Rescue – Cleveland Way, near Osmotherley

SUNDAY 6TH MARCH 2022 (1214 HOURS)

A busy weekend for the Team – following the searches of Friday night and Saturday, we were called out at lunchtime today by the Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) with a report of a walker near to Osmotherley who had sustained an ankle injury. Two double-crewed Land Rovers were sent whilst other Team members made their way there in their own vehicles. Also sent was our Mercedes GLB (on-loan Mercedes-Benz of Teesside) which was diverted whilst deployed elsewhere on a separate support task.

Our call-out officer telephoned one of the casualty’s walking companions to confirm the circumstances and to reassure them that help was on its way. We then established a precise location using the mountain rescue Phone Find system, following up an earlier What3Words location passed to us by YAS. The casualty was on the Cleveland Way just north of Lady’s Chapel on the northern outskirts of Osmotherley.

Once the first Team members arrived they soon made contact with the walking party. They splinted the casualty’s ankle (suspecting it to be fractured) and provided some pain relief before she was lifted onto a rescue stretcher, secured within a vacuum mattress and then wrapped within a casualty bag. 

The stretcher was then carried and ’sledged’ for approximately 500-metres down to a waiting ambulance at Chapel Wood Farm. Thanks again to the farmers there for access; we also used their farm for a very similar injury call-out to the same location just a few months ago. 

Whilst en route to this call-out, one of our Team members came across another incident where someone had being taken ill. Together with some members of the public he provided casualty care assistance until an ambulance arrived after a few minutes later.

Fifteen Cleveland MRT members were deployed, initially co-ordinated by our Call-out Officer, for just over 1.5 hours plus return travel time back to Base and homes.