COASTGUARDS in Watchet have had a hectic 10 days responding to a series of emergencies and medical incidents.
The most dramatic was a nighttime incident where somebody fell over cliffs in West Street, Watchet, not far from the coastguard station, sparking one of the largest emergency services responses ever seen in the town.
Attending with the Watchet team were:
- Minehead coastguards
- A back up cliff rescue team from Lynmouth Coastguard Search and Rescue
- Avon and Somerset Police officers
- Both Minehead RNLI lifeboats which happened to already be on the water for a training exercise
- A National Police Aviation Service helicopter
- HM Coastguard’s rescue helicopter from St Athan, South Wales
- Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance
- South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust’s Hazardous Area Rescue Team, who were in the area for another unrelated incident
The casualty was located on rock armour at the base of the coastal slope and the police and coastguard helicopters were able to use their nitesun spotlights to illuminate the rescue efforts and assist with the safety of the emergency teams working in the dark coastal environment.
The responders secured and immobilised the casualty on a cliff rescue stretcher and extracted them from the base of the cliff and rock armour to the safety of the roadside.
An air ambulance critical care doctor provided a detailed assessment of the casualty before they were flown to hospital for further care.
The most recent incident happened at lunchtime on Sunday (October 13) when a medical emergency occurred on Dunster Beach.
Minehead coastguards and police officers also attended and the casualty was cared for before being evacuated to the nearby car park, where South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust paramedics took over.
A coastguard spokesperson said it was ‘excellent team working on a cold and breezy afternoon on the exposed beach’.
Earlier, Watchet coastguards had a new experience when they provided medical support inside a licensed premises for the first time.
The alert was sounded when a resident ran to the coastguard station on Watchet Esplanade as a training session was ending to say a man had become ill in a nearby licensed premises.
A team responded on foot with casualty care equipment and assessed the unwell man while an ambulance was en-route.
The team cared for the casualty and monitored his condition, providing reassurance and recording their symptoms and vital signs.
He then started to show an improvement in his condition before paramedics continued his onward medical care.
Prior to that incident, coastguards from Watchet and Minehead attended the beach in Bossington to support paramedics to find and evacuate an injured walker from the shoreline.
Closer to home, help was needed by a man who fell on a wet rocky surface in Watchet’s West Street beach and was injured and lying in a rock pool.
Following initial triage, the casualty was evacuated to the roadside using a coastguard cliff rescue stretcher and paramedics took them by ambulance to Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton.