Tuesday 1st October 2013 – 8.40pm – Murray MacGregor.
A climber has been winched off the Roaches in Staffordshire after injuring himself in a fall of around 40 feet. Despite the dramatic rescue, the man was extremely lucky.
The incident started at just before 3.00pm on Tuesday afternoon on Hen Cloud Rocks. An ambulance crew were able to walk the quarter of a mile from the road and up about 200 feet on very rugged terrain to the grass embankment at bottom of a near sheer cliff face where the patient had ended up.
The crew were backed up by a rapid response vehicle, the Midlands Air Ambulance from Cosford with a trauma doctor on board, the Buxton Mountain Rescue Team and the Hazardous Area Response Team from East Midlands Ambulance Service.
A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman said: “Due to the location of the incident and previous experience of dealing with such cases, an RAF Sea King helicopter was requested to start running towards the incident.
“At the scene, the 36 year old man was able to tell ambulance staff that he had landed on his feet as he tumbled down the rock face.
“He was complaining of back pain and had probably fractured a couple of ribs. Given the location, the difficulty of lifting and carrying the man back to the road were clearly not going to be easy so the decision was taken to winch the man onto the RAF helicopter for onward transport to University Hospital North Staffordshire.
“There is no doubt that although the man has been injured, it could easily have been much much worse.”
Ends
Pictures courtesy of Dr Nick Crombie
