CONTENTS:

With the new Emergency Management Limited (EML) training programme on search track and clue awareness now being introduced across the country, the benefits are occurring in the field. As mentioned in the June 1996 NZLSAR News, a EML Track and Clue Awareness course had been held in the Queenstown area and attended by an enthusiastic bunch of lads and lasses.

In September, a possum trapper in the Dart Valley, after not being seen for a month, was reported missing by Glenorchy locals. He was last seen at Daleys Flat, the top end of his block which being some five hours walk to the bottom end, made the search area quite large. Queenstown Police made enquires over three days which revealed little new information

Two TCA "graduates" Russel Carr and Scotty, suggested, with their newly acquired skills that they "have a shot at finding the missing person". So a team of "likely lads" including Russel, Scotty and myself as TCA "graduates" and two persons from Glenorchy were dispatched into the field. The first clue was the cyanide notice at the bottom end of the block and so somewhere in between there and Daleys Flat was his base camp. The finding of this camp became the focus. Likely places revealed an abandoned camp which sign suggested a month since possible occupation. This led to the discovery of possum boards with some missing since last seen two weeks earlier.

Further searching led to the discovery of a supply dump of food and gear, all of which appeared untouched. Sale dockets revealed purchases of two months ago.

It had recently rained and the nature of the forest floor was not revealing a lot. However vegetation disturbance, twig crushing and very small fragments of cellophane showed some faint activity heading NE of the supply dump up onto a series of heavily forested terraces. The next major clue was a possum dropping clearly crushed by a boot. The indentation was precise enough to establish that it was done by an unworn boot. Amongst the dockets found at the dump was one for a new pair of boots. I called out to Scotty and the others who were following leads around the dump that I had found this significant piece of information and thought I heard a voice call back. I listened and hearing nothing further, proceeded up onto another terrace, finding scrapes of moss, and crush area when bingo! I saw some distance ahead a polythene camp. With the missing person having not been seen for up to a month and as he was using cyanide, I was more than a bit apprehensive as to what I might find in the camp so I again called out for Scotty to come up. In the middle of the exchange with him, a voice, seemingly right at my elbow, asked what all the noise was about. I nearly shot up through the forest canopy, and that was twenty meters above me, as I had mentally painted the missing person as a cyanide victim. The owner of the voice also wore a bowler hat with a pheasant feather which added to the surprise. He was in good health and told later interviewers he had a supply of flour and had been living on rock cakes, vegetables and possum meat and was basically anti-civilisation. It was reported that he also had eleven toothbrushes and five cakes of soap.

The operation had taken three hours of search time and our finding the missing person in that short period can be attributed to the observation of small but important detail picked up at each major site discovered.

If the base camp had not been approached with care to observing tiny and minuscule detail, destruction of vital clues and leads by trampling may have occurred and the supply dump may have been missed. Equally the trail from the dump to the polythene camp could easily have been destroyed by careless blundering about.

Thanks to Ross Gordon from some very enthusiastic "Trackers"

Brian Ahern
Adviser Otago District

A successful body recovery operation was carried out at the Pearce Resurgence (near Motueka) recently by Australian Cave Divers. They recovered the body of the cave diver who died in May last year at a depth of 80 metres. It took 4 dives on mixed gases for the recovery and subsequent checks of the equipment found no faults. The experts can still only speculate on the cause of the drowning.

Barry Were
Cave Adviser Hamilton District

For the last 30 years or thereabouts SAR in the Mt Cook National Park, and the high alpine areas immediately adjacent thereto, has been attended to on a front-line basis by Department of Conservation, and that organisation’s predecessor. Police have maintained their role as the overall coordinator of SAR but with minimal hands-on involvement except to supply a Police Liaison Officer. Costs such as helicopter bills, etc. are also met by the Police.

Full-time employees of the National Park organisation, with high levels of mountaineering and SAR skills, have traditionally carried out this role, supplemented by staff with similar skills employed over the summer climbing season.

One area of generally informal discussion between Police and DoC in recent years has been the question of whether the Mt Cook team should be recognised as an official ACR team, the same as RARO at Mt Ruapehu and five other teams around the country are. A modest annual grant is made to each of these teams by the Police, but it was not thought appropriate that this should happen with the Mt Cook DoC team as the Police are not able to fund DoC, or any other government agency, for SAR purposes. A forum at Craigieburn in 1994 to discuss what form future ACR teams should take was unable to formulate any definitive answers, and this has been an ongoing issue which has been taken up by the Specialist Subcommittee of NZ Land SAR Inc.

A workshop held in November 1996 regarding SAR procedures in the Mt Cook area identified amongst other issues:

1 The operating environment of DoC has changed dramatically over recent years with new legislative requirements and budget restrictions creating a greater focus on core business.

