Rescue Plans

[Pete McCrea]

Have you got a picker on site? Is it a fixed grid or a moveable truss (safeties on or off?) that he's fallen from? How long is my piece of string?

 

To play your game we need a bit more info......

[Riddle]

I'll feed the info in as you ask the questions. Which are all really important when making a rescue plan.

 

There are no MEWPS on site, the truss is fixed..... anything else would be too easy!

[dunk_1984]

How high is the truss flown/situated?

 

Has he fallen into a fall arrester and as such fallen around 4.5m below the truss? Or was it a fixed lanyard and he has just fallen and can't grab a fixed point?

 

What is the access to the truss?

 

Is there someone else on the truss?

 

How long does it take us to get another person onto the truss?

 

Do we even have another harnessed body on site? - we should for just such an incident, but do we?

[Pete McCrea]

Simple- Air rifle, put him out of his misery. He shouldn't have fallen in the first place...

[Seano]

Simple- Air rifle, put him out of his misery. He shouldn't have fallen in the first place...

Applaud the sentiment, but its terribly cruel - an air rifle will take ages.

 

I suggest half a dozen crew holding a blanket and one of these:

http://pdb1.mydeco.com/product_images/thumbs/270/e166123b874ce78a0e76331ed0abe6af7b3f5c83.jpg

[Hilary Watts]

I thought this thread was supposed to be about rescue plans - which are supposed to be in place before the incident happens. If information is only fed in after the supposed incident (or after suggestions have been made on the basis of minimal information) then there is no hope of formulating a sensible plan - which should be devised in advance based upon possible future scenarios taking into account all relevant factors.

 

Would it not be better for the OP to tell us all the information he thinks is relevant and then give us the benefit of his wisdom, as suggested by Seano? If not then I second Pete's suggestion to bring the situation to a rapid close - after all, for all we know the show may be about to start and he might be obstructing the followspot! :)

[Riddle]

The truss is 6m in the air, the casualty is below 80kgs in weight and has not fully extended the shock absorber, but remains out of reach of the truss.

 

Access to the truss is via a caving ladder.

 

There is one other person already up on the truss.

 

Given the benefit of the doubt there other people on site with harnesses.

 

The air gun is an option, extra beer tokens for a direct hit on the lanyard! Combined with the blanket and lots of encouragment I reckon the casualty could be caught safely... in time for last orders!

[dunk_1984]

Is our 2nd truss man able to perform the rescue?

 

If so, does he have on the truss a suitable diameter rope, and equipment? If not this is gonna have to come from the ground... Do we have any?

 

Failing the above onto emergency services we need the nearest fire and rescue Roped access team, we also need an ambulance en route whether we can perform the rescue ourselves or not. Chances are we will be outside of our 5 minute golden period. Exceed that our casualty is into danger time expected to fall unconscious at any moment due to reduced oxygen blood flow caused by suspension trauma.

 

So why couldn't we just put him out of his misery again? Better than suffocating to death from inside.

[Sound In Gloucestershire]

perhaps throw wet toilet tissue at him

 

then take photos for facebook and a video for youtube

 

then consider the rescue plan?

[cedd]

Front or back attachment to the lanyard? Makes a difference.

Surely if the casualty has fallen from a 6m truss, with an arrester of some description. Depending on the length of the lanyard he/she could well be within easy reach of the ground anyway. 4.5m was mentioned above. With that in mind, the casualty is now only 1.5m from the floor, and that's the attachment point.

 

On my last work at height course, I was told that a rescue plan should not involve the emergency services (Though obviously their presence in this situation is required) as suspension trauma could well have kicked in before they arrive.

Luckily at my work place we have our own private fire service on site, with the necessary equipment to make a rescue from our (much higher) aerial towers. Other than that it's a land rover with a winch!

 

Is this a winched or static truss? I'm all for lowering it down if it's winched.

[Riddle]

Sternal attachment, this is far safer for anyone working at height and should be used at all times.

 

Again if the casualty is within easy reach of the floor then something can be done from ground level with out the need to break into the rescue kit. What ever is done from the ground up must be practicable and safe. However we are not so lucky this time. Rescue has to come from above.

 

Cedd, you are right 999 should not be the main source of rescue, not every Fire and Rescue service has a rope rescue team and those that do are trained to look after there own personnel should they have a fall. The primary source of rescue has to come from within, the rigging and lighting industry are far more experienced at working at height than the Fire Service. They should be included in the PLAN as anyone taking a fall at work should be sent to hospital for a check up.

