Woman stuck upside down under rock for hours after trying to retrieve dropped phone If you're out and about in nature and drop your phone down a three-meter crevice between some boulders, maybe don't try to retrieve it. The Register offers that advice after the Ambulance service in the Australian state of New South Wales this week reported the case of a woman who fell into such a crevice and spent hours …
Very gen Z from both sides:
She for having everything on her phone and therefore being so willing to try something so stupid.
And the rescue paramedics: Being head down is not a good place to be for extended periods - luckily there was sufficient airflow, otherwise this would have been a story regarding suffocation (re. Neil Moss tragedy in Peak Cavern, although he was upright) - and so time is really of the essence. Out with my caving mates we always carry sufficient rescue gear to deal with most eventualities. Here it would have be tackled with tapes around each ankle attached to a rope and simply pulled out (with encouragement for the casualty to wriggle into the widest part of the gap at various points), whilst nobody touched any of the loose rocks. It would have been much more difficult had she been out of arms reach for us 'larger' people as we would have had to lasso at least one ankle.
The most awkward rescue I have performed like that was when a friend (of very small build) slid down a very small hole to reach a 100 foot pitch, only to realise that the hole was the top of the pitch, his feet were in free air and he was held from falling by his helmets chin strap! We couldn't reach his belt as the passage was too tight and he was about 6 foot down it. We just took off our belts (caving belts are 2 inches wide and designed to support your weight), sent our next smallest member down to put a belt over one shoulder and under the other and then make a chain of the other belts to pull him up. Sorted in under 5 minutes!
If the girl in this story fitted through the gap to get into that predicament (with the aid of gravity), then a strong pull (to overcome gravity and friction) should have brought her out quickly.
Judging by the photo, none of those rescuers appear to be gen z age so that comment seems a little unfair. I remember doing first aid courses before any gen z folks would even have been born and even then, rule number 1 was work safely as in, don't make things worse.
As for simply pulling her out, the article says that her feet were inaccessible until they had to use a winch to move some rocks.
And as for the girl fitting into the gap therefore a strong pull should get her out. Momentum can stop that working (ever done a nut up finger tight and needed a spanner to undo it?). Things like people aren't nice uniform cross sections either and can bend and deform slipping into gaps that they can't simply slip out of, especially when some gravity induced momentum has pushed them in. My wedding ring slides on nicely but certainly doesn't come off as easily. Someone's head in the park railings shows how ears make very good one way ratchets.
Not the age of the rescuers, but their reaction.
Outside of the main caving areas in the UK, rescues like this will be attempted by the "Fire and Rescue Service" and I gather that this Paramedic team was a similarly trained organisation. As the Thai Cave Rescue of the Wild Boars showed in a a stark and unfortunately deadly way - there is no substitute to having experts in their field undertaking the task. (And yes, I did say on a UK caving forum the day the boys were discovered, that Ketamine would be required to get them out.)
If the photo's on the bit of Facebook that I can access (before it demands that I set up an account), represent an initial state (and assuming average female size 5 UK feet), I could have climbed to the far side and down to almost her level, and so putting something around her ankles would have been trivial. (It might have even been possible to help her move sideways (with a little physical assistance) to the position I would have been standing in, but the photo is does not cover enough angles.)
As for the rocks - the largest I could see was wedge shaped, and even if it had of moved (and why would it if nobody stood on it?) it would have only travelled a couple of inches lower before the gap was too tight for it.
So, you say work safely - my dynamic risk assessment would be that it was safe - but of course, that would be constantly reassessed. My qualifications are Cave Rescue Casualty Care, Wilderness First Aid, etc. and 40+ years of training cavers from basic through to SRT self-rescue (i.e. the whole gamut), and sport and expedition caving in multiple countries, and multiple cave rescues - including one in a recently collapsed boulder pile that was still mobile when not dealt with carefully! - a very dynamic risk assessment environment!
As for fitting through the gap, you extrapolate incorrectly. Add in the factor of a pull that can be provided many times in excess of gravity and you are on to a good starter. Add in that the woman will be very keen to help and exert a considerable amount to help (usually in excess of what they think feasible due to the desire to survive). The ears is a good extrapolation for another part of the female form as she was upside down, however, I have heard of a case where just undoing the bra made a very large, but uncomfortable, difference. (Actually the bra was cut as the rescuers were unable to reach the fixing. Plus, I have a friend who had to remove an underwired bra - she forgot to change it before the trip - before she could get through a horizontal squeeze.)
"Their reaction"?
I spent 16 years as an EMT, 12 as an EMT instructor, and qualified in low- and high-angle rope rescue after having previously been a climber for 20 years. I didn't go anywhere near confined space rescue or trench rescue (this situation might fall into either of those categories) because they were too risky for my personal danger toleration.
I'm take you at your word that you are as expert as you describe yourself, but you are exhibiting a major case of Engineer Syndrome if you've decided that you can *just tell* that the scene was safe without actually being there, that you could have had it done and dusted in ten minutes, and that you're entitled to therefore sneer at the crew that was actually present.
The crew on scene did thing exactly right, starting with making sure that their efforts would not increase the hazards to the patient, or make any more patients. You owe them an apology for your sneer.
Specialist rescue paramedics arrived and set about creating a safe place from which to work ...How very Gen Z.
