{"id":91737,"date":"2024-12-10T16:18:42","date_gmt":"2024-12-10T21:18:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/?post_type=survivor-stories&p=91737"},"modified":"2025-02-27T11:26:11","modified_gmt":"2025-02-27T16:26:11","slug":"20-minutes-to-bike-accident-helicopter-rescue-plb","status":"publish","type":"survivor-stories","link":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/survivor-stories\/20-minutes-to-bike-accident-helicopter-rescue-plb\/","title":{"rendered":"20 Minutes to Survival: Helicopter Rescue Saves Biker with Lacerated Spleen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It was a clear, beautiful day as we took part in a Postie Bike Rally<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group was on the final stretch, heading back to home base, when our friend Russell suddenly lost control of his bike and fell. It was a relatively slow-speed accident since we were navigating a rough, unmaintained gravel road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I arrived on the scene just as Russell was picking himself up and brushing the dust off. He looked pale, shocked, and a little unsteady. But he was on his feet, which initially eased our concern. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rest of the group stuck around for a while, checking out the bike and joking to lighten the mood. Even Russell cracked a smile and joined in. Before long, the others headed off\u2014happy hour at the pub was calling. My wife and I decided to stay back with Russell to make sure he was truly okay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a while, Russell went off for a quick bathroom break, but when he returned, his face had gone pale again. He looked at us, shocked, and said, \u201cI just peed blood.\u201d<\/em> Coming from an ultrarunning background, where this sometimes happens due to endurance efforts, it didn\u2019t immediately sound like a red-alert situation to us. But in hindsight, that\u2019s when I should have deployed the PLB.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russell still seemed coherent and able to move, so we thought we\u2019d try to ride back slowly and reassess along the way. We didn\u2019t get far\u2014maybe 100 meters\u2014before Russell stopped abruptly. He couldn\u2019t dismount from his bike, and it was clear that something was very wrong. My wife dropped her bike and rushed to support him, while I quickly deployed our ResQLink 400<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We got Russell off the bike, but as soon as he was on the ground, he went into full shock and passed out for several minutes. It was a tense and terrifying moment. Thankfully, the helicopter was already in the air from another medical transfer. Within 20 minutes, they arrived on the scene. It was such a relief to hand Russell over to the professionals, knowing he was in good hands. Of course, we couldn\u2019t resist snapping the obligatory \u201crescue chopper photo\u201d before they took off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few days later, I reached out to check on Russell. The news was sobering: he had suffered a lacerated spleen, a punctured kidney, a couple of broken ribs, and a nasty knock to the head. The doctors told him, point-blank, that without the helicopter ride, he wouldn\u2019t have made it home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are so incredibly grateful to the helicopter crew and everyone involved in the rescue. It\u2019s a stark reminder that even a slow-speed incident can turn serious. Having a personal locator beacon (PLB) on hand\u2014and deploying it promptly\u2014can make all the difference. Russell was lucky that day, and we\u2019ll never forget it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Russell still seemed coherent and able to move, so we thought we\u2019d try to ride back slowly and reassess along the way. We didn\u2019t get far\u2014maybe 100 meters\u2014before Russell stopped abruptly. He couldn\u2019t dismount from his bike, and it was clear that something was very wrong. My wife dropped her bike and rushed to support him, while I followed suit, quickly deploying our ResQLink 400 PLB.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":182813,"featured_media":97936,"template":"","survivor-category":[23],"terrain":[13],"survivor-event":[],"survivor-cause":[125],"survivor-rescue":[139],"class_list":["post-91737","survivor-stories","type-survivor-stories","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","survivor-category-off-road","terrain-desert","survivor-cause-crash-or-collision","survivor-rescue-local-search-and-rescue"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/survivor-stories\/91737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/survivor-stories"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/survivor-stories"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/182813"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"survivor-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/survivor-category?post=91737"},{"taxonomy":"terrain","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/terrain?post=91737"},{"taxonomy":"survivor-event","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/survivor-event?post=91737"},{"taxonomy":"survivor-cause","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/survivor-cause?post=91737"},{"taxonomy":"survivor-rescue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/survivor-rescue?post=91737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}