By Callum Ludwig
Upper Yarra SES crew members and Ambulance Victoria crews faced a literal uphill battle as they responded to a rescue callout on Mt Donna Buang on Saturday 20 July.
Emergency services were called out to the incident at about 1.35pm, right in the midst of the rush of visitors to see the recently-fallen snow on the mountain.
Upper Yarra SES Unit Controller Hannah Brunton said they sent out a support vehicle and a rescue vehicle following Ambulance Victoria.
“We knew that we would have access issues due to the amount of snow that had fallen, and also because we were aware of how many people were up on the mountain as well, which made access a bit difficult,” she said.
“The information that we had from the caller and from dispatch was that this person was in the snow, so as far as we were concerned, she was injured and still in the snow.”
An Ambulance Victora spokesperson confirmed that one person was transported by road to Maroondah Hospital with a lower-body injury.
Ms Brunton said it was it was pretty shocking seeing how unaware people were that they had to move for the flashing lights.
“Before we got to the bottom car park, there was already a long line of traffic just at a complete standstill, which meant that we had to drive the rest of the way up the mountain on the wrong side of the road,” she said.
“We’re getting up there as quickly as we can because obviously the longer the paramedics can’t get to her, the more likely it is that her injuries are going to get worse, especially as she could exposed to the cold for a long while,”
“The grader had been through for most of the roads, there was access on both sides for people to move over but they just weren’t.”
A vehicle had also become stuck in snow on the way up, just prior to the gate monitored by Parks Victoria, and was contacting their insurance for assistance, creating a further backlog of traffic.
Upon arrival, Ms Brunton said the patient had been brought inside to the first aid room by the park rangers which was really good.
She was out of the snow but still was wet and cold and in quite a bit of pain and we determined that it probably wasn’t the safest idea for our truck to come up the rest of the way, bcause that section of road between the top car park and the summit hasn’t been graded,” she said.
“The paramedics made the call to administer pain medication to the patient and then to transport her down the summit in our vehicle, we used a stretcher to get her from the first aid room into the vehicle, made her comfortable and then slowly made our way back down to meet the ambulance,”
“We were super lucky, this woman only had a leg injury, so it was nothing that was life-threatening or critical, but if this was a heart attack or a severe injury with bleeding or something like that, the delays caused by people who just didn’t know how to drive to the conditions around them could have been fatal for someone.”
The SES truck took a paramedic up to the patient on the summit while the ambulance had stopped to put on snow chains.
Ms Brunton said Donna Buang is a unique place but it gives them a bit of stress because so many people want to go there.
“It’s just so beautiful, it’s accessible, it’s local, it’s free and so many people go out there unprepared,” she said.
“There’s people out there in short shorts, people out there in jeans and runners while we’re out there in full, heavy clothing and still freezing, it’s not just about knowing what to do with emergency vehicles on the roads, but just knowing your surroundings and driving to the conditions and your abilities.”
