PLB activation
Original post
Fri night I dislocated my elbow at Woolshed Creek hut. A mate (ex army medic) tried to relocate it but wasn't able to. We had a PLB and in this situation (not life or limb threatening, warden in residence, not far to walk to get cellphone reception, 4wd track to hut) did not even consider activating it. But it's got me thinking about PLB activation decision making. Sometimes it seems clear
- potentially life threatening (eg breathing difficulty, low BP from an injury, suspected pelvic or femur fracture, unconscious)
- potentially limb threatening (eg limb fracture or dislocation with numbness or pale/cold or loss of pulse beyond the injury. In that situation I would think even if alternative evac method was possible, time could be critical for saving the limb and activation would be reasonable)
- if no chance of being able to self rescue. although if in a group, this might not be black & white - what if other rescue would mean the rest of the group assisting the injured person out over many hours or days, how long is too long? What if you're not sure if it will be possible or not? It might depend on the severity of the injury/illness and the terrain. How do you predict whether attempting self rescue is going to significantly worsen their condition / the injury?
Then there's kids - my threshold for pushing the button would be way lower if it were one of my kids injured and in pain.
And I have no idea about the logistics of helicopter flights eg at night, weather restrictions?? I know they prefer early activation rather than waiting for the end of the day.
Interested in anyone's thoughts, or experiences when they have or have not activated their PLB. Thanks
Activated for a dislocated shoulder. Was more remote & a long drive from civilisation after that. Plus, a multi-day pack. Neither winch-lowered medic nor hospital could re-locate it without being put right out for 3rd attempt. Very grateful for everything involved & my tramping mate, whose PLB was used. Now have my own.
You're mot always first in queue. Car accident took precedence over me & the calculations were still to wait for Nelson to deal with that rather than send from Christchurch.
Surprised me first time I saw DoC climb over the fence to get to Woolshed Creek hut having driven up on a farm road that's otherwise out of sight !.😊
If you cannot walk out, That qualifies as life threatening. Maybe not today but you are going to run out of food etc. An injury that you can control does allow you the option though of choosing a humane time to push the button. If you are ok enough dont make the rescuers work in the dark.
Another thing to think about though is how much we dont know about our physiology. On a 4wd trip some years ago a trip member tripped and chipped her elbow. She was in pain so a 4wd drover her out and to hospital. We got soundly admonished because the main artery for the arm runs through the middle of the elbow joint and the chip could easily of severed it resulting in possible arm loss or worse. We were told next time call the chopper by whatever method. (there was cellphone reception)
Can we be sure that that injury is as minor as we think?
question is will delaying medical attention in a hospital aggravate or complicate the injury? if walking out risks aggravating the injury or your health then hit the PLB, rescue services prefer that people err on the side of caution. rather than an incident gets worse because of delaying calling for rescue or not calling for rescue.
you're not in the league of people who wrongly activate a beacon because they are stranded but still have food.
in one case people activated a beacon at the heaphy track road end because they had no way of getting a ride out....
today helicopter rides replace all but short stretcher carries, in theory a lot of people could be stretchered out but the helicopter goes in instead because that is the accepted procedure now.
Great comments and insights, thanks. Eek that is scary about the bone chip potentially severing the artery. I'm a doctor so fairly confident at assessing whether the distal limb circulation is intact (in fact on Fri night no one independently checked mine until I'd been in emergency for more than two hours, they took my word for it) - but if that could change at any time, and rescue even with a plB activation is going to take some time, that needs consideration. And good thought that if it can wait till morning then do so, because once you push the PLB button the rescuers are going to have to assume it is immediately life threatening and try to get in asap. Makes sense to use choppers to avoid stretcher carries, they are slow, hard work and not riskfree for either patient or rescuers.
if your conscience bothers you about setting off your beacon, you can always make a reasonable donation to the helicopter rescue service.
1
I would say if there is any chance you will incur additional ACC costs due to delaying urgent medical care, press that button.
Let professionals make decisions on medical issues. In your case you had a professional with you, but otherwise I would advice people not to delay getting care.
ACC can cost a lot more than a helicopter visit.
To chris1: do not delay pressing the PLB till morning.
I have asked LandSAR this very question, and they told me that changes in weather could mean a next day rescue could be infeasible, or far more dangerous to them.
If you need extraction, press the button now. That was their advice. They know where you are, and if you are near a hut they possibly can asses that as lower priority if they have to deal with multiple calls.
But please let them make that call. Don't start second guessing what they should be doing. They will make that call, and they are trained to do that.
They much rather extract you now in good conditions, then in much less favourable conditions.
1
if its a clear night, pilots can use night vision goggles and some have night vision cameras and screens now.
Part of what I struggle with around this is that there's so much public judgement of people who aren't experts. Often it's *because* they're not experts, and it doesn't help that the reason someone needs help is often because they've already made some kind of mistake. It also doesn't help that our media consumption these days is so simplistic, and anything that can get people worked up becomes a national headline organically spread by algorithms to drive reactions and engagement more than to be informative.
We've spent maybe a decade of telling anyone and everyone to get themselves a PLB so they can reliably seek help in an emergency. That's for good and hopefully obvious reason, but it also complicates how this stuff is perceived.
It used to be that these decisions *had* to be made by people with expertise. PLBs, which only broadcast a simplistic message in one direction, put contentious decisions about how important something is into the hands of people who are both probably under some stress, and who also aren't always qualified or informed enough to understand the nature and severity of their situation.
Hopefully it's a matter of time before smart devices become capable of connecting to satellites and enabling some kind of two-way communication. The reliability probably won't trump PLBs, but once two-way communication becomes more possible, it'll hopefully add another dimension to the ability for experts to make decisions again.
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| Forum | The campfire |
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| Started by | chris1 |
| On | 28 March 2021 |
| Replies | 21 |
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