Wednesday, December 5 at two pm a fuel truck from Scott Base en route to McMurdo discovered a fuel leak. Following proper protocol, the driver pulled over to report and contain the leak. While waiting for the spill response team from both bases, a Williams Airfield Shuttle collided head on with the truck. The passenger in the kiwi fuel truck was thrown from the truck down a steep embankment and was critically injured. He later died at the scene.
The 11 passengers on the shuttle were ejected from the shuttle onto the side of the road, just a few feet from the embankment. Their injuries ranged from a few cuts and bruises to a severed hand, collapsed lung, broken arms and legs and one passenger was impaled on an iron rod that was stuck in the volcanic ash. Another victim died at the emergency room of head trauma.
Medical response teams were called into action and the fire station responded immediately. The fire station was set up as a temporary hospital to receive the injured. After evaluation, five victims of the mass casualty event were airlifted to Christchurch for emergency surgery and treatment. No other fatalities were reported. Names of the victims are being withheld pending notification of family members.
The emergency response staff practices and trains for such events weekly and also has a large team of volunteers trained to respond to such emergencies. All systems operated as planned and the drill was considered a success.
I volunteered to be impaled! I figured Id seen enough episodes of ER and other hospital shows to pull it off and when would I ever get a chance to act this way? I think I am ready for my TV audition now!
The day I volunteered for this was a beautiful sunny warm day. The day of the staged event was snowy and windy. I dressed in my ECW (emergency weather gear) to be outside for a while and was "thrown" out of the shuttle and landed on an iron rod on a slight sloping hill just a short distance from the very steep embankment were the dummy was thrown down the embankment for the rescuers and SAR (search and rescue) folks to practice.
I lay there and even got myself to cry, one does not get impaled and scream hysterically, I was impaled right below my right breast. If that had really happened I would have had a broken rib, probably a collapsed lung and an injured liver or gall bladder. Screaming would be too painful. We were driven out to the site between the bases in an airport shuttle where I was "prepped" with the iron rod held on by duct tape and painted with fake blood. That stuff stains so I procured old clothes from a skua dumpster. I never dreamed I would be dumpster diving in Antarctica, but can proudly say that I can add that to my list of oddball accomplishments.
I thought of the scene in Tolstoy's War and Peace where Prince Bolkanski is lying wounded on the battlefield at Borodino and is removed from the pain by looking at the clouds go by over head, wondering why he never noticed clouds before. I started babbling incoherently about where's Jim and am I going to die and take this thing out of me it hurts. When the response team got to me, I started to try to pull it out, they taped my hands to my chest. They put me on a back board and taped my head down. They got my hair stuck there too, that actually hurt. After strapping me in, they lifted me; I was sure I would get dumped, but we were supposed to let that happen to show that they did not strap me down correctly. It felt like I was going to get dumped over the steep embankment and end up really impaled at the bottom of the hill with the dead dummy!
They got me to the ambulance and on a gurney, then covered me with a super warm blanket and rolled me into the ambulance. One of them said "this one deserves and Oscar". Unfortunately there were no cameras rolling! After waiting for the next "victim" we were rushed to the temporary hospital where they put me in critical, over by the dead people corner. If that had been an actual emergency, I would have been x-rayed and knocked out for the 7 hour flight to New Zealand. There are 2 doctors on site and 4 nurses. There are also military medical staff here and a flight nurse and doctor. The duct tape really could not keep that rod up in the air. Near the end of the drill as the kiwi doctor was making his last rounds, he asked if I needed anything. Well I needed some viagra to keep my rod up! At that point I was declared "good to go". I'll say!
It was weird, as they were working on me at the site, all the dust and ashes were falling in my mouth and on my face. I was also getting hit with the occasional snowflakes. Being wrapped up in all the warm stuff made for a really hot experience and did little to quell my claustrophobia. But the fire station was filled with people I work with, eat with and talk to everyday. There was Lorraine the courier being my vitals recorder, and Roger and Rick (the guy with the tacks in his head for Halloween!) rolling the gurney into the fire station. This is a hellava way to get the afternoon off, but they are desperate for victims and people who volunteer for this get kudos and brownie points although towards what I have no idea. It might almost rate as a boondoggle as they are so few and far between. I needed an afternoon off as well!
(So what do you do on your afternoons off?)
Tomorrow, my day off, I am going with some folks out to the LDB site where they launch science high atmosphere balloons. The buildings there are the tallest on the continent, specially designed for the payloads of scientific equipment. If the weather is good, I will ski back in time to hit the arts and craft show. It's a pretty big thing here, there are lots of talented people who make some really nice stuff. It's one place you can spend some money, I have pretty much maxed out on the 23 items at the store.
Next week I will be joining the Christmas concert choir and doing an act in the Saturday Night Women's Soirée, a fundraiser for charities in New Zealand. My act will include, but not be limited to: singing, playing the tin whistle, telling MAPCON jokes (this is the massive DOS based data system that is the collective conscience of us all here) and a slide show behind me that will include strange pictures of things Antarctic. I figured hey at the bottom of the world who would ever know if I bomb? Turns out this is such a big thing that they make a DVD of it. Great. I will be forever immortalized making a fool of myself again. On another continent. Hey I have a reputation to uphold.
PS. Catch 22 of the week--this is true folks--the hair stylist has carpel tunnel and she only worked during regular work hours anyway which is when most people on station work so they had to take time off for a cut. They asked for volunteers, so I stepped up only to find that they have no scissors. I was told I could use the barbershop, but only during work hours with no scissors, but there is a shaver, so only people wanting their head shaved could get cuts, er rather shaved. I asked about after hours, but no, that's when they turn the barbershop into a massage parlor.
