Ronan's Well Rescue - The Narrows
[Extract from CPSS Newsletter, June 2000]
The Rescue
At about 2pm on Saturday 20 May 2000, a party of 5 entered Ronan's Well in Echo Valley, with the intention of making the through trip, and leaving via the Robin Hood Cavern entrance. After crossing the pits, the party negotiated the first awkward section of the Narrows. Two members of the party, Peter and Kathy, got past the next narrow section, but Andy, at around 6ft tall and 95kg, managed to wedge himself firmly in the constriction.
At this point, the cave is a roughly horizontal passage, with a narrow, vertical cross-section, that tapers at the top and bottom, and is widest in the middle. The passage is quite rough, and there are lots of lumps and nodules that stick out of the passage walls. These nodules were sticking into Andy's shoulder, hip and chest, and were causing him severe discomfort. After trying to free himself, Andy decided he needed help, and asked the two members of the party to call Cape Metro Rescue Services.
Once the alarm had been raised, three members of CPSS were able to respond, and together with a member of Metro, were at cave within less than 2 hours of the initial call. The Metro Hi Angle Team and Fish Hoek Fire Brigade arrived shortly afterwards carrying an enormous amount of gear, that included a generator, very bright lights, climbing and medical gear.
The first CPSS member reached Andy at about 5.30pm, and the whole group appeared to relax once they knew that rescuers were present. As Andy was wearing a T shirt and thin cotton pants, his clothes did nothing to protect him from the rough rock. The first attempt to extricate the patient involved placing thick plastic between Andy and the rock. By this stage Andy had been trapped for about 4 hours, and did not have the strength to lift himself.
Luckily, the crack in which Andy was stuck widened again above him. This allowed rescuers access to Andy's head and shoulders, and to Peter and Kathy, who were still in front of Andy. Both Peter and Kathy were starting to get cold, so jerseys and a flask of tea were passed through to them, and a straw was supplied so that Andy could be given some Coke.
With the aid of the Peter in the front, the rescue team managed to get a sling around Andy's chest, and another around his hips. The passage was then rigged so that Andy could be lifted using two pulley systems. He only had to be lifted about 5 centimeters to get him free of the knobbly protrusions that had been causing him so much pain. Once free of these obstructions, Andy managed to wriggle free, and get into the slightly wider passage behind.
After a pause to get back his breath, he managed to extricate himself from the narrows, and was guided out of the cave. Once Andy was out of the way, Kathy and Peter made their way out of the Narrows, and were assisted out of the cave.
Conclusions
One of the main contributing factors to the patient getting stuck, was his clothing. He was wearing a thin T shirt, and thin cotton pants. These did not provide him with any protection from the rock once the knobs and nodules dug into him. This made any movement on his part extremely painful, so he was more inclined to lie still, rather than wriggle to extricate himself.
If the rescue had gone on any longer, more cavers would have been required. We would have had to get Kathy and Peter out of the cave from the Robin Hood side, which would have meant that cavers with knowledge of the cave would have been needed.
A point that was raised after the event was the lack of a CPSS call out procedure. Such a document would ensure that anybody who receives the call would respond in the same way. It would act as a checklist to ensure that vital points are not forgotten in the heat of the moment. As it was, the rescue went extremely smoothly, and all of the people involved worked very well together.
[Diagram] Diagram of the relative positions of the patient and the pulley system during the extrication from the Narrows in Ronan's Well.
