A walker has been air-lifted to hospital after taking a fall on Brean Down this week.
Burnham-On-Sea Coastguards were called out to help the lady after slipped and injured herself near Brean Down Fort on Thursday evening (December 10th).
A Coastguard helicopter was called to the scene and winched the lady into the craft in the darkness.
“While enjoying a bracing walk along Brean Down a couple had just passed the highest point of the Down and were heading down the slope towards the Fort when the lady slipped on the extremely wet ground.”
“As she slipped she heard a loud crack and then felt immense pain as she fell to the wet ground. It was immediately clear that she was not going to be able to continue her walk and help was needed.”
They managed to raise the alarm by calling 999 and ask for the Coastguards who then paged the team at Burnham.
“Another couple who were also on a walk stopped to help as much as possible, keeping her warm and comforting her as the the weather took a turn and started to drizzle.”
“As members of our team arrived they assessed the injury and also the lady’s wellbeing.
Although happy and talking, we immediately noticed that the combination of not moving, being sat on the cold wet floor, the drizzle, the wind and falling temperature as the darkness set in she was heading towards hypothermia.”
“While the officer in charge planned an extraction route the rest of the team set about getting the lady as warm as possible using blankets coats and plastic sheeting. It was clear from the location that a stretcher carry either up or down was out of the question as the ground was incredibly slippery even a couple of team members had fallen while ferrying equipment up to the casualty.”
“So a helicopter was the safest form of extraction. Rescue 187 is the Coastguard Helicopter and they were over in Barry carrying out a training flight when they were retasked to our location.”
“After their initial overhead assessment they came in low and slow, hovering above the Down just off our position – they lowered their winchman down and, armed with his bag of medical marvels, he quickly set about helping the lady with her pain while the helicopter moved to a waiting location hovering just near the Fort.”
“In no time at all the lady was put in a winching harness and Rescue 187 once again made their way above the team ready to winch the two back in.”
“Four of our team were under the helicopter and, using a secondary rope called a high line, they ensured that the people being winched into the helicopter did not end up in a huge spin. This is done by holding the line just enough that it creates stability.”
“This was done by two of our newest team members who both did a brilliant job in their first live helicopter incident. A great team performance and another showing of wonderful community spirit.”
“The couple who went to help were there until the end and were so supportive and helpful, keeping the injured person talking and interacting might not seem like it is doing much but it really does help.”
“What we thought would be a quick and simple medi-vac turned out to be quite different, with the changing weather and loss of sunlight, she was heading into real difficulty and without the aid of the helicopter we would’ve had to carry her down an extremely slippery path that would have undoubtedly ended in further aggravating her injury.”
