Six hours is a long time. Footy matches are played and won in six hours. Think of a six hour enduro, how do you feel at the end? Is it a long time to be in the saddle?? It takes six hours to drive from Hobart to Queenstown and back. Six hours is one hour and twenty eight minutes short of your entire working day. Six hours can feel like forever.
Now imagine that you’ve crashed your bike and in the fall you are impailed on a 45cm long wooden stake. It enters your body between the top of your right leg and the bottom of your buttock, passing though your bowel and groin before exiting through your loins on the front left hand side of your body. This would hurt. Pain like nothing we could ever imagine. Think in terms of those six hours now, could you take six hours with a stick through your most sensitive of parts? I couldn’t, but Matt Yates did.
Twenty two kilometers into the second days stage of the ‘Anaconda MTB Enduro’, Matt attempted to ride up a short, rocky pinch when he lost his balance, lifted the front wheel and fell backwards onto a Mulga Bush. Mulga is notorious amoungst four wheel drivers, it is a particularly hard wood with sharp pointed branches that can punture even the hardiest of offroad tires. Matt landed on one of these Mulga ‘spikes’ from a height of one meter, his full one hundred and five kilogram weight driving down on the bush. It lodged in his body exactly as I described above. I was standing less than two meters away and heard his skin ‘pop’ as the wood pierced his skin. Matt screamed and I did too. Fuck. It was the worst thing I have ever seen out on my bike.
For a second Matt thought he had been knackered by his seat, but I could see the stake through his body and told him not to move. I was seriously scared. This was serious. I had to do something. I pulled out my first aid kit and sat next to him. Fuck!? What do I do? Another rider (Nina) stopped to see if we were ok. I told her no. Definately not ok. She took a quick look at Matt’s injury and soon was as white and sweaty as both Matt and I. The stake had ‘plugged’ the wound and none too much blood was kicking about. Nothing in the first aid kit was going to help, we needed professionals. I called the Race Organiser (Rapid Ascent), described the injury, where we were and asked that a helicopter come extract Matt NOW.
Matt had crashed on a remote section of singletrack twenty kilometers from Alice Springs. The nearest four wheel drive access track was four kilometers (?) away. Now you would think that a guy with a stick stuck diagonally through him would warrant immediate attention, for fucks sake there are major arteries down there! But, nope, the Rapid Ascent guys sent us a Check Point Marshall first.. That took fifty minutes. The Marshall showed up, didn’t really look at Matt’s injury (he had to look three times before he would believe that the stick was through Matt and not just his knicks), before calling a First Aid Officer to the scene. I was getting pissed off, a First Aid Officer? Fuck no. We NEED a helicopter with Paramedics. I asked the Marshall to make the call, he wouldn’t do it stating that the First Aid Officer would handle it. A First Aid Officer arrived on the scene two hours after the accident first happened. She had a stretcher with her and a small bag of tricks, none of which were suitable for fixing a problem this big. I now asked her to call for a helicopter. She at least called the Ambo’s asking for assistance and the ‘possibility’ of helicopter extraction, but as she did not press home the severity of the situation the Ambo’s sent a terrestrial crew out in a four wheel drive. Fuck.
By this stage Matt was complaining that he couldn’t feel his left leg, his testicles and of sharp pain that he rated 8/10. I was starting to freak, I work as a Park Ranger and we train for these sort of circumstances, I knew that we should be putting him in a helicopter as time is of the essence and NOT fucking about trying to put a one hundred and five kilogram man on a stretcher and attempt to carry him four kilometers (?) over rough and tight singletrack. But no-one listened.
Ok, so we’re going to carry him out? I asked the Marshall to call for more people to be sent up and help with extraction as with only four people we could only carry Matt five to ten meters at a time before we had to set him down and rest. The Marshall said ‘No, the Ambo’s are coming and they’ll take care of it’. Ok, how ’bout we call the Ambo’s and make sure they have sent two big blokes and not two little women? Nope. The Marshall didn’t make the call. I was beside myself with anger but I tried to remain calm externally so not as to freak Matt out.
The Ambo’s arrived on the scene at the four hour mark. One big guy and one tiny little chick. They pumped Matt full of morphine and then helped us carry Matt then remaining distance back to the vehicles. It was unbelievably hard. We had to go slow so that the stake didn’t saw at Matt’s insides and to ensure we didn’t drop him or bump the stake. It took another hour and a half to get Matt to the ambulance (which had a flat tire from a mulga spike recieved in the rough traverse in). Once there, the Ambo’s debated how the fuck they would drive Matt to hospital in the four wheel drive as the motion of the vehicle would cause the stake to move and possibly cause more damage. The male Ambo said he wished he had a helicopter… Unbelievably they drove Matt to hospital (a half hour drive) over some of the worst four wheel drive tracks you have ever seen. The pain he went through must have been HUGE!
Matt went straight into surgery. The doctors operated for five hours to remove the stake. It had missed his major artery by two millimeters, had it of been hit, Matt would have been dead in minutes. They pain in Matt’s left leg was caused by blood flow being blocked by the stake. Matt was within minutes of losing his leg.
