Saturday 18 June 2016, 12.06hrs
The Team was activated by the North East Ambulance Service at just after midday for a female who had fallen 4 metres down a rock face at Hareshaw Linn waterfall near Bellingham. The female had sustained serious injuries in the fall, landing in the river and on rocks below the waterfall. Her family raised the alarm.
Alongside North of Tyne MRT, we responded immediately with three Landrover ambulances approaching from different directions. One of the Team members – a Paramedic with the Ambulance Service – was on scene quickly along with the Great North Ambulance Service. Soon after one of our Incident Controllers was on scene to assess the evacuation.
Whilst the NEAS Hazardous Response Team assisted the Air Ambulance crew with stabilising the casualty, we set up a technical rope rescue system to haul the stretcher from below the waterfall up to the bridge. From here we were hoping that the Coastguard helicopter from Prestwick would be able to winch the stretcher on board the aircraft. Unfortunately this was not possible due to the nature of the location and the stretcher had to be carried up a steep slope to the helimed.
A swift flight to hospital then followed. We hope the female involved makes a full and swift recovery.
A great team effort involving multiple agencies.
The incident involved 12 members for 3 hours 20 minutes.
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