2 The implications of the Cave Creek disaster (and more recently the deaths on Chatham Islands) have encouraged DoC to look closely at public and personnel safety issues, and the associated HSE accountabilities.

3 SAR in the Mt Cook alpine region is operating in a manner which is not consistent with the standard organisational chart of NZ Police and NZ Land SAR.

These concerns were discussed between Police and DoC during December, with particular emphasis being placed by DoC on the risks associated with rescue operations by way of helicopter strop, and the risks associated with recovery of dead bodies from inaccessible areas. Even more important from DoC’s point of view, was the issue of lack of currency by Mt Cook SAR personnel in mountaineering activities and the rescue functions they perform, along with existing SAR equipment needing review relative to personnel safety and technical obsolescence.

Measures were instigated early to overcome, or at least go some way to overcoming, most of these difficulties. Additionally, local procedures have been mutually agreed on by Police and DoC that fall into line with the national organisation chart (referred to in 3 above) (and as reflected in figure 2 on page 7 of the Land SAR Manual).

At a meeting on 16 January 1997 with the Ministers of Police and Conservation, and representatives from both of those organisations, it was confirmed that DoC would continue to provide SAR service at Mt Cook this climbing season. A working party of Police and DoC officials has been set up and is tasked, initially to formulate terms of reference, with a final report due by 1 April 1997, as to the level of SAR service that will continue to be provided.

The facts and opinions expressed in this document are mine, expressed on behalf of the Police. Department of Conservation may not necessarily agree that their perception and my own coincide.

John Meads
Coordinator: SAR/RCC
Police National Headquarters

I was reading the Tacoma Mountain Rescue Unit newsletter recently and came across a hazard not encountered by either our searchers or lost people (as far as I am aware). With an operation looking for a missing female hunter in such exotic sounding names as Beaver Creek and Box Car Canyon it all sounded so very American. The missing person had spent the night huddled under a log and what really caught my eye was the information she gave at the debrief that though she had heard the search teams during the night she had not wanted to come out because she had seen a mountain lion earlier and didn’t want to attract its attention. This was corroborated when another team mentioned they had also spotted a mountain lion trailing them. And I thought the sandflies here were rough!

Recent searches in the Wellington Region have highlighted the importance of patient vital signs in the efficient rescue phase of a search operation. Vital signs provide critical information to headquarters staff, in particular medical advisers, in determining the condition of the missing party, the immediate intervention that is required to stabilise the patient’s condition and the sort of rescue that is required to be undertaken to ensure the patient’s condition does not deteriorate.

The taking of vital signs is a skill that is taught on most First Aid programmes and is particularly important for first line SAR personnel to be familiar with. As often occurs in a search and rescue operation, the front line SAR team will locate the missing party and will be very much the eyes and ears of the Field Controller and other headquarter staff in the management of the rescue operation. Vital signs tell headquarters a considerable amount about the patient’s condition, any deterioration and degree of urgency of any evacuation.

Vital signs can be summarised as follows:-

1 Respiration - check the rate, the rhythm, the depth, any evidence of difficulty in breathing or unusual noises accompanying the respiration. Count the number of respirations over a minute period to give a rate per minute. Normal respirations in an adult range from 12-20 per minute and in a child from 16-30 per minute.

2 Pulse - the radial (wrist) or carotid (neck) are best to take. Check the rate, rhythm and strength. Take the pulse over a period of 30 seconds and double it to give a rate per minute. The average pulse rate for an adult can vary between 60 to 80 beats per minute. For some athletes and the elderly it may be between 50 and 60 and is up to about 120 beats in young babies.

3 Skin - note the colour, temperature and moisture of the skin.

4 Level of consciousness - note the response to external stimuli such as voice, touch or pain. The level of consciousness can be summarised as five levels:-

alert; response to verbal command; response to mild stimulus; response to deep pain; no response to any stimuli

The taking of the vital signs is critical in the appropriate management of the injured party or parties. The vital signs should be taken at regular intervals and depending on the condition of the patient this may be every 15 minutes. The vital signs should always be recorded with the time taken and each of the vital signs noted for that particular time period.

The change in the persons vital signs as well as the results of the primary and secondary surveys tell the Medical Advisers a considerable amount of information about the condition of the patient, and deterioration or improvement and helps in the planning of appropriate evacuation. Depending on the condition of the patient, advanced paramedic or medical resources may need to be flown into the scene where the patient is being managed, or if the patient is stable a more routine evacuation may be all that is required.

