Saturday 19 May 2012

Rescue from Camp Three

In line with my policy of delaying bad news by 48 hours the events below took place in the early hours of Thursday morning 17 May and I wrote the post that afternoon.

I was woken by David at 5.50am and told to get dressed and meet him in the comms tent. I could tell by his voice that there was a sense of urgency.

Once there,which didn't take long, he told me that unfortunately one of our Sherpas had been hit by a serac fall close to Camp Three. Because of my mountain rescue training he wanted me to man the radio and to co-ordinate radio traffic between the rescuers, our base camp and the HRA doctors (whose work ive already spoken about) also at BC.

I had heard an avalanche/rockfall earlier at about 5.00am from the Lhotse face but thought nothing of it.

The first call was made at 6.03am and the last to say that the casualty was on his way to Kathmandu at 12.47pm.

Initial reports from the sherpas spoke of two leg injuries, an arm and a head injury.

This is a shortened version.

David left with Adele (the Lhotse leader) at roughly 6.45am taking our extensive medical kit and also picking up some morphine and IV fluids on the way up to the bergschund.

Pasang had left Camp Two immediately on hearing the news and had taken a Sked (portable type of stretcher) up to the casualty.

Apparently the serac fall happened just 50 m from our Camp Three tents and has unfortunately wiped out an number of other teams tents. Thankfully as far as we currently know nobody was sleeping in them at the time.

The sherpa rescue team reached the bottom of the Lhotse face at about 8.45 am where the Sherpa was given some morphine.

Meanwhile we had been liasing with other teams to provide additional man power, Sherpas and medical resources. In the end everybody from our team contributed in some way.

Thankfully certain helicopters can fly to/from Camp Two so we were able to have one on standby at Lukla from around 7.30am. Unfortunately by the time we got the eta of the causality at Camp Two it had been called to another job.

There are no air ambulances here in Nepal and for the helicppter companies 'time is money'. We later learnt that it had gone off to pick up a trekker with non life threatening injuries.

So plan B swung into operation which was to clear a mess tent near the helipad to receive and hopefully stabilise the casualty until the helicopter could arrive. The casualty arrived in camp at 10.30 roughly five and a half hours after the incident.

With the help of a couple of JG team members we found a Dutch doctor and an Indian paramedic in camp who both kindly agreed to assist.

Time was not on our side with the weather as the typical afternoon cloud was beginning to bubble up.

Eventually he was evacuated at 12.24pm back to BC where the doctors assessed him. Whilst this was happening the pilot returned a second time to pick up another Sherpa who was also caught in the serac fall although he had slightly less serious injuries.

The last radio call was to say that the casualty was on his way to Katmandu.

As of now, Thursday lunchtime, we understand that our Sherpa's injuries are a broken left leg, broken left arm and some superficial head injuries. Our concern is of course for any internal injuries.

Our thanks go out to all those who helped in the rescue and we hope he makes a full and speedy recovery.

There is also a quick personal message to the Dartmoor Rescue Group Ashburton section: a really big thank you for all of those hours of training you all put for the benefit of others. Rob now I know what it feels to like in the control vehicle (yes I had a thermos)! To Richard & Tas thanks for the Casulty Care course. Whilst I wasn't hands on (hence much more chance of the casualty surviving) it was great to be able to make some informed suggestions as to the casualty's welfare.

Ps please can I be excused radio relay for a couple of evenings!

1 comment:

  1. From one of your earlier posts: "Also the Shepas never sleep at Camp Three believing it to be bad luck and upsetting the spirits of the Gods."

    And now this: "Apparently the serac fall happened just 50 m from our Camp Three tents and has unfortunately wiped out an number of other teams tents. Thankfully as far as we currently know nobody was sleeping in them at the time."

    Could it be that what you described as superstition is just experience and common sense?

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