I am totally gobsmaked at how this event was handled by Rapid Ascent, given I told race organisers about the serverity of the indicent at 10:20am, that we didn’t have Ambulance Officers on the scene until 2:30pm (it may have been later).
I can’t make it any clearer, Matt’s life was at stake. He could have died.
Fuck.
Well handled, Ben. It must have been hard not to vent whilst dealing with the inept calls being made around you. Glad your mate finally made to the Hospital alive.
No words could comprehend the stress you and mat must have felt (ma a little more prob.) at this kind of mismanagement. As particapants of these events or even riding with mates, we have a duty of care, or respect for others well being. I can only say that i shall not impart this kind of responsibility onto some organization that does not understand nor respects this relationship.
That’s fucked, proper fucked. How is it that you always seem to end up in these kind of crazy situations Ben?
for the ambulance service not to send a helicopter the race marshal must have seriously under reported the severity of the situation. that shit is Cat 1 A 1 right now buisness for an ambo service. the outcome stinks.
Hats off.
Big ups to you both
hello, hello operator…THIS MAN HAS A FUCKING STAKE THROUGH HIS ABDOMEN. he has not eaten the kebab, he is the kebab.
This sounds like one of the worst and most inept responses to a medical emergency i have ever heard…i am interested to hear their official response. well done to you mate, good calm head. safe and speedy recovery to matt
Well done to you and Nina. To Rapid Ascent, you people are a disgrace. Good luck to Matt.
Fuck that Benny, good work. Perhaps you should be in remote area paramedics!
Rapid Ascent is much indebted to the support and assistance of Ben Storer, Nina Heidelauf and others for the incredible support they provided to Matt Yates during his incident as described in the ‘six hours’ story above. We totally agree that it took an incredibly long time to get Mat to hospital (by records being about 20 mins after Ben’s call until John reached him, 1.5 hrs until th e and approx 3hrs until the ambulance personnel arrived) but explain below that we did everything within our power to get him there far sooner.
Rapid Ascent also advises we place the competitors safety and well being at the centre of all events and continually seek input and assistance on this topic from medical and emergency professionals – making sure that we follow best practise where possible. As such we believe we had in place an adequate and appropriate medical and emergency plan to deal with likely situations in the Anaconda MTB Race. This included:
– having two medical teams with one placed at the finish and one mobile unit in a 4WD roving around the course
– additional roving personnel in 4WDs able to provide assistance as and when needed
– on call notice to Alice Springs ambulances and paramedics to provide additional assistance if needed
– sufficient communications to be able to coordinate all personnel; including mobile phones (which have very good coverage) as well as satellite phones as back up
– requirement that all competitors carry a mobile phone with central contact number to us for emergencies (how many other events make this a requirement?)
With regard to Matt’s horrific injury, we consider that we did everything we could to get him to hospital ASAP. Yes, in hindsight there are always things that could be done better but in consideration of the circumstances this was done as best as conditions allowed at the time. Some of these circumstances worth being aware of include:
– the fact there is NO EMERGENCY SERVICES HELICOPTER IN ALICE SPRINGS
– there is no readily available commercially rentable helicopter in Alice Springs that is big enough to carry a stretcher or equipped for such activities (we tried this too)
– the rough and rugged terrain and minimal 4WD tracks in the area
We alerted our medical team as soon as Ben’s first call came through and immediately dispatched them in their 4WD and John Jacoby (Race Director) to the scene of the injury. This progress was slower than those who have not been to Alice Springs might expect due to the roughness of the terrain and the inaccessibility and remoteness of the exact location of the injury. Irrespectively, all steps were taken to get support to him as soon as possible, whilst also considering that:
– he could not move himself or with support – he needed carrying and no helicopter was available
– he was not bleeding externally (so blood loss a lesser issue)
– he was accompanied by a medical professional who was monitoring his condition and communicating with ambulance officers of his condition
– the emergency vehicles themselves took time to get to the scene due to rough terrain (having got a puncture) and the closest vehicle access point to the injury site was approx. 2.5kms
Yes, we have learnt from the accident and will continue to develop and amend our emergency plans with this experience to ensure the ongoing safety of competitors in all our events. The unfortunate thing being that due to the very nature of mountain biking (and adventure racing – which we are also involved with) means that some accidents and situations are well beyond our control and that accidents do continue to happen in remote locations despite how well planned and prepared we are for them.
It is for this reason that Rapid Ascent continue to make it mandatory for competitors in all our events to carry first aid kits and mobile phones as a way of providing extra education, prevention and management of accidents in our event, as well as continual review of our emergency management.
@ rapid ascent. regardless of how you explain your reasons (excuses) for not helping- you should be disgusted.
Fact is that support crews SHOULD be placed along the entire route…and intervals. When alerted, you should have been able to respond and get to the scene way within……what…5hrs???? NOT relie of services that you KNOW are not there???What a joke.