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August 2017 Training Weekend

After the summer break, this was the first training weekend back for the team. It was one of the few nice days all summer which brought out plenty of hillwalkers and the entire local midge population!

After starting off from the bothy at Spittal of Glenmuick, the team advanced to the summit of Broad Carin, taking turns to carry the stretcher in pairs. Once at the summit, the team was split into two search parties and an exercise carried out to search for casualties who had been walking along the White Mounth Munros circuit above the loch. The excellent visibility allowed the teams to cover a large search area, moving from Broad Cairn along the rough ground to Cairn Bannoch.

Once the casualties were found and the team re-grouped, a secondary exercise was carried out to move a casualty on the stretcher across steep, uneven ground down to the Dubh-loch, with the added complication of the casualty requiring CPR every 5 minutes, for 5 minutes, on the journey down.  Recent research has indicated that this approach would increase the chances of survival for a hypothermic casualty who had suffered cardiac arrest. The team wanted to identify any issues with this approach in a training environment first.

Despite the complications, a good routine for changing out personnel to allow CPR to be completed for 5 minutes at a time was established and stretcher bearers were changed out at each stop to maintain momentum when moving the casualty. The training day concluded with various casualty assessment scenarios on the hill before returning to base.

 

Words by Kevin Burr

Photo by Andy Harrison