 

Again if the truss is on a winch, use it. The really important thing, (I apologise if I am patronising anyone) the plan should be simple and effective. However it must fluid and reflective, real life rescues are scary and the red mist settles in, people dont want to see their friends in danger and rush to assist without taking stock of the situation. It also allows the rescue team to pool their resources, find out why the casulaty has fallen, is the situation going to deteriorate and become eve more dangerous? The final recovery of the casualty will depend on where and how they have fallen, effecting a "rescue" can only be decided after the fall.

 

Wet tissue and facebook, also a great idea, but may I suggest recycled paper... reduces the carbon footprint!

 

Suspension Trauma does not exist! There is a recent update on the HSe website it is now called Harness Pre-Syncope, the "golden 5 min" window is a real hit and miss. You can last for an hour or under 5 mins there is no rule, its just down to luck (!) on the day of the fall.

 

http://www.hse.gov.uk/falls/harness.htm

 

If we ignore the 5 min window it stops our second truss man from rushing to help and there by run the risk of becoming a secondary casualty.

 

The second truss man is able to perform the rescue, he is trained.

 

Where should the kit be kept in relation to any work at height?

 

What should the kit contain?

[paulears]

I assume that the person up the truss has protection from acting improperly in trying to render him aid? The so called Good Samaritan feature of first-aid. If so, then I suspect this person would take whatever steps they could to get the person to safety. Surely any rescue 'plan' would not be able to provide enough detail to be used without somebody competent on site at the time modifying it. Far too many variables, I'd have thought to allow a fully detailed plan. A generic one would by definition need more detail to be put into action, so the best scenario would be to have sufficient kit on hand to be able to formulate a plan and deploy it?

 

 

If the person hanging from the truss in this scenario is at a height that can be reached on access equipment, then all is well. If none exists, or the casualty is out of reach then the only way to get a rope onto them is very tricky in itself. Faced with this problem, assuming they are hanging on a shock, but unconscious, is to use the shock to lower them. I can think of a few ways of taking the tension off the attachment point to allow it to be undone, assuming basic facilities such as rope are available.

 

I'd probably use something like a podger to loop and twist the strap allowing a rope to be 'attached' just below the truss, use this to take the weight off the attachment point, then use another rope with two or three turns around the truss tube to then lower the person to the ground.

 

My local fire brigade, who are based next door doo have a rope rescue team - formed from their retained, not permanent crews, and their kit consists of harnesses, tripod mount with pulley, and rope - that's it.

 

There are plenty of workable bodges based on emergency situations. A scaff attachment could have the spring lock taped open, making a hook that could be dropped below the truss and hooked onto some suitable part of the safety harness. If it was a real emergency, then even a pyramid of speaker cabs could be pressed into service and somebody could climb up. Or tons of other solutions - like using the climbing ladder - just moving it to above the casualty.

 

 

If this happened to me, I'd damn well dial 999 as well as starting to do my own thing. If they come and cannot think of anything better, then fine. As people point out, hanging time is critical, so start to attempt what you can, but have them coming too. Not to call them is a serious lack of judgement.

[Seano]

Is our 2nd truss man able to perform the rescue?

If so, does he have on the truss a suitable diameter rope, and equipment? If not this is gonna have to come from the ground... Do we have any?

 

There's some confusion creeping in here - this thread is conflating two quite different things.

 

On the one hand we have some hypothetical "get out of that" type brainstorming, on the other there's (supposed to be) some discussion of rescue plans. These are not the same.

 

In a hypothetical 'get out of that' discussion, for the sake of argument you have a scenario to deal with. In Riddle's scenario, for example, the circumstances (deaded truss, no mewp, etc..) have been designed to push us towards a roped 'pick-off' type rescue. No surprise, since he's in the business of selling training and equipment for just that. To a hammer salesman, every problem you might have looks very much like a nail.

 

When you write your rescue plan however the scenario hasn't happened yet, you can - indeed you should - move the goalposts. The toys and training that Riddle has to sell are only one option, and honestly, they're not a preferred option. Can't bring the truss in? Who says? The job hasn't been planned yet, so maybe you can make it so that you can bring the truss in. No mewp? Maybe you should get a mewp.

 

When you're under stress, all but your most familiar, basic skills desert you. A situation where a rescue is necessary is stressful, and you'd be a fool* to write a rescue plan that depends on anybody doing anything that (to them) isn't well practised straightforward humdrum basic stuff. Preferably, the skills that are required to implement the rescue should be the same skills that are practised every working day.

