Deadly ATV Accident | Coast Guard Alaska | Full Episode

summer in Southeast Alaska means long days for the Coast Guard when a man is violently thrown from his off-road vehicle the Coast Guard swoops in he's been laying on the ground for four or five hours you know you're thinking he's hypothermic he's got a broken back you know who knows what he's feeling out in the open waters near Sitka a sightseeing vessel that has flooded limited information is passed at this point we do know that we've got 84 people on board and a helicopter crew tackles back-to-back rescues in the remote Alaskan wilderness especially up here in Alaska you never know what you're gonna get the vast Alaskan wilderness a place where beauty is cloaked by danger here every day the highly trained men and women of the u.s. Coast Guard risk their lives to save others America's deadliest waters are protected by Coast Guard Alaska [Music] we actually looks good but they couldn't get a fixed-wing aircraft in there because of an icy strip that's what we're going up there lieutenant Andy Clayton Air Station Sitka Alaska and we were responding to a medevac for an ATV accident up near Yakutat questions comes he wrecked his ATV near a landing strip in Dry Bay which is at the mouth of Alec River it's probably about 30 miles outside of Yakutat it's very remote area and my name's Chris Belisle coastal rescue swimmer at Air Station Sitka in southeast Alaska it's the case that came across to us was just a ATV accident with a broken back a 61 year old male we don't know how bad it really is he's stuck under the ATV I mean there's so many things that could happen hi Maya what are you thinking it really crashed it's Maya's first Alaska qualified case and it's probably a really good one for her it's a pretty big trauma case and it's someplace far and deep in the Alaskan bush oh do you want to do - my name is Maya - Nicole I'm a health service technician third class knowing this a trauma we need to get him in a c-collar right away he could have some damage to his spine and also I'm really concerned about internal bleeding just we don't know how how fast he was moving when he crashed and what what's broken inside while I myself when we're in route in the helicopter we were essentially just trying to make a plan for what we were gonna do when we got on scene we're both the same level of medical training so we're working together as a team [Applause] this place makes you feel pretty small [Music] away you're expecting the worst he's been laying on the ground for four or five hours you know you're thinking he's hypothermic he's got a broken back you know who knows what he's feeling right we have people that ahead they're talking about little grass area it's real wet heavy here don't worry but know right my name is lieutenant Simon Greene I'm a pilot here at Air Station Sitka luckily he was right off a little strip little dirt strip it's covered with snow slush still pretty heavy winter and Yakutat as I'm getting off the plane I'm looking around and kind of taking a view of the scene seeing if it's safe luckily he was kind of out in the field the ATV they just kind of rolled it out of the way [Applause] when you make first contact with the patient and obviously the first thing you do is calm them down this is this is a hell of a day I mean you know in the middle of nowhere helicopters coming to rescue you I mean a lot of things going on they're hurting they're in pain it's stressful it's it's scary [Music] [Music] Chris was just getting through with the rapid trauma assessment I came over to help him get the c-collar on the patient so at that time I was kind of able to crouch down and get a word in with the patient see how he was feeling he was able to hold a conversation with me and he was obviously alert and oriented the situation he was unable to move but he was able to move his arms which to me was a really good sign [Music] I finally was able to interview the son and the pilot on scene who was a friend and get some more information he told me that there was a lot of ice over the airstrip when he went from the ice to the mud his ATV caught in the mud and rolled and he hit himself on the his chest mainly on the handlebars thankfully he rolled clear of the HTV and was not rolled over by it Chris Belisle the rescue swimmer is really a master kind of staying calm and calming the patient even though it is a really scary and serious situation I think that's a really great skill to have you know the enema cross paths [Music] he's a bigot alaskan guy having two more people to help carry him out is you know helps parade whole turn here Paris real good news brush various accessories zero the advice we're airborne again with the patient zero three zero those that's like don't you nor Roger if we go direct from that position sick it's a hundred and sixty three nautical miles if we go to that position right there and then directed you know because we don't want to go over the thirty we had two options either to take him to Juneau or sicka the biggest concern was we wanted a smooth ride for the patient he had a possible broken back so we wanted a smooth ride [Applause] [Music] we were responding to a medevac for an ATV accident up near Yakutat we were able to take some shortcuts but we weren't able to go direct because in between us and Juno was Mount Fairweather at fifteen thousand three hundred feet so to climb up to that kind of altitude and fly around the mountain we would have no doubt got tossed by the winds once we got into the helicopter our main focus was essentially that he was stable make sure that he wasn't going into shock or having any other conditions that we couldn't see on the outside once we got the patient loaded our biggest concern friend is really keeping him comfortable it's not gonna be very easy he's laying on a solid aluminum backboard and they're usually pretty receptive they understand you know they're living in the middle of nowhere and when we come and see him we're the last resort they know it's pretty bad [Music] kind of steel plated his arm built this whole rhythm once we had them stabilized we could tell he was definitely slightly dehydrated and especially when anyone has a trauma you really should start an IV just in case they do start developing the symptoms of shock you want to be ready to treat them since been relatively short it's just over an hour beautiful clear day if you're a pilot or an aircrew in Alaska you came up here to challenge yourself but those dark and stormy nights are only fun after the fact when everything goes well and you're