Kendal Mountain Rescue - well 'to the rescue!' (added pics)

Sometimes, things don’t go to plan. I was showing a friend, Lucy, around the wood this week. She is an ecologist and was pointing out interesting things about my wood - the broken branches in Cecelia and CecilB (my two grand sessile oaks) would offer good places for bats to nest. They like to go from one tree to another on different nights apparently. I was thinking I need to come up to the wood with my new night time binoculars to see if there is any activity.

Well very soon after having that happy thought my heel sunk into a hole and I fell sideways into the gorse and heard ‘snap’. I knew I had broken my ankle bone on the outside (fibula). My first thought, lying in the gorse, was to get my wellington boot off before my foot swelled up! I didn't want it to be cut off! I asked Lucy if she would help me and she did a great job. Not comfortable but a good decision I think. I worked out that I really could not weight bear and I was too far from the gate/ road to make my way down even with help. So we made the call to the police and asked for Mountain Rescue. They took the details and said they would get back in touch when they had a plan. This was about 1pm. Lucy remembered her first aid and elevated my leg on her rucksack, gave me paracetamol and water and gave me her hat and gloves and covered me with her jacket and she called her husband to come and help. He showed with his Dad and brought a big Parker jacket to keep me warm. It was drizzling gently. We chatted away while I was occasionally taken over by the shakes - not cold but just a bit of reaction I think. The pain wasn’t bad, surprisingly, and I would then hope it was perhaps a bad sprain not a break but Lucy had also heard the crack and I couldn’t bear the idea of anything within a radius of about 20cm of my foot.

It took about an hour and a half for a team of 7 people from Kendal Mountain Rescue to gather at the wood http://www.kendalmountainrescue.org.uk. Mountain Rescue are made up of volunteers with busy lives who give their time for free. They train hard for the full range of incidents that occur in the fells.  Lucy’s husband met the team and they had used the phone locate system so they knew exactly where I was - despite being tucked into the gorse!

I'm in there somewhere.....

   

After some preliminaries they recommended an x-ray to check for a fracture. They would need to carry me down to the gate. They put a splint my lower leg with a vacuum pack and then I was able to manoeuvre myself with help onto their carry mat which was also firmed up by extracting the air. They then lifted me onto a carry stretcher. I was literally pulled through a gorse hedge backwards! 

I was able to give them some directions at the beginning so they could follow the easiest route down. I was just looking straight up at the sky and giving them targets to aim for. Then I rather lost it as the best beck crossing is now blocked by a fallen silver birch - post Storm Arwen.  

      

They found the best approach themselves and I heard their footsteps splashing through the beck. They hung a left and I realised they were going through the Sylvan Corridor. Calls of ‘eyes’ went up as they needed to take care walking through low hawthorn trees. In time I recognised this tree as we were about to emerge to the open area near the gate. I welcomed him as an old friend. 

It was quite comfortable being carried but I was aware how hard the team were working having to step over rocks on uneven ground. They chatted away to me to distract me as we came down.

They recommended being driven to the Minor Injuries Unit rather than calling an ambulance and under their expert direction I was able to sit in the front of Lucy's car. It was now about 3.15pm.

I was relieved to see the Minor Injuries Unit was empty. I was greeted by a friendly nurse who put me forward for an x-ray. And yes it was a fracture. So onto the paster room. 

I was all done about 6pm and friends came and collected me. They helped set up my house for using crutches and non weight bearing on my right foot, fed me etc.

So I am going to miss that slow reveal of spring at the wood for about 6 weeks. I’ll do a blog or two with footage taken recently as things have changed up there and the planting plan is  progressing. It will give me vicarious pleasure!

Today though I am just feeling thankful for the great skill and generosity of the Kendal Mountain Rescue Team (well all of the MR teams really), for the calm support of Lucy and her husband and father in law, for the quiet, kind, expert, caring and efficient help of the NHS staff and for my lovely friends who are continuing to support me.