When a school hiking trip turned into a real rescue, a group of students from Armidale’s Presbyterian Ladies’ College stepped in with training they had already practised.
The students were on a four-day hike in Warrumbungle National Park when, on day three, they came across hiker Thomas Wendland with a broken leg.
The group had prepared for that exact situation as part of their Duke of Edinburgh Award project. After conferring with their leaders, they used tarp poles and a hammock to create a gurney for Wendland to wriggle on to.
Year 11 student Stephanie Blake said the team would count to three, hoist the gurney, and carry Wendland along the trail for 60 seconds at a time. Then they would put him down, rotate sides, take some deep breaths, and do another 60 seconds.
They kept going like that for two hours until they reached a location where medical teams could get to him.
“The path just seemed to keep getting longer and longer,” Stephanie said. “You don’t realize how far [2.1 miles] is until you’re shuffling along carrying someone.”
Wendland, an experienced hiker, said he slipped and heard something snap. He was not quite sure what had happened at first, only that something was not right. He said a second fall was when the pain really started.
“I felt quite useless while they got it all set up,” Wendland told ABC News Australia. “It absolutely means the world that they were able to offer the assistance they did. I’m forever grateful for them.”
ABC wrote that the Duke of Edinburgh Award is a non-formal education program for young people focused on physical recreation, outdoor skills, voluntary service and “adventurous journey”.
PLC program organisers Amanda and Marty Burney said they had practised the makeshift gurney strategy before, and that the students were excited and focused when they realised they would be able to use it to help rescue someone for real.
Though the exertion was far more than they had imagined, Blake said having that trick up their sleeve, and having practised it, provided “such a good sense of achievement.”
Read more from Good News Network.