back on deck a flight like today in nice weather the whole process is fun regular folks Roger [Music] so how's everything feelings it's still just your localized pain here yes blink if stabbing towards the heart and there's ambulance perfect the ambulance crew is just one more team on a really huge chain of survival for these individuals it's one of these amazing really intricate situations that works like clockwork here in the last cut all right Gary was a pleasure meetin ya I'm sorry it was in these kind of situations but I was really lucky to have this case as my first medivac we had amazing weather we had a very compliant patient and I also had Chris Belisle as my rescue swimmer which he's just a very experienced swimmer it really feels good to know that you helped someone he was so happy that we were there and it just really made makes me feel good bye good job [Music] my name's Gary gray and I'm from Yakutat where I had my accident I was like 45 miles from Yakutat there's no way to get there other than a helicopter or a plane but the runways were all ice I couldn't walk I had broken bones next to my spine you always think it's gonna be somebody else but I've seen the choppers go by day after day for years and when they come to get you it's very nice I'm very thankful that the Coast Guard comes the day we called the pretty much the only choice we have my family and I all appreciate it and thank you Coast Guard [Music] Cheers the fifth bit of the morning my name's at Chris Belisle a Coast Guard rescue swimmer at Air Station Sitka I'm used to seeing everything from about 500 feet up so being up on a boat and dry is actually a new experience for me and quite fun does anybody have I know that that's four and that's a that's starboard and that's port and that is all I know lieutenant Jamie Jennings Air Station Sitka we're going out sailing today I know how to play doctor I don't know how to sail a boat at all what we do locally here is all aviation related and today we're gonna get to raise the sails and do something interesting from a totally different perspective and we're gonna put the main up first followed by the four then the jib and the staple Captain John gave us a lot of instruction he did use a lot of nautical terms making the assumption that being in the Coast Guard we knew what the heck we were doing which is certainly not an assumption he should have made hold it hold it that's not the pink we helped raise and lower the sails okay now work work together ready [Music] putting us through the ropes mr. jenks and I were working on unfurling the sail getting ready to hoist the jib which is the forward one no no no no no no no let's leave that off yet that that's the stay so we're talking to the jib you're doing it all wrong having Chris here is great he and I have a really fun work relationship I enjoy standing duty with them climb up the rattlin climb down the other side they just went up one side down the other yeah you're next all right definitely more work than I expected he had his testing out climbing up the ratlines just kind of seeing our familiarity and all of this you man up if you're not comfortable doing it you can end it at any time yeah no I think I'm all set I don't think I'm gonna do that I definitely chose the correct career path in the Coast Guard I'm certainly more comfortable wiggling the sticks of an h-60 [Laughter] [Applause] we're going up a fjord now we're gonna say a lot towards Mount Edgecumbe I took out the Coast Guard because I thought I'd be cool this heck thanks you guys thank you for flying I took a ride with your crew alright you know there is essential essential here in the community we would have an amazing amount of casualties in this community if we didn't have the Coast Guard here just flat-out when you hear the call 80 people that could potentially be in the water our sense of urgency increases greatly because that's a critical situation no matter what the case is [Music] [Music] I'm lieutenant Mike Snyder I'm a pilot at Air Station Sitka this was one of those cases where initially we didn't really know what was going on and as we got more information they diverted up to Glacier Bay for a vessel named the Baranof wind and it was actually 84 people on board they had run aground and flooded at least one of the boys on the boat and we're taking on water and needed to basically get those people off the boat so we knew there was a pretty good chance that we were gonna have to give them a dewatering pump [Applause] medical situation on the bear knob wind passengers requiring general first-aid one person with a head injury good dilation of pupils but doesn't remember falling we got the report that there was possibly a head injury and whenever you hear that our sense of urgency increases greatly because that's a critical situation no matter what the case is with burnt off with ghost Renault Captur channel 160 copy paired up with I've just got a few questions a head injury internet going through is that correct our IVA is a nice brain non-life-threatening non-life-threatening where head injury is was weird and we're just gonna transfer her in our vessel down to go see a doctor okay so there's not just to make sure we understand this correctly there's not a head injury that's critical that head for there were a couple relatively minor injuries from when the ship ran aground in this particular case those passengers were okay so we were trying to figure out the best way to get the pump to the bare enough wind about preventing them from safely getting all those people off there was a forest service boat on scene and there was a tender from the Volendam which was a large cruise ship that was up in Glacier Bay at the time we talked to the Forest Service boat it was pretty rocky but they said that they could get real close with there they had an aluminum boat [Music] 10:4 doesn't like playing won't be there upon arrival on scene we asked the ranger boat which is an aluminum boat if they could get right up next to the shore when they confirm that they could then it was really a no-brainer for us we landed on the beach right about here and we're planning on getting the honk to the ranger boat and then they could just drive it over to the Aronoff wind the bus and taking on water [Music] our swimmer just went waist-deep in the water handed it off to the boat they delivered it successfully and we were standing by until everybody was safely on board the tender at that point no rescue feature no be advised we are airborne our previous location in Alaska the Mariner community is really tight-knit