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Originally Posted by CJL
The bottom line somebody had seriously hurt their back and neck and was in the water. His friends had fitted a neck brace and spine board and were in the water with him. It was bitterly cold but everybody in the water did have dry suits.
I went back to the other RIB and tried to stop other boat users from driving over the bodies in the water. I asked repeatedly if they want to bring him into my boat as the casualty was very cold and obviously hypothermic. The casualties friends declined despite the neck brace and spine board.
An inshore lifeboat (nice bit of kit)(not the RNLI) attended and went straight to the casualty. They spoke directly to the coasties and a helicopter was dispatched. They made no effort to get him out of the water, despite the waves which were causing the casualty agony (he was head on to the waves so he felt every wavelength) Then another rib turned up. nice diesel water jet thingy about 3 tonnes worth. He crashed into me at about ten knots and told me I "shouldn’t wave at him and he would tell me what to do not the other way round." The boat had a plaque about 5 inches by 2 saying ILB ...!
They then drove off scrapping my tubes from bow to stern towards the casualty. Then went up wind of him so that the boat kept blowing over the people in the water. They were not very happy at this and to say didn't look comfortable would be an understatement!
The helicopter had arrived and so had a load of yachts! The first ILB asked us to keep the yachts clear of the area which we did. Most boats quickly turned away but as ever there were a few hardcore helicopter collectors!
The helicopter winch man was put on to the first ILB after about 15 mins and he entered the water. The second ILB was still up wind and the people in the water had their feet on the hull to stop going underneath it.
FORTY MINS later the person was airlifted horizontally out of the water and taken to hospital. The casualties friends were cold but OK and they were taken to mainland. Went then went back to our NDP.
Chris
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I think you did a good job from the sounds of it , hard to say why the safety boats had limited safety kit (WHO WAS CARRYING THE COLLAR AND SPINAL BOARD apologise for late edit)
the guys in the water did a good job getting a collar on and then onto a spinal board not sure why they did not get him onto your rib as you say 40 mins in the water hypothermia is setting in .
As to the ribs and how they handled it ,well rib 1 started ok but may be the helocopter knew its eta and decided best to leave casualty there as to reduce further movement so no comment as was not there ,rib 2 no excuse for being rude and bad boat handling he could of been trying to present himself to the waves to lesson the impact of the guy in the water , who should have been 90 degrees to the oncoming waves to lesson the impact so may be thats why the rib 2 positioned itself where it did, In a situation like this preservation of life is no1 priority he was secured to a spinal board and had a neck brace and then evacuated hoizontally to minimise movement and and post immersion collapse .They could still have put the casualty on any of the ribs and placed coats towels anything else to hand to keep him warm while waiting for the Helocopter but maybe it was their call, an average build adult will survive 2-3 hours in 10Deg C . So maybe again by leaving the casualty in the water was the call of the helocopter and reduce the windchill was it cold that day and windy very hard to say what action to take .I think you did a good job and handled it well .
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