At 18:38 our Team Leader was contacted direct by LANCON to mobilise the team on behalf of LAS to an incident at Darwen Tower, Darwen. The initial information was that a young girl was fitting in the Darwen Tower area and the LAS crew obviously could not gain ready access to this prominent moorland tower. A full team page was made at 18:41 with our Team Leader arriving first on scene at the ambulance roadhead at the top of Belgrave Rd, Darwen, which is situated at the base of Darwen moor.
At 19:09 our Deputy Team Leader, in his personal 4 wheel drive vehicle, arrived at the roadhead and along with a team member who is also an A&E nurse, was able to drive direct to the Darwen Tower, arriving on scene minutes after the two paramedics who had initially set off walking at 18:40. The 14 year old female casualty who was with a party of 6 other teenagers was located at the very top of Jubilee (Darwen) Tower itself, having suffered a fit and was found to be very cold but conscious. Our first team vehicle arrived at the roadhead at 19:12 and followed our DTL’s vehicle to the summit with 3 other team members on board, meanwhile another team member had run up to the tower from the Tockholes side.
Because of the girl’s condition it was initially decided to stretcher evacuate her from the top of Darwen Tower, down the narrow spiral staircase (a situation we regularly train for). Fortunately this was not necessary as with assistance the young girl was able to walk to the base of the tower. She was then carried into our nearby BM2 Landrover Ambulance, which then brought the young girl down to the Belgrave Rd roadhead, along with the two LAS (Blackburn Ambulance Station) staff. By 19:26 the young girl was in the LAS ambulance which departed at 19:30 for Blackburn Royal Hospital.
Members of the girl’s party were then taken to their home addresses in team Landrover, BM2. In total, 19 team members responded to this night-time spot pickup, along with 5 members who were stood down responding. All 4 team vehicles responded to this incident in case of any problems gaining access to this high moorland area. All in all, a successful night time rescue, which drew very favourable comments from the young teenagers in the girl’s party who were most grateful, and from the two Paramedics involved.
