Blue John Cavern, Castleton
- Call out for year: 35
- Date: 23/07/12
- Time: 12:47 pm
- Grid ref: SK134 834
- Type of incident: Non mountain (Cave) Injured(1)
- Team members involved: 7
- Time taken: 3 hrs, 15 mins
- Total man hours: 22 hrs, 45 mins
Incident report
A joint Buxton Edale snatch squad, together with Derbyshire Cave Rescue Organisation, was called to Castleton around lunchtime to assist the ambulance service with a injured person in one of the showcaves.
The ambulance service were already on site when we arrived and treating the casualty, a 64 year old lady from Northwich, Cheshire. She had slipped on one of the steps and fell, injuring her lower back as she hit the hard surface. She was in severe pain, and treated by paramedics on site. They requested full spinal immobilisation before any evacuation. Her location was c.400 metres below the surface which required a 800 metre carry out on a specialist cave rescue strecher by rescue personnel up steep show cavern steps. At times the stretcher had to be manhandled at 90 degrees, and occasionally vertically. This took about an hour ‘with a lot of huffing and puffing’ as one rescuer remarked.
On reaching the surface, the casualty was transferred into a waiting land ambulance and conveyed to Stepping Hill Hospital, Stockport, for further treatment.
Photo credit: Andrew Keen
One comment
Diane (above) and myself would like to thank all members of the team for their selfless support last Monday. Diane is now home and still in a lot of pain but will recover slowly – and at least she is no longer 400 metres underground which she would have been without your help. We are enormously grateful to all who helped with the rescue
Frank and Diane