 

* - or at least, a person engaging in a fairly meaningless box-ticking type paper exercise.

 

... 5 minute golden period. Exceed that our casualty is into danger time expected to fall unconscious at any moment due to reduced oxygen blood flow caused by suspension trauma.

 

That's the trouble with raising awareness I suppose. A few years ago no-one had ever heard of 'harness hang syndrome', 'suspension trauma', 'orthostatic intolerance' or 'suspension induced shock syndrome'. Now we're all convinced it means certain death within a certain time - this is not the case. Yes it may be very dangerous, its impossible to predict. Its unlikely to be nearly as dangerous as a half-cocked, ill thought-out rushed rescue attempt however - you need to work quickly yes, but also calmly and methodically.

 

So why couldn't we just put him out of his misery again? Better than suffocating to death from inside.

Actually its just fainting, much less unpleasant than being shot to death with an air-rifle or pelted to death with bits of wet bog-roll.

There is some middle ground between a speedy rescue and certain death, by the way. 'Suspension trauma' is brought about by hanging inactive in an upright position - take away the 'inactive' or the 'upright' and you take away the immediate risk of suspension trauma. If its going to take 30 minutes to effect a rescue maybe it would be worth spending 5 minutes doing that before you start. Options might include a footloop to stand in (weight on the toes - think stirrups - given a bit of resistance to work against, the calf muscles alone can pump the blood back upstairs) or a sling behind the knees to raise the legs into a sitting position - if you don't have a rope, you could do either of those things with a 5m bit of TRS.

 

Surely any rescue 'plan' would not be able to provide enough detail to be used without somebody competent on site at the time modifying it. Far too many variables

Personally, if someone isn't competent to modify a rescue plan (at least a little bit) on the fly, they're not competent to implement it either. What's the military expression? Something like "No plan survives first contact with the enemy."

 

That said, you're supposed to plan for 'reasonably foreseeable' circumstances - and if you think about it in most situations that's actually a fairly limited range of possibilities.

 

As for 'generic' - I think here rescue plans have something in common with risk assessments. A huge impressive document that covers everything done by ABC Lighting PLC is good for covering corporate arses and impressing clients - a back-of-an-envelope scribbling that covers focussing truss B in venue X this afternoon is more useful on the shop floor. (And something in your head that deals with what you'll be doing in the next 5 minutes is what will *really* keep you out of trouble - but ticks no boxes with the 'safety' elfs.)

 

I can think of a few ways of taking the tension off the attachment point to allow it to be undone, assuming basic facilities such as rope are available.

There are many ways. :unsure:

Like I said above - assuming basic facilities are available is part of the hypothetical 'get out of that' discussion, whereas the purpose of the rescue plan is to decide what basic (and less basic) may be required, and make sure they are available.

 

A scaff attachment could have the spring lock taped open, making a hook that could be dropped below the truss and hooked onto some suitable part of the safety harness.

There are a fair few industrial rescue kits that incorporate just that: a scaff-hook on a stick. In some situations (more commonly found on construction sites than in our workplaces, perhaps) that could be an extremely useful bit of kit, no doubt Riddle could sell you one.

 

If this happened to me, I'd damn well dial 999 as well as starting to do my own thing.

That would quite likely be a very good idea.

[dunk_1984]

Actually its just fainting, much less unpleasant than being shot to death with an air-rifle or pelted to death with bits of wet bog-roll. :unsure:

There is some middle ground between a speedy rescue and certain death, by the way. 'Suspension trauma' is brought about by hanging inactive in an upright position

 

Fainting isn't a bad thing, in fact it is a very good thing, it is designed to force you to collapse. It is the failing to collapse part which is the issue, however, whilst suspended you've fainted and are now remaining in an upright position and unable to help yourself. Hence pooling occurs.

 

I am not disagreeing with you. I agree research dictates that this period is unknown and differs from case to case. However how do we know from case to case if our casualty is one of those that can last an hour or one that will deteriorate quickly? We can't exactly wait to find out (rescue plan aside).

 

As you say self help is possible, riding an invisible bike for example... Want to try that in your harness for 30 minutes? Though as you say a sling to provide some resistance would help.

 

You probably covered all the above, I was expanding I guess.

[knotted]

To play devils advocate a little, if you've shock loaded the truss at a point node with someone falling off onto a fall arrester, who's to say the truss will still be hanging in the air anyway.