Scotland - Glasgow 2014
Rescue Experience Scotland, Glasgow
In April of 2014, the newly formed Scottish Fire and Rescue Service hosted a two day Holmatro Rescue Experience, attended by about 200 people. The event covered both technical and medical aspects of heavy rescue and extrication from cars.
Presentations
The medical point of view was supplied by Dr Mark Forrest, who is Medical Director of Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service and responds to the scene of entrapments. First he looked at the issue of crush injury in relation to driver entrapments in large goods vehicles. On the second day of the Rescue Experience he discussed the myth surrounding the ‘golden hour’ concept. He explained the need to formulate three medical extrication plans: immediate, rapid and urgent.
The focus shifted to technical rescue with the presentation on vehicle safety systems. This was delivered by our second guest speaker, Mr Gareth Lloyd, who is a serving Watch Manager with Avon Fire and Rescue Service and a lecturer in Truck Mechanics.
Our Rescue Consultant Ian Dunbar gave a presentation on New Car Technology. He provided insight into dealing with the latest vehicle construction and described the latest vehicle systems that have a bearing on extrication.
Demonstrations
All of the theoretical presentations were reinforced with practical demonstrations and discussion with the attendees. These workshops included:
- Identifying and managing systems on large goods vehicles
- Identifying and managing the patient suffering crush injury
- Space creation techniques on large goods vehicles
- Management of pelvic trauma
- Demonstration of cutting pressures
- Technical and medical extrication timeline demonstration/discussion
The feedback from the Rescue Experience was extremely positive and we are already looking forward to next year's event.
If you would like to see more pictures and information from the event, search #holmatroscotland on Twitter.
An article about this Rescue Experience was published in Newsreel, the staff magazine of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (download below).
Download the Rescue Experience Newsreel 5-2014