Tuesday 5th May 2015 – 3.28pm – Murray MacGregor.
A worker who was part of the team renovating the aerial section of the M6/M5 motorway link has had to be rescued by ambulance staff and firefighters after suffering back spasms while almost 30 feet off the ground.
The incident happened on the section that runs from the southbound carriageway of the M6 onto the M5 at around 11.50am on Tuesday morning.
An ambulance was initially dispatched along with the Hazardous Area Response Team (HART) who accessed the patient off Ray Hall Lane, Great Barr.
A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman said: “The man, who was in his 40’s had bent down to pick up a nail when he suffered a muscle spasm in his back that was excruciatingly painful.
“As if being unable to move wasn’t bad enough, the man was on a platform almost 10 metres off the ground.
“The initial crew used a stair case to get up to the man and started to provide pain relief. However, when the HART team arrived they took over as they are trained in working at height.
“They provided additional pain relief and got the man into a ‘Mibbs’ stretcher which allows them to manoeuvre the man more easily at height.
“They then worked seamlessly with the West Midlands Fire Service Technical Rescue Team to get the man off one platform onto another where he could be placed onto a ‘cherry picker’ machine which then lowered him to the ground.
“The man was then taken to Sandwell Hospital for further treatment.
“This was an excellent example of close working between the two specialist teams that allowed a patient to be rescued from a precarious position and taken to hospital in a timely manner.”
Ends