Richard Warren, left, is joined at the presentation by MP Tim Farron, second from left, Kevin Walsh, third from right, and members of Langdale Ambleside, Duddon and Furness and Wasdale teams with demonstration model Max
A community organisation has provided lifesaving equipment to mountain rescue teams in the Lake District.
Rotarians handed over three new machines which perform automated resuscitation on casualties.
The machines will be used by the Wasdale, Kendal and Penrith Mountain Rescue Teams. The AutoPulse equipment gives automated cardio-pulmonary resuscitation to patients, which means the procedure can be continued while the person is being stretchered or winched into a helicopter while it would be impossible to carry out manually.
The units, along with a Propaq medical monitoring device provided for the Patterdale team, were part of £15,000-worth of equipment handed over by Kevin Walsh, former district governor for Rotary Cumbria and Lancashire at the Kendal team’s headquarters.
There are now seven AutoPulse units available to teams in the Lake District and two have already been used in rescue situations.
Richard Warren, chairman of the umbrella organisation the Lake District Mountain Rescue Association, said: “The provision of two AutoPulses and a lightweight Propaq monitor will mean that the teams can very quickly respond to critically ill casualties with equipment that can artificially apply and maintain CPR whilst a casualty is being carried down the mountain on a stretcher or being winched into a helicopter.
“This will make a big difference in our ability to increase a casualty’s chance of survival if their heart stops when severely hypothermic, or in the event of prolonged resuscitation where helicopter evacuation is impossible due to adverse weather conditions.”
Dr Stuart Allan, team doctor for Kendal Mountain Search and Rescue Team, said: “This is a tremendous step forward to help provide a Lake District-wide service provision for managing severely hypothermic patients in our mountain environment.
“This is yet another area where teams are increasingly working together and supporting each other in providing life-saving casualty care.”
Rotarian Kevin Walsh, said: “After many months of planning, fundraising and discussion it is good to see this life saving equipment being made ready to be used.
“Rotarians are keen to take action in our communities and this project is a great example of how we can respond to identified needs and make a real difference.
“While we would all prefer that this equipment were not needed, the more we can make available in our communities the more lives can be saved.”
The equipment was part of a package of donations which also included community public access defibrillators and funding for health fairs, which attracted match-funding from the Rotary Foundation, the movement’s international charity body, and donations from Rotary colleagues in Saitama, Japan; Bangalore, India, and south-east Scotland.
Harry
22 December 2014I have to say that I am disapointed that you have choosen not to publish my comment . I was making a real point . If you look at the accounts of these teams you will see that between them they have over £700,000 of ready cash . I no longer donate to Rescue Teams in the Lake District whose combined cash wealth is over well over 3 million pounds ! and find in offensive that they are still taking money from organisations like the Rotary with out telling them the truth . The money could and should go to Charities that carry out great work but with far less money .
Mike Romeo Tango
24 December 2014It's not a totally unfair comment you make, Harry, but it does seem a little bit naive. Yes, many of the teams have decent cash reserves, BUT, and it is a big BUT, they also have to show good governance, and part of that is having a reserves policy. I'm a former treasurer of a team and we work on a 3 years budget - i.e. estimated costs per year of running the team, multiply by 3 and you get a minimum cash reserve figure. That doesn't include contingency for capital items. So if it costs a team around £50K/year to equip, protect insure and train the volunteers, then that's £150K straight away. Then you have contingency for capital items - a fully kitted out Land Rover is about £50K....OK you don't need a new one every year, but on average if you have 3 vehicles and the life expectancy in a busy MR Team is maybe 10 years to ensure reliability, then that's a new one every three years on a rolling basis.
So although many of the Teams are not cash strapped by any definition, they do still rely on people donating and "gifts" like these from other benefactor organisations.
It's all about having the freedom to do what you need to do when you need to do it, rather than having to appeal each time you need to buy half a dozen ropes which got trashed on the previous rescue, or replace a radio.
Freedom of choice whether you donate, Harry, but it isn't just as clear cut as "they've got loadsa money so don't need any more help". If it was then the National Trust, RNLI and a number of other large charities would be bereft of support. That's not to say there aren't lots of other charities worthy of support.
Harry
01 January 2015Mike you are very much missing the point. A quick look at the accounts of the Teams in question will show that your comment is just hypothetical waffle.
Of course charities have to fund raise but also what they need to do is show some moral fortitude . In this case they should have told the Rotary that on this occasion there were other deserving charities to donate the money to as they easily had sufficient to easily cover the cost of the equipment.
For me it is the duty of a charity to spend the money donated first before asking other fund raisers for assistance .
PS and I was way out on my estimated ready cash wealth of the Lake Districts Mountain Rescue Teams as it seems nearer £5 Million !!!!