How a Broken Helmet Saved My Life
A long way from Whitianga, in the middle of the Southern Alps somewhere, my two rock-climbing partners’ looks of concern terrified me! “Rachael, we have taken off your helmet and replaced it with mine and we have set off your emergency locator beacon!” I felt sorry for my partner at home, in Whitianga, my first emergency contact! He’d be receiving an almighty fright as emergency rescue services contacted him.
Two days before, my two climbing partners (Jess, Cliff) and I had splashed out and helicoptered up to Cloudy Peak, in the middle of the Southern Alps. We were planning to do a few climbs, especially a 300 metre rock climb called Mission to Mercury. After that there would be a long walk out with heavy packs full of climbing and camping gear.
Now, we were on a ledge, part way through abseiling down that 300 m rock face. At 240 m, the ropes dislodged a rock from the top that hit my helmet. I felt nothing.
I regained consciousness, not even knowing I’d been out. We still had to get to the base of the climb and then down a steep 1-hour scramble back to camp. I had never tested the rescue beacon and had no idea if a rescue team would arrive or not.
Our many years of doing big rock-climbs together had readied us to cope with the new difficult situation. The back of my head was bloody and a bit smashed up. Unlike the usual me, I started crying. The strong care behaviour from my climbing partners was traumatic as we had always worked side by side, equally.
They wouldn’t let me help and kept me as still as possible, and to one side – this kind of super-care freaked me out. I was used to friendly scathing-sarcasm!
I stayed conscious and was able to abseil down the next 240 metres. It was getting dark. Still no helicopter.
It was dark and I was puking by the time the rescue team arrived at the area called Cloudy Peak. We’d shifted about 400 vertical metres since setting off the beacon. The helicopter touched down just enough for one hero/rescue guy to leap out. I vomited. I was grateful to be vomiting because I thought I might look too healthy to warrant such a serious rescue.
| My climbing partner Jess’s words: What is Rachael doing sitting like that? Crap, there’s blood! Crap, as I watch you turn to jelly and go unconscious. Okay, okay she’s starting to come round. Eyes aren’t focused, but conscious. I was still a bit hopeful you were okay. It’s the next part when I figured that you were in real trouble. Standing now, but still not coherent, and your legs start buckling and an arm tries to reach out to grab something but it just kept dropping. Buckle, stand, buckle, stand, grab with an arm, drop. You did it three or four times before Cliff grabbed you and sat you down. Now I’m super worried. |
It was clear to the rescue team that my smashed helmet saved my life. It was also clear that Chris, my partner and first emergency contact, had helped to save my life by giving the emergency locator beacon to me years ago. His gifting words were, “Don’t use this as an excuse to do crazy shit”. Oops.
Confirmed cracked skull and airhead
I arrived at Christchurch hospital just after midnight. I was taken for a CT scan of my brain, which showed that I did, in fact, have a brain. It also showed a crack in my skull and a punctured part of the lining of my brain. I didn’t need brain surgery, which was a relief. I had no idea what the doctors notes meant, a bone fracture and something about air cells, but I gathered them to mean, ‘I was a confirmed airhead’.
| Rescue team hero Dave’s words: “… That’s our work and we love it, through all the vomit, day and night!” “Being able to self-rescue, off the wall, as you did with Cliff and Jess, is a commendable team effort. Knowing how to self-rescue without increasing the risk profile of your predicament further is a skill in its own right. Knowing when to ‘stay and play’ (staying in place of the incident) is also part of that self-rescue decision making. The choice between the two options can be a hard decision at times. At the end of the day, you had the capability and skills between your group to remove yourselves effectively and safely from a place of danger.” |
Words by Rachael Mayne
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