At 18.01hrs this warm sunny evening, we were contacted by NWAS (Lancashire) EOC requesting the teams help with an injured male alongside the Yarrow Reservoir at Rivington.
A fulll team pager message was then sent at 18.05hrs.
The NWAA Helimed 75 had earlier landed nearby to the casualty, but required the teams assistance to stretcher evacuate him to their helicopter, which had landed at the foot of the reservoir main embankment, about half a kilometre distance from the mans location.
The 47 year old, out running in the company of his partner, had fallen sustaining very painful leg and knee internal injuries, whilst alongside the stone surfaced track between Yarrow and Upper Rivington Reservoirs.
With contingency plans in place if an incident response was required this evening, given the large number of members away or otherwise at a team members wedding, those available quickly mobilised to our team vehicle locations at our Ladybridge Hall Base / HQ and our garage at GMFRS Bolton North Community Fire Station.
Team member Dave Cook, met up with and guided the responding NWAS Emergency Ambulance to the nearest road access point to the incident site, accessing the reservoir track network near to the Bowling Green at Rivington.
Dave then led the NWAS crew to the incident site, meeting up with the NWAA Paramedics already treating the mans injuries, with drugs and Entonox.
Our first responding Land Rover arrived at the RVP at 18.28hrs, closely followed by our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE who arrived minutes later.
A mountain rescue stretcher was quickly despatched, along with a ‘long leg’ vacuum splint, and by 18.40hrs the evacuation of the injured man along the track was ready to commence.
It was decided that the man would be taken by Ambulance rather than Helimed to hospital, and by 19.05hrs the injured man was in the NWAS vehicle, which left shortly thereafter for Chorley Hospital.
By 19.36hrs all MRT resources had left the area, with two of our members – Steve Fletcher and Deputy Team Leader Chris Greenhalgh, journeying in our Bolton Mobile 2 Land Rover to Chorley Hospital to collect some team kit items used on this rescue.
The following resources were involved in this incident;
- NWAS (Cumbria and Lancashire); EOC Broughton Airdesk, one NWAS Emergency Ambulance from Chorley Ambulance Station, 3x crew, including Paramedic and EMT, and a Student / Trainee Paramedic.
- North West Air Ambulance; Helimed 75 (the ‘Red One’) City Airport Manchester – Barton, two aircrew Paramedics and Pilot / Captain.
- Bolton MRT; 2x Land Rover Defender Mountain Rescue Ambulances, Bolton Mobiles 1 and 2, ten Call Out list members involved on scene.
