6 Mar 2010 : Multi-Agency Rescue

The team were called out on Friday (5th March) to Thor’s Cave in the Manifold valley to help rescue a man who fallen 50ft down a precipitous slope after falling off the path whilst descending from the cave.

The man, in his fifties, had been out walking with his wife when the accident happened. They had visited the popular local attraction and were making their way back down to the valley floor when he stumbled and fell from the path down a steep slope, coming to a rest against a tree 50 ft above the river and sustaining injuries to his ribs, wrist, face and head

In a multi service rescue, seventeen members of the Derby team were called along with a Wetton & Alstonfields Community First Responder, police officers, two WMAS ambulance crews and a WMAS incident controller, Derbyshire Fire Service, Staffordshire Fire Service, including their specialist Rope Rescue Unit, the Hazardous Area Response Team and two air ambulances from the Midlands Air Ambulance and the Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Rutland Air Ambulance services. Over 30 people were involved in the rescue, made difficult by the very steep terrain and loose earth in at the incident site

When the team arrived on scene after being called out at 13:45, the ambulance and fire service had already reached the casualty and had put him into a scoop stretcher ready for evacuation and were awaiting the specialist rescue teams. DMRT members arrived on site and transferred the casualty to their rescue stretcher and were then able to carry the stretcher to the valley floor, aided by a rope system. The casualty was then carried across the river to be transferred to hospital by helicopter

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