You're not much good to anyone as a rescuer if you're dead. You're even less useful if you're now also trapped in the same predicament - as you've just doubled the workload for the rest of the rescue team. Finally, if the victim is in an unstable environment - then just blundering in may make things worse (or actually kill them).
There are times when rushing in to save the day may be the best option - there are other times when your best action is to stop and have a think. Then tackle the problem methodically.
This absolutely. The first thing any responder is taught is to ensure the environment is safe - or as safe as it can be and you know what the risks are and what mitigations you have in place.
Justification? If you fall off a Scottish mountain, I might be the person who keeps you alive until the helicopter gets there.
One of our site supervisors told a grim tale of when he was a trainee himself:
A team of six, including him, were due to work in a deepish hole, about 15 metres deep. First guy went down the ladder and as he reached the bottom he fainted and collapsed. The foreman quickly went down to help but also fainted. Two more followed immediately to rescue them both but on reaching the bottom they were overcome and fainted. The two remaining at the top, against the natural inclination to go down and 'help', realised that there was something seriously wrong with the atmosphere in the hole and called the rescue services. Despite a very fast response, those four men died.
A salutary tale: if it's below ground-level put a gas-detector down first. Have a plan. Have a spare detector. Wear a harness. Have an escape plan before anyone enters. Always leave at least one person at the top. Suddenly, it gets expensive.
Interestingly, on a much later safety-course, it was suggested that a bucket on a rope can remove/dilute noxious heavier-than-air gases in an emergency---- which should never have reached that stage.
Similar story to this:
https://archive.is/4K5XK
(Original page is now down - http://maritimeaccident.org/library2/the-case-of-the-rusty-assassin/)
The story is about people falling unconscious after entering an anchor hold as all the oxygen had been removed from the air due to the rusting of the metal.
It doesn't even need to be noxious gases, if you breath air with no O2 then the O2 in your blood will defuse out back into your lungs, one or two breaths and you are out.
> fainted and collapsed. The foreman ... Two more followed ...were overcome and fainted. The two remaining ..., realised that there was something seriously wrong with the atmosphere in the hole and called the rescue services.
The case I read of was a septic tank. The owner went in to clear a clog, and several/many friends and neighbors followed, most for too long. I think the serial tragedy stopped when a guy standing on his fellows couldn't get his nose below the fresh air. I was reading-up because I had to open (not enter!) my tank and "What's the worst can happen?" Uh, wouldn't look good on my obituary. I did a minimal opening with a long rope to a friend big enuff to drag me away if I stopped talking.
What the blazes was she doing barefoot in the hills ?
I think you can see her shoes (look like plastic Crocs-style) just beside her feet, so presumably they came off when she fell.
I suppose the question should then be "what the blazes was she doing hiking in those shoes?"
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"What the blazes was she doing barefoot in the hills ?
Is this a missed Darwin award ?"
Once upon a time we were all barefoot in the hills (or on the plains) and to the best of my knowledge we are not currently considered to be a critically endangered species.
On this basis I would hazard a guess that under the Darwinian theory of evolution that this is not a significant factor driving natural selection - even in Australia.
What's wrong with these people?!?!
Useless paramedics only did half the bloody job! The woman doesn't count as being fully rescued until her phone service has been restored to her. You've built a winch and moved some boulders - surely the least you can do is to get down there and save the phone as well? Phones have feelings too!
After all, you can't post your hospital selfie on Facebook without access to your phone...
A long time ago I knew this guy who got stuck upside down in an ice cave and nearly got eaten. His phone was lying on the cave floor. Not sure how he did it, but he managed to retrieve his stuff while upside down – he probably waited for the planet to rotate 180° and caught it when it fell down.
"Hey, Siri!"
*phone lights up*
"What to do if you find yourself stuck in a crack in the ground underneath a giant boulder you can’t move with no hope of rescue?"
"Here's something: Consider how lucky you are that life has been good to you so far. Alternatively, if life hasn’t been good to you so far, which, given your current circumstances seems more likely, consider how lucky you are that it won’t be troubling you much longer."
Emergency services had to move a boulder to get her out
Not sure I would have bothered. Humanity's gene pool losing these genes would likely be no great loss as I really cannot envisage her great granddaughter taking us to the stars and besides she would actually be eligible for a Darwin which to to be credible has to be awarded posthumously. Otherwise a bit like a kamikaze reunion which would necessarily be a very second eleven affair.
The dark side I suppose but when I saw the soles of those bare feet down the crevice I immediately thought of a peacock feather.
Didn't say what the lost phone's marque was but I imagine there's only one a fan might iDie for.
That sort of thing happened to me, long before the days of cell phones. Exiting a cave with my spelunking friends, I slipped, fell into a cave crevice and got wedged, making self rescue impossible, A friend went and notified search and rescue, and after about 90 minutes of setting blocks and tackles, hoisted me free. This was before one would be charged for the rescue. These days I probably would have elected to just die there, given a simple ambulance ride is upwards of $5000. Oh, West Virginia, just in case you were wondering. Carbide caver.
I live about 10kms from where this happened. TBH I don’t know the woman but I do want to shout out a thanks to the Laguna Rural Fire Service (RFS) and all the other responders who dealt with this (ahem) “bizarro” incident through to a successful outcome. I’m guessing most El Reg readers won’t know that the RFS is an entirely volunteer organisation made up of local community members whose primary responsibility is to deal with bushfires/wildfires, followed by generally being the first people to show up when traffic accidents and any other incident occurs in rural NSW. Good on ‘em.
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