North Wales Cave Rescue Organisation carried out a cave rescue scenario at Ogof Hesp Alyn on Sunday (20th April). For anyone who has yet to visit Ogof Hesp Alyn, don’t! The scenario comprised of a casualty with a fractured tibia who had fallen down a short pitch on the left-hand option after a series of crawls. The cave is very muddy and cramped, and was partially flooded due to heavy rainfall and winter, and the crawls were particularly wet.
The scenario was mostly a success, although the team decided not to perform a rescue through the crawls because of the time required. The notes I took from the exercise are as follows:
- The first team underground moves quickly to find and assess the casualty. In my opinion the cas-bag should be taken by the first team, as the impact of cold and shock are a primary factor. In this scenario we anticipated the casualty would have been injured for around 4 hours before cave rescue arrive at the surface, because of the time taken for the party to escape, call for help and for the team to be arranged. By this point hypothermia is a serious issue, even for members of the team who were not injured but have stayed with the casualty.
- The second team includes the underground controller, heyphones and vacuum mattress, and their target is the deepest site a radio link can be established. The second team also carries a belay kit and all the gear required to carry out a pitch rescue (if required).
- The third team provides the stretcher and extra kit requested by the first team through the heyphone.
- Communications need to be practised and pre-agreed. Several minor problems arose when testing the underground heyphone because or inconsistent use of callsigns (“surface control receiving” was used to tell the underground controller they were ready to receive a message, when we took it to mean they were receiving our message (which they weren’t). Heyphone communications are notoriously weak, so operators should have experience of both underground and surface control to better understand the constraints in rescue situations.
- Manoeuvring the casualty in a stretcher requires tight co-ordination between the stretcher carriers, and the haul team. Effective communication systems need to be practised to reduce time spent moving the casualty. Some system should also be devised to allow continuous movement of the casualty, either by passing the stretcher along a chain of rescuers (although we found the difficulties in leapfrogging members in front of the stretcher to be severe in cases) or by predicting the terrain and having small groups waiting to receive the stretcher at each constriction.
The scenario provided a chance for many team members to meet for the first time, following a recent resurgence in membership, and I look forward to more regular meetings in the future to increase our efficiency!
