Rescue teams assist walker injured on Reek

MAYO Mountain Rescue Team and the Irish Coastguard assisted in rescuing a walker injured on Croagh Patrick yesterday (Sunday).

The mountain rescue team received a call at 2 p.m. to assist the walker who suffered a lower leg injury on the front of the mountain, just below the shoulder.

Their first response team reached the casualty by 3 p.m. and the injury appeared to be a fractured fibula and tibia. The leg was splinted and every effort made to ease the considerable suffering the patient had to endure.

On their social media, the team reported that given the nature of the injury, evacuation by air was requested as the jarring ride by stretcher would have been very difficult on the casualty.

At first Rescue 118 from Sligo was tasked but they were diverted to another incident en route.

Rescue 115 from Shannon was then tasked and they landed on the shoulder of Croagh Patrick and their winch operator descended to the incident site to assess the situation.

The casualty was located in a position that is not ideal for winching as there is a lot of loose stones and gravel that would be thrown up by the aircraft’s downwash, so the evacuation had to be planned carefully.

Two Coast Guard ground crew were collected from Murrisk to assist. And, in a fine example of different organisations working well together, the two Coast Guard ground crew managed the considerable crowds and created a safe working area for the winching operation.

Mayo MRT assisted with the highline and the casualty was successfully winched aboard the aircraft for evacuation to Mayo University Hospital.