A MOCK EMERGENCY EXERCISE, organised by Youghal Coastguard, and involving Youghal Fire Service, HSE Ambulance Service, Youghal Coastguard and the Search & Rescue helicopter from Waterford, EI-SAR, took place at Pilmore on Sunday 11th October 2009.
Report: Denis O’Flynn  Photo: Michael Hussey www.youghalonline.com
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The exercise involved a car leaving the road, crashing through a fence and ending up precariously close to the shoreline at Pilmore. Having received an emergency call from a member of the public, Youghal Coastguard – led by Mike Lee, Officer-in-Charge – were first on the scene and, having surveyed the scene, set in motion the response from the other emergency services.

The scene showed a crashed car with its roof partly caved in and a driver and front seat passenger seemingly seriously injured. Youghal Fire Service, headed by Tommy Roche, Youghal Station Officer rushed two tenders to the scene with cutting equipment and Youghal Ambulance Service also promptly made their way to the scene with HSE Paramedics.

Youghal Fire Service proceeded to use cutting equipment to help release the driver, who was the more seriously injured of the two in the car. As this was being done, the HSE Paramedics and the Fire Service First Responders were attempting to stabilise both the driver and passenger. Such was the seriousness of the injuries sustained by the driver, including head and spinal injuries, the Coastguard tasked the Waterford based helicopter, EI-SAR, to attend the scene and airlift the injured party to the local casualty hospital.

The arrival of EI-SAR coincided with the successful release of the driver who was then given further medical aid on the ground in preparation for his airlift. A member of the helicopter crew, who is also a Paramedic, assessed the patient and oversaw him being transferred to the helicopter by members of Youghal Coastguard. Having secured the injured party in the helicopter and adding an extra HSE Paramedic, EI-SAR took off on route to the hospital.

Meanwhile the Fire Service and HSE medical staff was continuing to deal with the injured passenger, which necessitated the cutting off of the roof of the car to enable the Paramedics put the passenger on a spinal board as well. Having stabilised the patient, he was transferred to the HSE Ambulance and rushed to the Casualty Department of the local hospital.

This exercise showed the professionalism of the local rescue services in the manner in which they carried out this duties and work side by side in an emergency situation. The whole exercise was filmed by an RTE Television crew for a series of programmes on the Irish Coastguard Service nationwide which will be shown in the New Year.

The local Youghal Coastguard Unit would like to thank St. Ita’s GAA Club for the use of their grounds in Pilmore which facilitated the landing of the Search & Rescue helicopter.
Click on image (allow a few seconds to load) to see the Youghal Emergency Responders in action in the Mock Exercise filmed for RTE’s new series to be screened in next year