aerial rescue ( the rules)

western_DAWGGG

western_DAWGGG

Location
so. california
I would like the advise of you all on opinions with regard to aerial rescue. I have the responsibility to train many climbers for AR and I have my own Ideas . I welcome everyones input for exp. what would you say the first 5 steps to take in an AR. ..............ROBDOG
 
Aerial rescue is a subject that I can go on all day about. We have a set protacal that is taught to our crews. Here is what we teach in order. 1 call 911 2 inspect tree and site.if electrical contact is present it must be seperated.3 get to the climber.4 while in the tree inspect tree again.5 get to the climber and inspect him/her and inspect there gear.If the climber in conscious and can comunicate you may bring them down. If the climber is unconscious and breathing just try to up right them and wait for instructions from EMT. If the climber is unconscious and not breathing you should get them dowm. I far as I know there is not a standard to go by this is just what we do. A real life AR can be extremely difficult. Think about the situations we climbers get into like footlocking, working a spar, confinded space of a spruce or pine, climbing way out on the tips with a redirected climbing line. A real life AR can be very difficult. The above protocals are just protocals to get one started and give them dirction so there are not 2 injured climbers. I feel our industry is very under trained in the aspect of AR. I feel we could go on and on about this subject.
 
Arbormaster has a developed a good AR training class, although some arbos here have said that there methods wouldn't stand the scrutiny of professional rescue standards. I however, thought the information that they presented was great.
 
Today I'm working on a presentation and came across this file that I had saved a while ago:

http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JITE/v33n2/gregson.html

There are some good ideas to consider in the assessment of safety texts and education programs. This is one quote:

The first and perhaps best control alternative is to attack a hazard at its source … The second alternative should be to control the path of the hazard by erecting a barricade between the hazard and the students … The third alternative should be to direct control efforts at the receivers, the students. (Firenze & Walters, 1981, pp. 3-11, 3-12)

For example, machinery and tools can frequently be insulated or muffled to reduce decibels so that the noise is controlled at its source or along its path rather than at the point of hearing. It is the position of the National Safety Council that engineering controls are more effective than PPE when it is possible to implement them, and future workers need to be aware of such engineering possibilities (LaBar, 1989).


Level of consciousness shouldn't be the criteria for moving a patient out of a tree.

Would we expect an EMT to do their own tree work? Why are we doing their work without taking their training?

Doing a proper head to toe patient assessment is the first thing that should be considered. This skill is learned in proper advanced first aid classes.

I would urge caution before deciding to move a patient. Talk with the people who train the EMTs in order to develop a proper protocol. I'll bet that you'll find that they would want us, as rescuers, to get to the patient and get ropes set in case we need to get an EMT into the tree to help with the stabilization or transport.

Depending on the triage [tree-age... :) ] decision, the patient might be better off in the tree. I believe that it is SOP to put on a neck collar before ANY patient is moved. Does anyone know how to install a collar, much less have one on the truck?

The first step for good AR would be to have a pre-installed access line or throwline in every tree. Sure, this might get in the way and be a nuisance but it will save valuable time in the case of an AR.

Tom
 
Do you mean the rules of the contest, or the rules of safe rescue?

In the case of ITCC rules, we are required to do a lot of things that seem asinine in a real rescue. Why are we using the patient's rope to lower him when we don't know what happened? Why are we rushing to pull an injured man out of a tree before we really know what his status is (we are told that he is not breathing or conscious, but how are we supposed to know that from the ground?).

Having said that, here are 5 steps that seem important to me:
1. Evaluate tree/work area--is there a hazard? power line? broken branches? Why did the climber get injured?
2. evaluate climber by tugging tail of rope and yelling. Is he asleep? faking? bleeding?
3. Get EMT's on the site. Preferably by passing the job to someone who will not be active in the rescue so they can talk to 911 while rescue is under way and guide them to the site.
4. get someone on the ground to help monitor the situation and help control the lowering of the patient.
5. Get yourself into position to evaluate and rescue the climber and make sure you are safely tied in before proceeding.

