A man who was seriously injured after taking a fall at a remote cabin along East Beach is expected to fully recover after volunteers helped him into a BC Ambulance helicopter on Saturday, May 18.
The man, a former Masset resident, thanked the volunteers with Archipelago Ground Search and Rescue and Old Massett Volunteer Fire Department, along with the pilots and paramedics, and the medical staff at Mills Memorial Hospital in Terrace.
OMVFD firefighters were first on scene in the morning and helped stabilize the man after driving a side-by-side ATV around Rose Spit and several kilometres south along East Beach.
A team of ArchSAR volunteers followed shortly after driving the same route in pickup trucks and delivering patient care. A combined team of eight volunteers helped carry the man to the helicopter, which landed safely in the afternoon on a grassy dune near the cabin.
Chris Ashurst, president of the Archipelago Ground Search and Rescue Society, said it was a fast response that went well, with good support from the on-duty doctor and SAR manager with B.C.’s emergency management agency.
“Most importantly, our subject received the medical attention he needed,” Ashurst said.
The volunteers used a full-body vacuum splint to safely move the man without causing further injury.
“It’s amazing, it made all the difference,” Ashurst said.
Vacuum splints can be formed around a patient’s body when partly inflated. Once the air is pumped out, the splints stiffen up in that shape.
Equipped with straps to secure the patient and handles for the carriers, the type of full-body splint that ArchSAR and the OMVFD used can help prevent a patient’s head, neck, spine or limbs from getting jostled during a stretcher carry.
Ashurst said ArchSAR volunteers trained with the new, packable vacuum splint during a Wilderness First Aid course a month before the call.
In a social media post, the man who was air-lifted to hospital from East Beach said he was sorry that the ArchSAR and OMVFD rescue trucks had to miss out on the Masset Harbour Day parade that day.