WINNEMUCCA - The Humboldt County Communications Center received a call for help from an injured ATV rider midway up the mountains in the Water Canyon area on Monday at approximately 12:30 p.m.
Humboldt General Hospital Emergency Medical Services Rescue responded with their Special Operations Response Team (SORT). At the onset of the incident, team members drove their four-wheel-drive Quick Response Unit (QRU) along the four-wheeler trails carved out into the mountainside, some of which had more than 30 percent grades.
The initial difficulty with the response was that the patient did not know his correct location; other concerns centered around the fact that the injured rider had no food, water or survival gear with him. The dispatchers on the line had cellular communications with him and the SORT units, along with Humboldt County Sheriff's Office deputies, who utilized sound search tactics to attempt to ascertain the victim's location by sounding sirens one at a time and moving toward his location when he advised dispatch that he heard the sounds.
The problem with this approach was that because the patient's location on the mountainside was higher than the vehicles sounding their sirens, the sounds would bounce across the ridgelines of the mountains around him, thus throwing off where he thought the responders were.
Several times throughout the incident, those who were monitoring the mission provided important details to responders via cell phone as to the potential location of the patient and points of access. As time passed, the SORT took up a position high on a mesa to get a better view of the area. As the team members searched the area, a column of smoke was noted off in the distance; this was the turning point of this mission, and the patient told dispatch that he could see the smoke and this led units to his area.
As the QRU went off trail and up the mountain toward his location, the SORT 6X6 Polaris was dispatched from a nearby staging area. Team members made visual contact with the patient, but the QRU was unable to make it to him; this was at an elevation of 5,824 feet. The decision was made for team members to go to the patient on foot from that location, with medical and survival gear while the Polaris was en route.
This involved descending to a level of 4,921 feet into a ravine which separated the patient from rescue operators. The area was soft dirt with loose rocks covered in high grass which made the trek into the patient more difficult and dangerous. Team members ascended over 1,450 feet in elevation in areas which were almost 60 percent grades, which meant a team member could lean in toward the mountain with their feet planted flat and touch the mountain side. The team members made contact with the patient and assessed his medical needs and prepared him for transport on the Polaris down the mountainside to an awaiting ambulance from 6,379 feet.
The trip down the mountain was made difficult by large rock outcroppings and soft dirt trails which required team members to shift their weight and move positions to counterbalance the Polaris around steep, sharp turns. The team and patient made it uneventfully down and to the waiting ambulance. While the mission only took around two hours to complete, this time of year is of special interest to the team. With shorter days and steep temperature drops immediately after sundown, the HGH SORT knows that if it does not move effectively and efficiently, potentially deadly outcomes can result.
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