This is off the top of my head, so I may be missing something. look forward to hearing later responses.

Keith
 
Tom urges us to not move the patient. I agree, but that would also depend on the injury. Lets say a saw injury. I would bring him/her down. If the patient is unconscious do not move! If the patient is unconscious and not breathing I feel you should get them down. I will dissagree about getting an EMT in the tree. My cousin is a sargent at local fire department in a chicago suburb and they have a high angle rescue team. Acording to his reshearch their is a good chanse that they will not enter a tree unless a ladder can reach. They have no idea how to anchor to a tree. They do have good SRT skills but those skills are for decending not ground up. My cousin agrees with everything Tom has mentioned especially the neck collar. But putting an EMT in a tree with no high angle training could be very dangerous.He also got a good chuckle at our first aid kits, he said "primative".
 
Re: aerial rescue

The general steps for any rescue are the same, and they've been touched on in this thread:

1. survey the scene (to determine number of patients, possible mechanisms of injury and dangers to rescuers)
2. determine mechanism of injury (fall, laceration, blow to head/body, electrical shock...)
3. get a general impression of patient (anywhere from seems OK to Oh Sh-t - in other words, low or high priority)
4. call in resources (911, ambulance, fire department with ladder truck, high-angle team...)
5. access the patient(s) (get to them safely)
6. assess the patient(s) - ABC's first (airway, breathing, circulation/bleeding)then a focused assessment on the specific problem if it's obvious or a complete head-to-toe if it's not and if it's possible in that environment)
7. stabilize life-threatening problems, if possible
8. evacuate patient(s) by the least injurious method that will allow a timely delivery to the ground and awaiting EMS
9. while awaiting EMS, continue to re-assess, re-stabilize, and protect patient from the environment (insulate from ground and heat/cold/wind/sun/precipitation)

Getting a minimum of advanced first aid training should be a must for anyone involved in potentially dangerous activities, but if you really want to be trained in responding in high-risk, remote, and austere environments (like up in a tree), I would strongly recommend a Wilderness First Responder course. You will learn how to access, stabilize, treat, and evacuate patients from difficult environments with improvised equipment and techniques.

- Robert, WEMT
 
i agree with all the steps mentioned but i think practicing a actual rescue is the most important because by actually going through the motions it helps drive it into your head and makes it more routine for the rescuer and easier for him to overcome the emotions of the situation because lets face it if you ever have to perform a rescue it most likely will be your freind or co worker and that could blind your judgement and you do not want to make any decisions in haste that could make a bad situation worse. another concern that i have is that in our industy we have a very short supply of climbers and most crews for some companys have only one climber on the crew and if he is injured and unconcious who is going to perform the AR because depending on the injury time may be of the essence and so my question is does everybody practice AR's and do they include the groundies and what would you think the best measures would be for this situation.
 
The company I work for has about 30 people in the field. All crews go out with a minimum of 2 climbers. The ground personal as well as the climbers are trained for AR. Obviously some have more skills then others. Like what was said earlier could climber A get climber B off a staic ascent like footlocking or could they get some one off a spar who is not using an AFC or an SRT system. When praticing are you having a climber being tied in sitting at the main trunk and the rescuer goes up and lets them down on thier climbing system? In my opinion that would be the best case scenerio for an actual AR. But what if they are in a difficult place in the tree to get to? Are we all trained on how to get someone down? All of our climbers have different skill levels. Would climber B be able to rescue me if lets say I recieved a struck-by far out on a limb during a removal and broke my arm.There is no overhead anchor point I am laynred in and my rope is just about horizonal,is climber B prepared for that? Probably not. AR is difficult!! I feel we as a whole are undertrained.
 
I am not saying that it is any safer or some kind of AR utopia here, but legally, here we are required to have 2 certified climbers on a job site at all times. 16 hours of first aid is required before getting the climbing cert. Every 2 years climbers have to have a medical exam.

.02
 
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