Search and Rescue

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• Entry from Pembroke

  Pembroke, Ontario, Canada
Friday, August 29, 2008

Last night we had a search and rescue scenario. We picked a leader who picked five team leaders to manage smaller search teams. I was a team leader of a group of five. We were taken by bus to the Chutes Coulonge, which was the search area where an unknown number of people had gone missing.

Just to set the scene a little, this is an area where there are a number of large waterfalls flowing through a ravine. There is a trail around the edge with several observation platforms and an old saw mill. It was dark. There are trees, cliff faces, rocks and a river. We only had torches to see our way around.

So, I was told to search the area on the far side of the bridge. We searched around and moved onto the other bridge. Eventually we heard a noise - someone was crying out from within the ravine. We couldn't see because our torches were not good enough to reach that far down so we had to look for a trail. After walking to the end of the woodland trail we scrambled down the rocks and found Mel in the river with a large stick (about a foot long!) impaled through her abdomen. The river was running with blood (and raspberry sauce... ;) ). We quickly stabilised her head whilst we established her conscious level and the mechanism of injury. Having discovered that she had no mechanism for a spinal injury we were able to ask her to stabilise the stick whilst we moved her out of the river and onto an insulating mat. We wrapped her in blankets while we stopped the bleeding and stabilised the stick with bandages.

We managed to cut off her wet clothes and dress her in our spare dry clothing. Karine and Karine assessed the patient whilst I tried to radio for help and sent Scott and Trish back for a basket stretcher to carry her out.

The evacuation was long and hard, not to mention slightly dangerous. When they said this was intensive they weren't joking! We carried her (with a lot of help from another team) up the steep ravine and through the woods to the bus, where we loaded her onto the back.

The exercise went extremely well, especially for a first attempt. Apparently we did it in record time. Between five teams there were five patients, all located, treated and evacuated within an hour and a half!