Alan’s Diary – Callout 19th May 2009
Escorting the Casualty's friends back down
With my job, I am often working long distances away, but I also have days where I work from home. Today was one of those working from home days. So when I received a Callout text at lunchtime, there was a good chance I was going to be one of the first there. I quickly grabbed my gear and headed for the hut.
I arrived just as a Land Rover was getting ready to leave. I was told to jump in and we drove off under blue lights and sirens. As we were driving, I was briefed that we had a report of a man with chest pains at the top of Kinder. This is our worst scenario, as if it turned out to be a heart attack, we would need to get our portable defibrillator to him as quickly as possible.
We got as far as we could in the Land Rover, then bailed out and made our way on foot as fast as we could. It was hard work. We had to head up the steepest route up Kinder in the shortest possible time. By the time we were half way, my lungs were bursting, but there was no time for stopping. As we started to reach the top, we received a radio message that an Air Ambulance had been diverted to assist and was now on approach. A couple of minutes later and the helicopter flew overhead on its way to the casualty. We could slow the pace a little now, but we still needed to make our way there to assist the rest of his party.
We arrived just as the Air Ambulance was leaving with the casualty on board. We then escorted the rest of his party back to our base and then gave them a lift to their cars.
See more photos from the callout…
