general public. In Germany this may well mean nothing more than the understanding that entry can only be made with a permit from the local community, granted only to genuine cave explorers for scientific research/original exploration. I think any physical barrier would be impracticable as the mountain is like a Swiss cheese! The system of permit has worked well enough at the Blautopf.
Cave rescue in Germany is certainly still a volunteer organisation in the same way as the UK. Whether or not the Swiss, Italian & Austrian groups work as unpaid volunteers I am unsure but I suspect it is the case. Someone else should know the answer to that one.
The helicopters will represent one of the biggest costs.
Any rescue in Germany must have the ground support of the Firebrigade. They will invoice the rescued party for all the time/personnel on standby for the duration. Traditionally they have sometimes been needed to assist in pumping water from caves in the more low-lying regions but they were certainly rather superfluous in this instance. However, the communications systems, and general logistical support of their facilities would have been of a help. All the press reports from the area came from a Fire Station.
There has already been a slush fund set up to help meet the rescue costs. I am pretty sure I linked to it on the first page of this thread.


If I get any more news I will be sure to update this thread, as should anyone else who has information.

 

[hoehlenforscher]

Here is the link to the slush fund again


http://www.xn--stiftung-hhlenrettung-qec.de/index.html

 

[graham]

It would be interesting to know which personnel are charging for their time and at what rate(s); clearly there are huge costs attendant with a helicopter though. Do cavers get paid for rescues? Don't emergency services workers receive salaries whether or not they have to do anything specific? Clearly there are consumables/supplies and travel expenses.

Key personnel, such as doctors, may have to do things like pay locums to stand in for them. There can be all sorts of expenses contingent on being away from your normal place of work for several days over and above simple loss of earnings.

Because of the rare occurrence of a rescue of this enormity my hunch is that it will need to be covered by the German government pending a workable solution to whatever invoicing gets drawn up.

I wonder what the German government thinks of that? You can imagine the outcry amongst band-wagon jumping politicos and idiots like the taxpayers alliance if such a scenario were to be repeated in the UK (We'd need a decent deep cave first, mind ).

Any donation to the slush fund should be with the express understanding that it is dependent upon the cave not being closed.

Bit harsh on the poor sod who has to foot the bills, that. I doubt he has much say in the matter.

 

[ALEXW]

I want to send a few bob to the fund but I don't have a clue what the web site is trying to tell me to do.

Can sombody explain in simple english how to send the money.

I think it is via Paypal but I'm not sure. 

Cheers

 

[rsch]

If you already have a paypal account, you just make a direct payment to the account name stiftung-hoehlenrettung@t-online.de and that's it.

You will get one instant reply email from paypal saying 'thanks for making a payment' and you will get a second email when the recipient claims your payment into their account to confirm the payment was accepted.

It may well work more or less the same from the paypal website if you don't already have a paypal account, though you'll need to enter fresh payment card details (and have the 'opportunity' to set up an account).

 

[paul]

[gmod]I have started a new topic at http://ukcaving.com/board/index.php?topic=16694.0 for the link to the contributions page.[/gmod]