As a Team Leader in particular it is important to remember that the Field Controller and Medical Adviser cannot see the patient, nor any change in their condition and are entirely reliant on information provided from the scene via radio back to the headquarters.

One of the important things about patient management in the taking of vital signs is not to be put off by the patients profession. At recent Wellington operation in June 1996, the missing person was actually a qualified medical doctor but was not able to indicate the seriousness of their condition. As a consequence many of their symptoms were masked and when asked by the Field Controller as to the patients condition, the response came back the "patient was fine". Following evacuation an assessment at a local hospital found the patient had serious hypothermia and a fractured pelvis and spent four days in hospital recovering. The extraction of this missing person was quite difficult and could have resulted in the need for an overnight stay. In the absence of clear vital signs indicative of the patients condition, decisions about whether overnight medical support was required could not be made accurately. There is always a risk that a patient’s condition could deteriorate unbeknown to anyone at headquarters managing the operation.

This emphasises the importance that a thorough primary and secondary survey is carried out on ALL patients. A good history needs to be taken of any injuries that have occurred and vital signs are to be taken at regular intervals, written down and transmitted back to headquarters so that medical personnel can evaluate them and assist in making decisions on the appropriate evacuations of patients.

I encourage all front line members of search and rescue teams to undertake appropriate first aid training which will cover the taking of vital signs and other important aspects of patient management, such as primary and secondary surveys. These are skills which all front line personnel are capable of taking on board and carrying out in the field very effectively. The availability of this information to headquarters makes a huge difference in the appropriate management and evacuation of patient’s who require our assistance in the hills.

Terry Patterson
Adviser Wellington District

The Communications Subcommittee (CSC) met on Saturday 1 February at the Kilbirnie Police Station. Graham Thorp, due to the demands of being NZLSAR Chairman is to step down from the task of chairing the CSC and Mike Sheridan is to be recommended to the Committee as the replacement. Mike comes with an extensive background in the Victoria University Tramping Club, Search Team Member, Team Leader, Field Controller, Adviser and more recently as the Region Four Regional Representative on the NZLSAR Committee. There have been other changes and additions within the CSC. Jeff Sayers has replaced Stan Whitfield as the AREC representative who resigned due to the pressure of other commitments. The meeting noted with gratitude the contribution made by Stan during his time on it. A newer member is Matthew Lloyd from DoC who manages an extensive communications network for that department. Rex Aubrey from Police, Terry Waghorn, Ross Thompson representing FMC, Ian Gardner, Graham Thorp and John Tristram make up the nine person group.

Two addresses were given to the meeting. The first was by Barry Young from the NZ Coast Guard and he explained the communication package they have prepared for installation into a number of aircraft for the Coast Guard Air Patrol operation. The communication package contained in a "grab bag" includes a GPS, a VHF hand held radio and a direction finding receiver which is able to locate the source of any type of radio signal. Coast Guard have arranged and paid for the wiring installation in a number of aircraft to accommodate these devices. He also touched upon the extensive and ongoing training programme they have devised for air crew members

The other was by Neil Lambert from Spectratek Systems who represents as a salesman a number of companies manufacturing HF radios including TR Systems who make the PolSAR radio. He showed to the meeting and spoke about an electronic interface that allows a HF radio to connect to any telephone system. This would have application in a number of areas and would for instance enhance the Mountain Radio Service in that calls could be routed to a telephone alarm system and therefore give a twenty four hours a day contact.

The agenda included:-

Standards for base operators. It was felt the that skills inherent in the tasks of operating the base station should be written up as a set of standards. This will allow individuals performance to be assessed and areas for extra training defined.

New technology and its relationship to the CSC. With increasing rapidity so much is changing in the field of communications. A paper with some crystal ball gazing as to what SAR wants and what HF radio could provide, is to written and distributed. Also with the introduction by the Police of CARD (Communication and Resource Deployment) a number of questions are raised on what it means for SAR and these are to be are to be defined and answered as a separate project.

The "Radio Communications in the Great Outdoors" pamphlet is now felt to be complete in content apart from some more professional artwork. The NZLSAR Committee is to be approached for financial assistance to produce and circulate it.

VHF Policy and VHF Specifications are to have the ES Band frequency details entered and then be signed by the Chairman as an official NZLSAR document. As all other details are correct and if you have some money burning a hole in your SAR account pocket, please contact the NFO for a copy of the yet to be amended paper.

Mike Sheridan
Adviser Wellington District

To Brian, Barry, John and Terry and Mike a big thank your for your articles. To those who proof read, corrected the spelling or grammar, thank you also. Copy for the April edition of NZLSAR News will be Friday 21 March 1997. Articles on gear, SAR training or operations are most welcome.

Regards, John P Tristram