Incident Report #81 2006

A woman, walking with a small group, slipped and sustained a suspected fractured ankle near the summit of Pavey Ark. The informant was a member of Kendal MRT, who was walking in the area. We were unable to re-contact him because of poor mobile phone coverage. Because of this, it was only when we arrived on scene that we discovered that the woman had a pre-existing spinal problem. This may have been made worse by her fall, and a the very least would have made a two hour stretcher evacuation very uncomfortable. We requested a helicopter to speed her evacuation. A Royal Navy helicopter was working in the area, and came to evacuate the woman to West Cumbria hospital. We were assisted by Kendal MRT, who had been called in anticipation of a long stretcher carry, and two members of Patterdale MRT. The woman's companion was then escorted safely to the valley bottom. This took while, but what's the rush! Nice enough evening for a walk, and we got down before it went dark.