| MIchael's Rescue - From the Hill |
| Michael Tunney | |
| Written by gordonb | |
| Wednesday, 24 June 2009 14:05 | |
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We were at around 500m up the hill when the chopper arrived overhead. It seemed to be spending more time than it should circling above us and the lower hill when the casualties were likely to be much higher. The shout leader radioed for us all to switch our head-torches off and after a short wait the helicopter moved off up higher. It was not long after then that we were relayed the message a light had been picked up by the helicopter crew’s night sights in the coire Allt na Crainnach coire below Ben Achaladair and we were to head there. Luckily the confusion over lights meant we had not got as far to the east as we might have done and made an immediate and swift detour to the coire. A short clamber up the steep slope below the coire lip and we were standing on the edge of the coire. It was then that we first caught the unforgettable site of a pin prick light shining at us from the back of the coire over a kilometre away. This was the light of Michael Tunney’s mobile phone screen which we later discovered Tunney junior steadfastly holding up in desperate attempt to guide us to their location. It worked! Without it we could have taken a lot longer to sweep search the coire to find them. Time Michael did not have considering his condition. All the way up Ian, Kenny and I had been in relaxed, good humoured spirits. We were on a shout in anticipation of what we probably assumed (or at least hoped) to be two reasonably fit and well casualties with a couple of injuries. Despite training for the worst case scenarios warm and healthy volunteer casualties can never act like the real thing. So I think we all took a second to recover from the initial shock of finding what was clearly the real thing. We all exhaled a few unrepeatable expletives as we took in the scene! From that point on my memory of events at the back of the coire is a bit of a blur. Kenny and Ian were more experienced medics than I so they immediately took responsibility for the two casualties. My attention was drawn mostly to Michael Tunney because he was obviously in the most immediate need of attention. Basically he looked like a bag of bones huddled in a semi-feotal position with half his back exposed to the elements. The most response anyone got from him was occasional grunt and moan which at least meant he was alive, breathing but obviously in a lot of pain. Meanwhile his son was sitting up on a nearby boulder, we kind of expected him to become animated with the relief of our arrival and prospect of help. But he didn’t. He was probably still in shock, exhausted with the weight of responsibility for his Dad, cold and in pain from his own injuries. Ian was struggling to get him to respond to his questioning about what had happened. We all began to run through the standard casualty care routine. Kenny and Ian going over their initial check for injuries etc. At one point Kenny exclaimed and pointed me in the direction of Michael’s forehead which seemed to come away as Kenny lifted his hat! Other members of Oban, Arrochar and Strathpol teams started to arrive fairly quickly after that. More experienced medics arrived particularly Eddie (GP) from Arrochar who luckily was not with his team mates dumped at the top of the hill. He took over from Kenny with treatment of Michael whilst Robin (OMRT chief medic) took over Michael junior. At least 6 of us got stretcher and casualty bags ready to lift Michael senior. We took special care lifting him as carefully as we could so that his spinal column remained aligned because of very likely spinal injuries he might have. The actual lift into the stretcher elicited a lot more groaning from Michael which considering his relatively unresponsive state suggested he was in a lot of pain. Whilst we packaged Michael senior, the Arrochar team arrived with a second stretcher which by then Michael junior was in need of. The Arrochar team had had a tough time descending down the back of the corrie from where they had been dropped by the helicopter. They had basically picked their way down the route the Tunney’s had fallen. We reached the bottom of the corrie with Michael senior to a point that seemed flat enough for the helicopter to land. It seemed like a long wait while we first heard and then watched the helicopter very slowly work it’s way up the hill and into the coire. We found out later from the crew that the winds were so fickle they were struggling to maintain a steady course up to the coire. When it did finally arrive it settled one wheel on the ground and hovered whilst we manoeuvred the stretcher into the hold. Then we waited a futher 10 minutes whilst the other team carried Michael junior down the corrie and got him into the helicopter as well. Seconds later the helicopter took off towards Glasgow and the drama was over. All the remaining gear was collected and we made our way back down the hill to the vehicles and Bridge of Orchy for a welcome bowl of soup. I remember having a fairly elated and satisfied feeling that we had managed to get the two casualties off the hill with what seemed like good team work by all those involved. Ross
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| Last Updated on Monday, 14 December 2009 09:21 |
