SafetyPro2
Forum Safety Officer
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As I've mentioned, our town sits in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, so our entire northern border is wilderness area (part of the Angeles National Forest). This includes the Santa Anita Canyon/Chantry Flats recreation area.
Yesterday, about 2:00, we got toned out for a "minor trauma", a male patient with an ankle injury, up in the Canyon. This is the first wilderness call I've had a chance to respond to.
Standard response for Canyon EMS calls is to respond to the last city street below the gate and wait for a responding unit (to limit personal vehicles, as the road can get tight and there's not many places to pull over). Since I live about a 1/4 mile from there, I went and jumped on the BC Suburban as the Chief was heading up ahead of the ambulance and the utility.
About halfway up the road, we could see the LA County Sheriff Department's Air Rescue 5 coming in for a search. Air-5's a former military Sikorsky H-3 Sea King with a crew of 5 (2 pilots, a crew chief and 2 paramedics) that handles most of the wilderness air rescue for the area. Made me wonder just how "minor" this trauma was.
We get up to the trailhead the dispatch indicated and tie-in with the USFS Ranger there, who tells us the patient's about 3/4 of a mile down the trail. We can see Air 5 hovering around down that way, so we grab our over-the-side trauma bag and the O2 bag and 4 of us head down the trail.
When we get down towards the bottom, we're having trouble locating the patient (and can hear, but not see Air-5 due to the trees), so we radio back to the BC who informs us that the patient's down by the river and that the two LASD medics have dropped down and are with him.
We work our way a bit further down and see the patient, the two medics and one of our Engineers, who just happened to be getting out of his truck for a hike in the area when the call came in. Get down to the scene and find a 23 year old male who had fallen approximately 25 feet down the side from the trail above. He has at least 6 beers on board, multiple contusions and, to top it all off, an open fracture to his right ankle. Plus, he doesn't speak English. And, he's laying on a very narrow, rocky and steep stream bank...he was out of the water, but the rest of us were in it.
We tie in with the LASD medics. I start O2 on the patient, then put a C-collar on him and hold C-spine while two of our other guys splint his ankle. The medics had already started a line on him and done the assessment. Then about 6 Sierra Madre Search and Rescue Team members get there to assist. We get him strapped to the Miller board in the Stokes, then move him across the stream to an opening in the canopy. Air-5 comes back over and drops their line. We hook him and one of the medics up, and up they go. Line comes back down for the second medic, and up he goes as well and they're off to the trauma center.
Then the 5 of us and the 6 SAR folks get to hike back about a mile to the nearest fire road where the SAR truck and our BC are waiting for us.
Heck of an interesting call, and a good reminder not to always take dispatch info at face value.
Yesterday, about 2:00, we got toned out for a "minor trauma", a male patient with an ankle injury, up in the Canyon. This is the first wilderness call I've had a chance to respond to.
Standard response for Canyon EMS calls is to respond to the last city street below the gate and wait for a responding unit (to limit personal vehicles, as the road can get tight and there's not many places to pull over). Since I live about a 1/4 mile from there, I went and jumped on the BC Suburban as the Chief was heading up ahead of the ambulance and the utility.
About halfway up the road, we could see the LA County Sheriff Department's Air Rescue 5 coming in for a search. Air-5's a former military Sikorsky H-3 Sea King with a crew of 5 (2 pilots, a crew chief and 2 paramedics) that handles most of the wilderness air rescue for the area. Made me wonder just how "minor" this trauma was.
We get up to the trailhead the dispatch indicated and tie-in with the USFS Ranger there, who tells us the patient's about 3/4 of a mile down the trail. We can see Air 5 hovering around down that way, so we grab our over-the-side trauma bag and the O2 bag and 4 of us head down the trail.
When we get down towards the bottom, we're having trouble locating the patient (and can hear, but not see Air-5 due to the trees), so we radio back to the BC who informs us that the patient's down by the river and that the two LASD medics have dropped down and are with him.
We work our way a bit further down and see the patient, the two medics and one of our Engineers, who just happened to be getting out of his truck for a hike in the area when the call came in. Get down to the scene and find a 23 year old male who had fallen approximately 25 feet down the side from the trail above. He has at least 6 beers on board, multiple contusions and, to top it all off, an open fracture to his right ankle. Plus, he doesn't speak English. And, he's laying on a very narrow, rocky and steep stream bank...he was out of the water, but the rest of us were in it.
We tie in with the LASD medics. I start O2 on the patient, then put a C-collar on him and hold C-spine while two of our other guys splint his ankle. The medics had already started a line on him and done the assessment. Then about 6 Sierra Madre Search and Rescue Team members get there to assist. We get him strapped to the Miller board in the Stokes, then move him across the stream to an opening in the canopy. Air-5 comes back over and drops their line. We hook him and one of the medics up, and up they go. Line comes back down for the second medic, and up he goes as well and they're off to the trauma center.
Then the 5 of us and the 6 SAR folks get to hike back about a mile to the nearest fire road where the SAR truck and our BC are waiting for us.
Heck of an interesting call, and a good reminder not to always take dispatch info at face value.