The Blurred Line

Day 1 - The Incident (cont.)

So where did I leave you? I boulder crushed my leg but Jonny removed it and after 40 minutes the GPs arrived.

After about an hour Mountain Rescue Torridon and Kinlochewe arrived but unable to winch me up. I can't remember much of this time, I kept my eyes closed and I was so exhausted.

I think I forgot to mention in the last post that there was a point a got so uncomfortable that I started wriggling away from Laura and the leg, I was so uncomfortable and just wanted to roll over and go to sleep. But I just made myself so much more painful and then started sliding down from my head so Kim had to put her knees behind my head.

But I digress. The GPs cut the laces off my boot but thankfully were kind enough not to damage my expensive B2 boots. I dread to think what state it is in though.

I heard the Mountain Rescue helicopter and a wave of relief rushed over me – I would be in hospital and asleep and out of all the pain soon. They used a vacuum splint for my leg – Laura was very glad that I knew what this was. It is basically a splint that you vacuum all the air out of so it becomes very rigid and keeps your leg in an exact position so you don't have to straighten the leg at that point. Straightening my leg even a little bit, which they still had to do, was intensely painful, even the Entonox couldn't help. Rescue 951 were called to winch me to safety as it became clear that I couldn't be moved in another way. Laura and the others had move everything away so that the helicopter would not blow it all away. It was the first time I felt horrendously cold – a cold that I couldn't get rid of until at least A and E.

The winchman, somebody I thought even in my horrendous state was ridiculously good looking, warned me that we might turn in the air. If only this had all been a practice – it would have been absolutely fantastic! After the pain of rolling me, however carefully, into the stretcher to be winched, the feeling of being lifted into the air with this lovely man beaming a smile down at me was phenomenal. I could see the hills I'd waked over and so many more. No ride in Thorpe Park could match the feeling of elation as we did turn and the beautiful landscape around fell beneath our eyes. I couldn't help but smile back.

I couldn't help feeling as we got closer to the propellers that we would be cut up by them. It was a completely ridiculous but uncontrollable fear. I completely trusted the guys in the helicopter and knew that the propeller wouldn't destroy us but I just couldn't help it. It really was very scary.

They brought me inside smoothly but it was still very painful. Entonox was still a wonderful thing though. They gave me those big headphones and a microphone like in the movies so I could talk to the winchman Scott– I feel awful that I don't remember his name. I said to them that the incident was almost worth the helicopter winch. Of course it wasn't but it was a very exciting experience and one I should repeat (just the helicopter ride!) when I win the lottery.

I'll write about A and E and the rest in another post – I think it probably needs another post.