Further to our involvement in the search for a missing 48 year old man from the Abram Brow area last night and in to the early hours of this morning, at 09.24hrs today our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE, liaised with GMP about the possibility of the teams on going involvement.
At this stage, there was no requirement for mountain rescue search involvement, and at 09.37hrs Garry paged the team membership to inform them of such.
GMP maintained a search presence, with Tactical Aid Unit teams deployed, the GMP mounted Branch called out, and the involvement of the North West Underwater Search and Marine Unit.
Members of the missing mans family, friends and local residents also continued their marvellous search efforts, which bore success when the missing mans ex brother in law and a colleague found the missing man on open land at Amberswood Common, around noon, in an unconscious state, part way down a short yet steep wooded embankment.
The Bolton MRT was informed that the man had been located, and in consultation with the GMP Force Duty Manager it was discussed whether to mobilise the team, to assist with his evacuation, given the nature of the countryside where he was found.
At around this same time, NWAS also received an emergency call to respond to assist this man.
With more exact information on where the man had been located, at 12.46hrs the team was mobilised to this incident, to RVP in the vicinity of an access track on to Amberswood Common from the A577 Wigan Road / Manchester Road, Hindley, Wigan.
Shortly after this the NWAS crew located the man, and they requested HART or MRT assistance.
With Police Officers and NWAS now with the man, the first team member Alistair Greenough arrived at the roadside RVP at circa 13.00hrs, joined by Chris Weatherhead and our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE by 13.10hrs.
By 13.28hrs our two responding Land Rover Defender Mountain Rescue Ambulances had arrived at the A577 Wigan Road / Manchester Road, Hindley, Wigan, RVP.
Guided by a TAU Hi Lux vehicle, our Land Rover ‘Bolton Mobile 4’ vehicle with Mark Scott and Garry on board, drove cross country, to park up alongside where the man had been located, joining Alistair Greenough and a large number of Police Officers present here, plus the two men who had found the missing man.
Working with TAU Officers, and the NWAS crew, the man was placed in to a casualty bag, oxygen was administered, and he was evacuated from the embankment on a Bell Mountain Rescue Stretcher, up the slope and placed in to the rear of our ‘Bolton Mobile 4’ Land Rover, with an attending NWAS Paramedic.
At this same time, the NWAS HART Team Leader and a colleague HART member also arrived at the casualty site, and assisted with the evacuation.
The man was then driven cross country back to the roadside RVP where at 13.58hrs, he was placed in to the NWAS responding Emergency Ambulance, and shortly afterwards was taken to Wigan Hospital for treatment.
All responding MRT resources had departed the location at 14.30hrs, with some of the responding members, all of whom had been out on the previous nights and early morning search, going back in to work.
The following resources were directly involved in the rescue of this man today from Amberswood Common;
- Greater Manchester Police; Force Duty Officer, Tactical Aid Unit and Divisional Officers.
- North West (Police) Underwater Search and Marine Unit.
- NWAS (Greater Manchester Area); One Emergency Ambulance from Hindley Ambulance Station, two crew – Paramedic and EMT.
- NWAS HART; Manchester on duty team. Seven team members attended, with six HART Team Support vehicles.
- Bolton Mountain Rescue Team; Two Land Rover Defender Mountain Rescue Ambulances, ten team call out list members on scene, and two further members stood down responding.
- SARDA Wales; Mountain Rescue Trailing Search Dog Boris attended with his Handler Steve Nelson also of Bolton MRT, although Boris did not deploy. Steve was involved and is listed in the Bolton MRT figures above.
