After skiing Albright and Wimpys on Friday, I had just gotten home and was trying to stay motivated to attend the “Steep” showing at the Village when the call-out came for a broken leg on the west side of Glory.
We used the heli to shuttle rescuers to a safe LZ above the patient on the west slope of Glory, above some steep trees going down into Coal Creek.
We found the patient on his back, head towards us, and his left leg obviously broken, and wrapped about this tree. We packaged him on a backboard. He was a trooper dealing with the pain…meds only go so far.
Negotiating a toboggan though the tight and steep trees would have been very difficult and time consuming, and it was probably already about 6pm. We decided to use a short haul to extricate the patient. The location in the tight trees was definitely a major concern.
When the heli came in to deliver the littler and haul out the patient, the rotor wash would shake all the snow from the trees…making caring for the patient a little more difficult.
Props to Ken for his expert flying skills and our short haul team for helping avoid what could have been a very long night. I was still pretty tired after waking up on Saturday and took the day off.
Randosteve,
Looks like you guys do excellent work up there. I wish I could get a crew together like that down here for Albany County.
Have you thought about MRA accreditation? Looks to me like you’re totally ready.
It’s a thought Patricio…but right now the focus is on getting a full time heli based here in JH. It’s costing us way too much to contract one out every season.
Cool photos. Thanks for the report Steve.
The patient you rescued is my son and I just wanted to express my thanks to everyone who was involved in helping him. You guys did a great job and he was very fortunate that everything went so well. If you have any other pics, would you e-mail them to me?
Glad we could help!
The patient you rescued was our son-in-law. Thank you so much for being such professionals and for making a really tough rescue look routine. Clayton is a wonderful person and will no doubt to go on and make a difference. Our thanks go out to you for risking your lives for him.