Injury at Winspit

The team was tasked on Saturday afternoon to assist a young lady who'd jumped into the sea at Winspit and had landed badly and hurt herself.

Joining colleagues from St Albans, the team first set about making the lady comfortable and understanding the mechanics of the injury.  To understand what happened helps us look for signs and symptoms of what might be wrong and where injuries may be.

In this case the lady had jumped 10 feet into water which turned out to be much shallower than first imagined.  The lady landed awkwardly on her knees, cut her legs in a number of places and jarred her body in the process.
With the help of an off duty doctor, the team checked for signs of a spinal injury and thankfully none were present.  However, the lady's legs were both in a lot of pain.

The lady was made comfortable on the stretcher whilst we waited for an ambulance.   However on a sunny Saturday in Dorset its not always easy to get an ambulance in a hurry and when an ETA couldn't be provided the team requested a Coastguard helicopter.  These carry their own paramedics and could also winch from the site on the ledge at Winspit; an ambulance would require the lady to be stretchered up a steep and tricky path up to the quarry and with no pain relief available the team wasn't content to do this.

Rescue 187 from St Athan prepares to air lift the casualty to hospital

Swanage Lifeboat was called after a while as it carries entonox, a pain relieving 'gas and air' mixture and this allowed us to get some pain relief to the casualty whilst we waited for the helicopter to arrive. 

Once the winchman/paramedic had done some checks on the lady, she was prepared for the lift into the helicopter and the team manned the high-line to stop the stretcher spinning in mid air.

We wish the lady a speedy recovery and send our thanks to the
couple who offered help and to the off duty doctor who made himself available.


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