*** Southern Arizona Rescue Association *** *** May-June 95 Missions *** Sun Jul 9 19:05:05 1995 Message : #28553973 From: Chris Weddle Address : cweddle@astro.as.arizona.edu Group : Usenet.misc.emerg-services Length : 1347 words Subject : Re: SAR Call (online stores??) Org. : University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ I'm a poor story teller. But since I'd like to see more SAR stuff, I'm taking the suggestions of several emailers to increase the SAR posts to this group. As a starting point, I've asked the people who publish our newsletter to allow me to post it to this group. Probably in an edited form. They are considering it. In the meantime, here's some excerpts from last month's activity log. We had a rather slow month, only 11 calls and some of them fizzled rather quickly. Please note that none of the following is considered official info from anybody who is authorized to give out official info. I speak for no one, including Chris Weddle. On my own behalf, I merely mumble... The following is a synopsis of Search & Rescue activity in Pima County, Arizona for the period of May 15 thru June 15, 1995. Sunday, May 21: Call 95.053 Female hiker, exhausted, Sabino Canyon, Catalinas. Was able to hike out from Hutch's Pool and was found near trailhead at Sabino Canyon. Rendezvous only. Saturday, May 27: Call 95.057 3 hikers overdue, Box Camp Tr., Catalinas. Met them at Box Spring Junction and escorted them out. 1 person, 3hrs. Sunday May 28: Call 95.054: 44yr female camper with chest pain at Hidden Pools, near the Girl Scout Camp on Organization Ridge. MLFD & RMFD requested rapid stokes evac for patient with possible cardiac. Patient was located on a good to fair trail within 1/3 mile of the Girl Scout Camp. Rescue 3 and myself arrived soon after MLFD & RMFD. We went in with sokes tie-in gear. Paramedic and RN on scene stated flatly that patient's vitals were extremely critical and time was of the essence. As trail was reasonable and as we had a good crowd of stokes handlers, patient was not tied in. We put on 2 leaders on the stokes with large loops. Myself and 1 MLFD guy played mule pulling up trail while the wheeled sokes was muscled rapidly up trail. Extrication was very quick to RMFD ALS Unit, which promptly transfered to Arizona DPS Air Rescue Ranger 38 at Sollers Heliport. 12 people, 12 hrs, RMFD, MLFD, R38. Sunday, May 28: Call 95.056: 3 hikers overdue, Finger Rock, Catalinas. By the time ground personnel reached the trailhead, their lights were visible and they were shortly assisted out of the field. They had hiked up trail, crossed the canyon, climbed the Finger, dropped down the drainage, and hiked out the canyon, taking more time than planned. Rendezvous only. Monday, May 29: Call 95.058: 26 yr male hiker exhausted, SARA Trail, Lower Tanque Verde Canyon. Stokes team made it to the patient, but Pima 563 was able to assist hiker out. Symptoms indicated a severe case of alcoholism, with the patient very thin, emaciated and exhibiting a distended abdomen. Breakfest that morning was 16 ounces of vodka. Very sad. 17 people, 23 hrs, R38 on standby. Wednesday, May 31: Call 95.059: 17 yr female rappeller fall victim, on the Bunny Slope at Windy Point, Catalina Mountains. This was on the nose of the Bunny slope well clear of the usual rap routes. Patients friends indicated that they could not see what happened, but the rope suddenly went slack, a scream was heard followed by a large crash. They pulled up the rope and found the Figure 8 descender attached, but no other gear. MLFD IEMT got on scene quickly and assesed patient. Fall estimated at 20 to 40 feet, but patient was apparently wrapped in the rope coming down which slowed descent and kept her in contact with the rock. I arrived shortly after this assesment and set up belay lines for MLFD personnel. Then Rescue 3 and SARA 1 arrived and two haul systems were created to bring the patient first up from the base of the nose to the landing zone at the bottom of the Bunny Slope. Then a short walk over to the scree slope below the Mt Lemmon Highway and another haul system brought the stokes up to the road. 14 people, 37hrs, MLFD, RMFD, USFS. Saturday, June 3: Call 95.060: Exhausted hiker, Butterfly Trail, Catalinas. USFS EMTs and 1 SARA assisted hikers out of the field. 13 people, 13 hrs, USFS. Sunday, June 4: Call 95.061: 30 yr male hiker exhausted, SARA Trail, Lower Tanque Verde Canyon. Simple walk-out. 12 people, 12 hrs, RMFD. Friday, June 9: Call 95.062: 34yr male climber fall victim on "Chihauhua Power", milepost 13.5, Catalina Mtns. He fell while attempting to move laterally away from his fall line and protection, landing on a ledge 20 feet below him and 30 feet above his belayer. MLFD IEMT was able to reach and stabilize him while technichal rescue was enroute. Due to limited work area, and injuries being Level 1 by mechanism, it was decided that rigging a stokes would take too long. Climbers would have had to top the pinnacle, fix ropes and anchor a system. Patient was fixated using a KED, and placed in the stokes. DPS Air Rescue Ranger 38 performed a short haul fly-away, taking the patient to Geology Vista where an emergency LZ had been set up. The patient was then placed in the helicopter and flown to TMC Trauma Center. Upon arrival at the Trauma Center he Coded and was resuscitated. Injuries included multiple abrasions, contusions and a right closed pneumothorax. It should be noted that this helicopter evac was somewhat controversial at the time. A trail had been rapidly cut thru a boulder gully by MLFD and USFS Firefighters. A 5:1 haul system was in place and ready to the base of the gully. However, getting climbers to the top of the pinnacle and setting up a lower system off the ledge were expected to require an additional hour. At this point the patient's vital signs were good and stable. Due to the mechanism of injury (fall appeared to have been arrested primarily by the patient's chest) there were fears of serious hidden injury. The DPS crew felt they could perform the extrication safely. An back-up plan involved R38 simply setting the stokes on the road at the haul system. The sight of their Bell Jet Long Ranger hovering down with the tail rotor between two pinnacles was rather unnerving. The stokes did tap a rock face on the way out, but otherwise the evac went very smoothly. Sunday, Jun 11: Call 95.063: Male hiker exhausted, Romero Pass Tr., Catalinas. Found at trailhead. Rendezvous only. So how about it? Any other SAR Teams doing anything out there? Chris Weddle not a spokesperson for_________________________________________. fill in any one you wish. Member: Southern Arizona Rescue Association, Inc. Uh, let's see if I can remember all this, SARA is affiliated with the MRA, NASAR, some sort of national Cave Rescue thingy and a few other things, not counting those I've forgotten or mis-named... -----------------------------------