Devil’s Water, near Hexham

Incident Type: Rescue

The final incident of the month involved a wild swimmer who while walking to their swimming spot on the Devil’s Water, fell approximately 10 metres down a very steep, rocky side of a gorge to the river below. Thankfully a group of teenage girls witnessed the accident and they were able to raise the alarm in an area notorious for poor mobile reception.

The North East Ambulance Service activated the two Mountain Rescue Teams and resources, including three 4×4 response vehicles, were swiftly deployed to Dukes House Wood. The first team member on scene provided initial care to the casualty, who had sustained potentially serious injuries in the fall, before handing over to a NEAS and then Mountain Rescue Paramedic.

Given the difficulty of accessing and egressing the location, other volunteer members started to devise a plan to evacuate the casualty. A HM Coastguard helicopter was tasked with the intention of trying to winch the casualty from the river bank. This required the casualty to be carefully packaged on a stretcher before being carried 100m upstream to a small beach where there was an opening in the trees.

As a back up plan if a winch was not possible, the helicopter would land on in a field adjacent to the river. Reaching the helicopter would involve more difficult river crossings with the stretcher being carefully passed hand over hand to reach a safe egress point. A further alternative involved a rope rescue system being rigged to extricate the casualty up the steep sides of the gorge to safer ground. A longer stretcher carry would then be required back to vehicles about a 1km away from the incident site.

On arrival at the scene, the search and rescue helicopter from Humberside determined a winch would not be possible and the back up plan was put into action. After a further very tricky evacuation up the river gorge, the casualty was transferred onto the helicopter for the short onward flight to hospital.

Another great example of multiagency teamwork bringing a challenging incident to a successful conclusion. The three teenage girls, who initially raised the alarm, also provided invaluable support in guiding our team members into the incident site. Thank you to them and the local land owner for their assistance.

Finally, we would like to wish the casualty well for a full and swift recovery, and hope they are back out wild swimming very soon.

The incident involved 19 Team members for 6 hours 1 minute.