Sharps Fall?

Discuss training events, techniques, equipment, safety and related issues. Click here to visit the National Cave Rescue Commission webpage.

Moderator: Tim White

Sharps Fall?

Postby icave » Sep 4, 2007 11:31 am

I heard someone fell off the waterfall in Sharps on Saturday during OTR and may have been taken to the hospital. I heard a lot more info at OTR, which I'm not going to repeat here, as it was through the grapevine and most likely unrealiable. Does anyone have any concrete details?

Thanks,

Mike Spencer
Signature, I don't need no stinkin signature!
User avatar
icave
NSS Hall Of Fame Poster
 
Posts: 214
Joined: Sep 7, 2005 8:50 am
Location: Fountain Hill, PA
Name: Mike Spencer
NSS #: 48165
Primary Grotto Affiliation: Greater Allentown Grotto
  

Postby karsthuntr » Sep 4, 2007 4:02 pm

A 57 year old male caver fell about 300 yards from the entrance and broke his hip (he had two pins installed). OTR site was called at about 1815, 13 cave rescue personal rolled out of the site at 1850. Bru Randall and I entered the cave at 2002 and found the patient and fire dept personal had the patient packaged and already moved about 100 yards. I started helping with the litter team and Bru went to get the rest of the rescuers. We had the patient in the ambulance at 2130.

Scott Davis
ER-NCRC Sub-regional Coordinator

http://www.er-ncrc.org
User avatar
karsthuntr
Infrequent Poster
 
Posts: 15
Joined: Feb 18, 2006 12:23 am
Location: Grottoes VA
  

Postby jenn » Oct 27, 2007 5:33 pm

Wow, he fell 300 yards and only broke his hip?! What a guy! :-) :banana:
jenn
New Poster
 
Posts: 1
Joined: Oct 27, 2007 5:00 pm
  

Sharps Cave accident

Postby Ernie Coffman » Oct 27, 2007 8:22 pm

Read the phrase again: "fell about 300 yards from the entrance." If the guy had fallen 900', he'd definitely be a smashed slug. From the entrance doesn't mean how much of a fall the guy took. :exactly:
Ernie Coffman
NSS Hall Of Fame Poster
 
Posts: 1145
Joined: Sep 10, 2005 12:07 am
Location: Grants Pass, Oregon
  

Postby NZcaver » Oct 27, 2007 9:42 pm

I dunno... I've fallen about that distance a number of times.

Thankfully the parachute always opened, and the worst I suffered was some bruises. :laughing:
User avatar
NZcaver
Global Moderator
 
Posts: 6367
Joined: Sep 7, 2005 2:05 am
Location: Anchorage, Alaska
Name: Jansen
NSS #: 50665RL
  

Sharps Fall

Postby Ernie Coffman » Oct 27, 2007 10:10 pm

NZ, you must be full of it tonight, too! A nine hundred foot parachute jump and only suffering bruises is something else, unless you hit water. We had a guy jump from that low of altitude, from an experimental plane crash and he was lucky that he landed on a muddy farm field, but...still got a broken ankle and a lot of your bruises. And, this weren't any joke! :hairpull:
Ernie Coffman
NSS Hall Of Fame Poster
 
Posts: 1145
Joined: Sep 10, 2005 12:07 am
Location: Grants Pass, Oregon
  

Postby NZcaver » Oct 28, 2007 12:35 am

Hey Ernie,

I'm always full of it, but strangely this time it's the truth.

Being a parachute-qualified soldier in a former life, the objective was to get on the ground ASAP (about 50 seconds from memory) and not float around enjoying the view and potentially getting shot at! Hence the low altitude jumps (LALO)... and not into water either. I much prefer dry landings myself - it's all in how you hit the ground, roll, and hopefully don't break anything. Ah, the memories! :wink:

Sorry, once again drifting :off topic:
User avatar
NZcaver
Global Moderator
 
Posts: 6367
Joined: Sep 7, 2005 2:05 am
Location: Anchorage, Alaska
Name: Jansen
NSS #: 50665RL
  

Sharps Fall

Postby Ernie Coffman » Oct 28, 2007 12:49 am

OK NZ, I'll stand corrected to that jump of yours. That wasn't even in my thoughts, so...good goin'! My guy wasn't trained for that, anyway about it, so he jumped at the last minute and his buddy, who was too big to get out of the experimental plane, bit the dust. My guy jumped and almost hit the plane as he bounced into Mother Earth. Got over a barbed wire fence and limped down to the farmhouse, in the distance. That's when we got called in, to watch over the site until the coroner got there. Ah, yes! You were in control...and he wasn't!

:hairpull:
Ernie Coffman
NSS Hall Of Fame Poster
 
Posts: 1145
Joined: Sep 10, 2005 12:07 am
Location: Grants Pass, Oregon
  


Return to Cave Rescue Techniques Forum

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users

cron