Cragside Hall, Rothbury

A man slipped and sustained a lower leg injury on a footpath in the grounds of Cragside, near Rothbury, on Tuesday afternoon. The North East Ambulance Service Community Paramedic was on scene and requested Mountain Rescue’s assistance for a tricky evacuation. As we share our base with the Community Paramedic in Rothbury, local members and our response vehicle were swiftly deployed to assess requirements.

Our Mountain Rescue duty controller also placed other volunteer members from North of Tyne Mountain Rescue Team and our Team on standby in case additional assistance would be required. Once exact requirements were determined other members within a short travel time to the incident and one of our response vehicles from Pegswood Fire Station were also requested to attend.

With the casualty lying at the bottom of a steep hill, around 200 metres from the nearest access road, a rope rescue system was rigged to safeguard the stretcher during the evacuation. Once the casualty was splinted and packaged on the stretcher the short but steep evacuation commenced. At the top of the steep hill the casualty was handed over to the crewed ambulance for onward transport to hospital.

All of this happened in a torrential rain storm! At this point the Teams stood down and on return to the respective bases, equipment was cleaned and dried ready for the next outing.

We wish the casualty well for a full and swift recovery, and hope that they return to enjoy the magnificent grounds and house of the Cragside estate in the near future. The Teams would also like to thank the National Trust staff who assisted with the incident.

The incident involved 12 Team members for 2 hours 10 minutes. An additional 13 members were on standby for 30 minutes in case they were required.