We walked around the rocks into full view of a section of the river Findhorn (just below Randalph's leap). There were two casualties stranded on separate rocks in the middle of the river. One, completely unconscious. The second screaming in agony, her foot trapped under a rock.
Oh fuck.
I sprang into team leader mode to direct the other four people I was with. First of all, someone needed to go get medical help NOW. One person down. As I was taught in that oh so far away first aid classroom the unconscious casualty was clearly the priority. Another two people were assigned to that task, the first being a first aider who would get clipped to a rope in what we call a 'livebait'. The second person was to hold on to the rope and 'pendulum' him and the casualty back to the bank.
Two people left. We had to leave them to get on with it as all hell was breaking loose only a few metres upstream. The casualties' mate Jim was on the same bank of the river as us, hysterical, wanting to jump in to the fast flowing to help his buddy (still screaming in agony). Just to add another layer of complexity there were three swimmers seemingly unrelated to the incident completely oblivious to the life or death situation unfolding. The swimmers kept jumping in and swimming down a small chute of water, laughing as they went, swimming into an eddy and then climbing up and doing it again. We physically restrained Jim, and for the next few minutes the guy who was just back from raising the alarm was assigned to calming him down. There's no point saving his mates if he goes and gets himself swept downstream.
Two people left on the team. The last team member went to speak to the three swimmers to try and get them just to STOP!!!
Just me, and a screaming casualty. I started to speak to her, work out what had happened, what her injury was, tell her everything was ok, help is on it's way but we can't help you until we've helped your friend. In the meantime I was keeping an eye on the rest of my team. The unconscious casualty rescue was coming along, she was back on the bank and seemed to be regaining consciousness. Jim had calmed down a bit. We tried to engage the swimmers into helping us with a rope. They seemed keen, but we agreed they were more than a tad immature. Our main worry preventing us from getting a rope across to them to help the poor screaming casualty was that these guys were just ignorant of the magnitude of the situation. If we took our eyes off of them for even a minute they were straight back down the rapid.
See those numpties on the apprentice? If they want a real challenge as team leader they should have forgot trying to flog crap apps or beauty products and stood in my shoes right there.
Luckily it was all an exercise. A scenario. Training. The exercise stopped there, just as we live baited out a team member to the last casualty.
Phew.
Phew.
In reflection I couldn't help comparing it to the recent episodes of BBC apprentice. If you've ever watched it you will have seen endless bickering:
"I think I should be team leader because I'm the best in my field"
"I should be team leader because I've got my own business"
"Well I should be team leader because I'm amazing!"
Etc, etc. Well what actually happened in real life just before our scenario was the following exchange:
"We need to agree on a team leader before we start"
"I don't mind having a go" I offered.
"I don't mind having a go" I offered.
"Sorted, you're team leader."
Does it need to be any harder than that?
As with all the other scenarios in the weekend we spent a good bit of time afterwards analysing how the rescue had gone. I did ok as team leader, and the team were excellent. There was however one trick I should have picked up on in my leadership capacity: we needed to use the swimmers on the other side of the river as part the rescue. In an ideal world we should have used two ropes in what we call a 'snag and tag' to free poor Ali.
Thanks again Jim and the wonderful Aquaplay Scotland for yet another weekend of outstanding tuition. Things like that should all be learned in a controlled environment. To the poor old ladies who happened to be passing by in the middle of our scenario, we're sorry if we gave you a scare!
Unfortunately whilst it may be rare, this is not an unrealistic scenario to encounter in a river environment.
