Making it Real

Dorset police requested CG support on Wednesday night in searching for an elderly dementia patient, missing from a local nursing home.

 

Using line abreast search techniques, the team combed the search area, not only looking for the the lady but also for any evidence that might point to her location.

 

The lady was finally located collapsed in a hedge at the edge of Days Park, unconscious and with a broken leg.  The Officer in Charge (OIC ) called for a rescue helicopter to take the lady to hospital, so whilst one half of the team provided first aid to the casualty,   the others went off to prepare a helicopter landing site using an accepted and agreed protocol with flashing red/white lights and orange beacons. By now, it had become dark.

 

Once the OIC had confirmed to the flight crew that the landing site was in place, the helicopter landed, the casualty, by now on a stretcher was brought up to it and......the exercise ended.

 

That's right: THIS WAS JUST A TRAINING EXERCISE AND NO ONE WAS MISSING.

 

But it pays to make it as real as possible and in a couple of hours we had trained in:
- Search planning
- Search techniques
- Radio comms with the team and helicopter
- First Aid & stretcher
- Establishing a landing site after dark
- Finding and communicating grid references
- OIC capability

 

Apologies to anyone in Days Park who was alarmed by seeing the Station Officer 'hiding' the casualty dummy in the hedge earlier in the evening!