I have scissors on route, after which I will open my own side business and make money that way! I will do my part for Antarctic beautification, after all I have been cutting hair for some people for 30 years, haven't cut off an earlobe yet!
The 11 passengers on the shuttle were ejected from the shuttle onto the side of the road, just a few feet from the embankment. Their injuries ranged from a few cuts and bruises to a severed hand, collapsed lung, broken arms and legs and one passenger was impaled on an iron rod that was stuck in the volcanic ash. Another victim died at the emergency room of head trauma.
Medical response teams were called into action and the fire station responded immediately. The fire station was set up as a temporary hospital to receive the injured. After evaluation, five victims of the mass casualty event were airlifted to Christchurch for emergency surgery and treatment. No other fatalities were reported. Names of the victims are being withheld pending notification of family members.
The emergency response staff practices and trains for such events weekly and also has a large team of volunteers trained to respond to such emergencies. All systems operated as planned and the drill was considered a success.
I volunteered to be impaled! I figured Id seen enough episodes of ER and other hospital shows to pull it off and when would I ever get a chance to act this way? I think I am ready for my TV audition now!
The day I volunteered for this was a beautiful sunny warm day. The day of the staged event was snowy and windy. I dressed in my ECW (emergency weather gear) to be outside for a while and was "thrown" out of the shuttle and landed on an iron rod on a slight sloping hill just a short distance from the very steep embankment were the dummy was thrown down the embankment for the rescuers and SAR (search and rescue) folks to practice.
I lay there and even got myself to cry, one does not get impaled and scream hysterically, I was impaled right below my right breast. If that had really happened I would have had a broken rib, probably a collapsed lung and an injured liver or gall bladder. Screaming would be too painful. We were driven out to the site between the bases in an airport shuttle where I was "prepped" with the iron rod held on by duct tape and painted with fake blood. That stuff stains so I procured old clothes from a skua dumpster. I never dreamed I would be dumpster diving in Antarctica, but can proudly say that I can add that to my list of oddball accomplishments.
I thought of the scene in Tolstoy's War and Peace where Prince Bolkanski is lying wounded on the battlefield at Borodino and is removed from the pain by looking at the clouds go by over head, wondering why he never noticed clouds before. I started babbling incoherently about where's Jim and am I going to die and take this thing out of me it hurts. When the response team got to me, I started to try to pull it out, they taped my hands to my chest. They put me on a back board and taped my head down. They got my hair stuck there too, that actually hurt. After strapping me in, they lifted me; I was sure I would get dumped, but we were supposed to let that happen to show that they did not strap me down correctly. It felt like I was going to get dumped over the steep embankment and end up really impaled at the bottom of the hill with the dead dummy!
They got me to the ambulance and on a gurney, then covered me with a super warm blanket and rolled me into the ambulance. One of them said "this one deserves and Oscar". Unfortunately there were no cameras rolling! After waiting for the next "victim" we were rushed to the temporary hospital where they put me in critical, over by the dead people corner. If that had been an actual emergency, I would have been x-rayed and knocked out for the 7 hour flight to New Zealand. There are 2 doctors on site and 4 nurses. There are also military medical staff here and a flight nurse and doctor. The duct tape really could not keep that rod up in the air. Near the end of the drill as the kiwi doctor was making his last rounds, he asked if I needed anything. Well I needed some viagra to keep my rod up! At that point I was declared "good to go". I'll say!
It was weird, as they were working on me at the site, all the dust and ashes were falling in my mouth and on my face. I was also getting hit with the occasional snowflakes. Being wrapped up in all the warm stuff made for a really hot experience and did little to quell my claustrophobia. But the fire station was filled with people I work with, eat with and talk to everyday. There was Lorraine the courier being my vitals recorder, and Roger and Rick (the guy with the tacks in his head for Halloween!) rolling the gurney into the fire station. This is a hellava way to get the afternoon off, but they are desperate for victims and people who volunteer for this get kudos and brownie points although towards what I have no idea. It might almost rate as a boondoggle as they are so few and far between. I needed an afternoon off as well!
(So what do you do on your afternoons off?)
Tomorrow, my day off, I am going with some folks out to the LDB site where they launch science high atmosphere balloons. The buildings there are the tallest on the continent, specially designed for the payloads of scientific equipment. If the weather is good, I will ski back in time to hit the arts and craft show. It's a pretty big thing here, there are lots of talented people who make some really nice stuff. It's one place you can spend some money, I have pretty much maxed out on the 23 items at the store.
Next week I will be joining the Christmas concert choir and doing an act in the Saturday Night Women's Soirée, a fundraiser for charities in New Zealand. My act will include, but not be limited to: singing, playing the tin whistle, telling MAPCON jokes (this is the massive DOS based data system that is the collective conscience of us all here) and a slide show behind me that will include strange pictures of things Antarctic. I figured hey at the bottom of the world who would ever know if I bomb? Turns out this is such a big thing that they make a DVD of it. Great. I will be forever immortalized making a fool of myself again. On another continent. Hey I have a reputation to uphold.
PS. Catch 22 of the week--this is true folks--the hair stylist has carpel tunnel and she only worked during regular work hours anyway which is when most people on station work so they had to take time off for a cut. They asked for volunteers, so I stepped up only to find that they have no scissors. I was told I could use the barbershop, but only during work hours with no scissors, but there is a shaver, so only people wanting their head shaved could get cuts, er rather shaved. I asked about after hours, but no, that's when they turn the barbershop into a massage parlor.
I have scissors on route, after which I will open my own side business and make money that way! I will do my part for Antarctic beautification, after all I have been cutting hair for some people for 30 years, haven't cut off an earlobe yet!
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