New gear keeps patient dry

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 10, Issue 447, 4 August 1992, Page 16

New gear keeps patient dry

New stretcher covers kept an injured young girl from a wet, cold ride while being carried to safety on Mt Ruapehu late Saturday afternoon. The teenager who was in a party from the Sir Edmund Hillary Outdoor Pursuit Centre had been camped with an instruc-

tor at the Whakapapaiti Hut on the mountain. She suffered an asthma attack and at some stage twisted her ankle. The girl quite quickly developed signs of hypothermia. Rescuers from the Ruapehu Alpine Rescue Organisation (RARO) together with Dr Boyd

Wilson from Whakapapa skifield carried the girl 1.5km in knee-deep wet snow to the Scoria Flat on Mt Ruapehu. She was later transferred by ambulance to Taumarunui Hospital for overnight observation. The new Fairydown stretcher cover which fits

like a hoop tent inside a stretcher kept the girl completely dry. "Without it she wouldn't have arrived back in such a good condition," said rescue controller Don Bogie. "Usually we have to improvise with a tent, sleeping bag or bivvy sack." To ensure patient safety as well as that of the rescuers, RARO continues to add new equipment, like the stretcher covers, to its inventory. But more is always needed. Included on their

shopping list is avalanche rescue gear, better patient protective gear and improved radio equipment. Funding,

which comes from donations only, is also used to further the training experience of team members.