At 14.03hrs this afternoon, very soon after receiving a 999 call, the team was paged by NWAS (Manchester) for its immediate assistance regarding the reports of a 54 year old male, who had fallen over the edge of Cox Green Quarry, overlooking Egerton, Bolton.

An immediate full team call out was initiated with all four of our Team Land Rover Mountain Rescue Ambulances responding very quickly.

Our first team member, Geoff Seddon our Deputy Team Leader, arrived at the Cox Green (North) Road RVP at 14.30hrs to join with two NWAS (Manchester) Ambulance Officers who had arrived minutes earlier. Together they immediately tried to establish the actual casualty location, alongside initial responding GMP Officers – the steep sided quarry is very extensive, open in places, densely wooded in others.

By 14.32hrs our BM1 and BM3 vehicles were at the RVP, followed shortly afterwards by our BM2 and BM4 vehicles and a responding NWAS (Manchester) Emergency Ambulance.

At around 14.50hrs the West Yorkshire Air Ambulance, ’Helimed 99,’ arrived overhead and managed to land on the top of the quarry near to the casualty site in the bottom of the quarry, more local Air Ambulances were not available, hence the Leeds Bradford Airport based West Yorkshire Air Ambulance was mobilised.

Helimed 99 arrives at the top of the quarry….. 

By this stage, team members Ken Oakes and Geoff Seddon, together with GMP Officers and the two NWAS Officers, had located the casualty and commenced an assessment and immediate casualty care.

…cas care at the casualty site…
An MRT rescue party together with further equipment then met up with the West Yorkshire Air Ambulance crew, and arrived at the casualty site by 15.05hrs, to continue the existing casualty care treatment. The 54 years old male had fallen a vertical distance of some 25 feet, landing on a vegetated boulder strewn slope, sustaining a suspected right leg fracture, head injuries and possible back and chest injuries. The mans injuries were splinted, Oxygen was given to the casualty and drugs were administered by the Air Ambulance Doctor.

…joint MR & NWAS & Helimed 99 cas care…
The casualty was then placed on a long board / spinal board, and then carefully placed onto a Bell Mountain Rescue stretcher at around 15.30hrs. In a joint NWAS, Air Ambulance, GMP and MRT operation the man was then stretcher evacuated out of the quarry bottom and to the waiting Air Ambulance Helicopter.
Just after 16.00hrs the helicopter departed with the injured man for the short flight direct to Royal Blackburn Hospital.

…casualty loaded on the longboard & bell MR stretcher… 

…arrives at Helimed 99… 

All the rescue personnel then made their way back to the Cox Green Road RVP with all rescue vehicles and personnel having departed by 16.30hrs.

The following resources were involved in this incident ;

• 14x Bolton MRT members, including our BM1,2,3,and 4 Land Rover Mountain Rescue Ambulance vehicles.
• NWAS (Manchester) 2x Operational Officers who had both solo responded, and an Emergency Ambulance.
• NWAS (Manchester) Belle Vue Emergency Control Room.
• West Yorkshire Air Ambulance ’Helimed 99,’ with four crew on board, (one Pilot, two Paramedics and a Doctor)
• Greater Manchester Police, 4x Divisional Officers and CID Officers.
  Greater Manchester Police Force Control Room.

This is only the second time in the teams history that we have worked in our team operational area with the West Yorkshire Air Ambulance ’Helimed 99,’ more usually we have worked with the Blackpool based ’Helimed 08,’ and latterly the Barton based ’Helimed 72.’

…and loaded into the air ambulance. 

Of note is the fact that on board ’Helimed 99’ today was fellow MR colleague and friend of the team Al Day, a member of Calder Valley SRT, when not working in his full time job with Yorkshire Ambulance Service / West Yorkshire Air Ambulance ’Helimed 99.’

The team would like to take the opportunity to thank all the residents of Cox Green Road (North) and the immediate surrounding roads for putting up with the inconvenience of having their driveways and front gardens temporarily blocked by all the responding emergency vehicles and team members private cars.