Twice More to the Store

Allen Padgett, Refuge Manager with Georgia Department of Natural Resources -

Monday at lunch I was eating with several DNR Rangers in Lafayette when the office paged about a person with a broken

ankle up on the mountain. Luckily I had finished eating though I had not gotten desert yet. I told 911 that I would be

en-route and left from town. The cave team pager went off calling for a crew to get the lady out of the woods.

Karen got ready. After all our false alarms, "Search" now thinks we are nuts. Karen stopped at the Golden Gallon store and then went to the hall to ride in the rescue truck. When I got up the mountain the ambulance and the regular rescue squad arrived right behind me. The husband of the patient met us at the parking lot and told us the details. He was a member of the volunteer fire-rescue department in his hometown of Warner Robbins, GA sohis patient assessment could be relied upon. He was to lead us back and the two EMT's were to accompany us.

Just over the top of the first hill on the trail one of the EMT's is unable to continue. He is overweight, out of shape, hot and had a back injury from an ambulance wreck a while back. Luckily I convinced him to turn back. We did not need another patient. The hike out to the victim is on a fairly flat one-mile trail. That was fine but it was a steamy summer afternoon.

When we got out to the patient, she was laying quietly next to a big rock. The EMT checked her ankle and it was obviously broken, but the blood flow to the toes was fine and everything worked. The rest of the team arrived with the stretcher and the wheel. As soon as some of the female members arrived, the patient told them the reason she fell is that she got up off the rock to go to the bathroom in the nearby bushes and slipped and fell breaking her ankle. She "really" needed to pee. So all the fellows walked around the corner and the gals propped her up enough to relieve herself before the ride to the hospital.

The only really painful part is putting the leg in a splint and getting into the stretcher. This involves

moving the leg and the bone ends make for a LOT of pain. once everything is in place it is actually more

comfortable than just lying there. I held her hand and talked to her during this process. My fingers got

kinda crushed but the scream was not too loud. Once we got her loaded up we put the big wheel on under

the stretcher and out the trail we went. She was in good spirits and actually used my camera to take a few

pictures of us moving the stretcher. Once back at the parking lot we put her into the waiting ambulance and

enjoyed some ice water. Later that evening we learn that she was transferred to the hospital in Dalton

for surgery on her ankle to set the breaks.

Tuesday evening is our normal cave team training. Karen did not come tonight. This week we met out at Pigeon Mountain to continue marking the trail to the new 224ft deep pit that was found in the proposed quarry expansion area. This is to keep cavers from getting lost and wandering into

danger in the active quarry site. We had hiked up the mountain around the quarry and were almost at

the new cave.

Suddenly all of our pagers go off! 911 had gotten a call that a 14 year old boy was stuck

in a tight place in a cave in the north end of the county. We have trained in this cave before and

know it. It is only a few hundred feet long and just off the road but we were a mile from our trucks

on the side of the mountain. Wonderful cell phones. We call a member who lives near the cave

who had skipped training tonight and sent him to the scene to report. After we called him, we all

sorta chuckled as he is the largest, most barrel chested member of the team. I called Karen at

home and another member who was small and had them head to the rescue truck and then on to the cave.

When they got to the cave, the mother and sister were there at the entrance and the kid was stuck

in a hole just off the entrance.

You could look down a side hole and see him and talk to him. To actually get to him, we walked around

the corner and crawled into a tight passage where one person could get to his head. Scott is a thin

fellow so he went in to him with Karen backing him up. They attempted to scope out the situation and

figure out a solution. When a person is stuck in a cave, it is critical because the cave walls act as a

huge heat sink to suck the heat out of the patient very quickly. We were lucky our kid was only touching

in a few little tight ridges of rock in the opening. Pulling, talking, rope steps did not work.

Plan "B": get a hammer. We protected the patient and began tapping with a three-pound hammer. Chipping

away at a few of the tight rocks the hole was quickly modified and the kid squirmed out of his tight

spot. A few feet later he was up and walking out of the cave entrance to his mother. Nice

Kodak moment. He was actually stuck in the hole for over two hours. Just a little scraped and bruised

but exhausted for the experience. Hopefully this sudden spurt of trips to the store is over. I hope

so we need some time to do the reports and clean all our gear and get some sleep. The dog is also put

out with us for leaving all the time.