what would have been a pretty big lift for us became a pretty simple assist because of everybody looking out for each other on the Alaskan waters [Applause] when you hear the call 80 people that could potentially be in the water the reality of it is this is really serious and those aren't just imaginary survivors or instructors in the pool those are people who need help and people with families so whenever we hear that there's something that we can do to help somebody that's our AGame and even if it is a case where there's other vessels that are helping out to effect a rescue you're still on your a-game no matter what because anything can change and that's what we get paid to do [Music] occupation broken rib and our back area on this particular night we get to medevacs back-to-back we have a patient who's falling down a flight of stairs broken some ribs [Music] he's on a decent back before it gets dark look senator Brooks Crawford at Air Station Sitka and we just heard a pipe that a gentleman in elfin Cove was on a charter boat took a pretty big fall and possibly hurt his back before we took off we had a pretty good look at weather and it looked like a pretty good day we're gonna try to go as direct as possible so that's the course we set direct for elfin Cove up and over the mountains all right now [Music] marilla sponsor flew right above coming up to ten for our check we got everything started and while we were in route we started setting up like the litter was actually already set up but we started getting trail lines and me and Dave started talking about possible hoisting to be survivors over so there's only freakin what it feels like oh we have a big sandy beach where you could put down will like that area flares and we'll put two flares where you can do a place if you so choose okay sandy beach shop but that's how far the guy is from Sandy Beach we could land ever great how far is the [Music] so as we approached we saw the spots that were marked by smoke a possible hoisting sites you Tibet Dorothy but also they had gravel beach at low tide that looked like a good landing spot so we talked about it decided that was probably our best course of action was to try to land on that beach no number to minimize that time involved in getting that patient into the litter okay so let's plan on making our approach directly into that any beach to be chosen once we're safely on deck there in elfin Cove at that point we cleared Dave white our rest of summer out to go assess the patient [Music] once we landed and I left a helicopter I brought the litter with me and a couple other things to back forward there's a lot of people on scene there and they were all very willing to help out and show me where the patient was [Music] elven Cove is a small town it's all small buildings all connected by boardwalks beautiful town and the whole town must have come out to watch us land and to lend a hand fighting them too [Music] gentleman told me that he was one of their hotel rooms on the second floor [Music] did my patient assessment and he was talking he was using a lot of pain which in most cases is a good sign for a back injury it's the numbness that is bad very dangerous rolling back come back [Music] tell us how you're feeling right okay I'm Carol you always wanted to be the center of attention all right so we're gonna go feet first there's handles here all up to down as many people as possible one two three lift I had about eight strong guys in the room with me so carrying him wasn't gonna be an issue until we got down a flight of stairs there was a wall at the end of the flight of stairs that I didn't think we're gonna be able to get around I didn't see any other option but to just go ahead and give it a try each guy was on the backboard and we were just barely able to make that tight turn around that corner okay once we got the patient into the later I tasked a few of the men to help me carry the letter to the helicopter [Music] luckily there were enough good sands there that they helped him carry the survivor back with me and Dave if it had just been the two of us it would have been tremendously hard trying to carry a tuner pound man on unstable ground you've got soft sand big rocks I mean a couple of us almost fell just trying to carry this driver so once we got him back we put them in the helo I went ahead and put him on oxygen I put a blanket on him because it gets cold it's hard to communicate with patients in the helicopter we really got to get up close and personal to him and and you know literally yelling they're here every five minutes I would talk to him and he said he was okay he was doing fine and there's really nothing I couldn't do for his pain level except transport him as fast as possible and such as you know sector Juneau Coast Guard 68 for us to know what the nature of the univac is and also of matters long for Concord River slowly after taking off we get word from seconds you know that we might be tasked with a second medevac right now we have a patient on board who's in a lot of pain possible broken back and/or goal right now is just to get him first and foremost to a higher level of care [Music] and sector Juneau sector Juneau Coast Guard 6gl create request to know what the nature of the back is and also a battery Walker poppy River slowly after taking off we get word from seconds you know that we might be tasked with a second medevac as soon as we land right now we have a patient on board who's in a lot of pain possible broken back and or goal right now is just to get him first and foremost to a higher level of care as we're on approach to Juneau we see that the EMS is actually already there waiting for us and we decide to just transfer the patient directly over to the ambulance keep the head spinning kind of minimize our time as we transition to this next medevac my name is rod Kelly I'm from Ridgefield Washington I went to Alaska to do some good salmon and halibut fishing at least going along but then all of a sudden the bottom just dropped out next thing I knew my head hit the overhead of my boat and I went right down on my rear in and it jammed that my backbone right up through my hair so it was just the worst most harsh violent feeling I've ever experienced it's real scary that's the world whoa what what do we do he's what we call the Coast Guard here comes John wake up thankful feeling everything's fine till all the cool all the man and we might be Coast Guard for hate from the bottom on it right - yes I I will give my life but more can you see me alright we can regroup here so you got everything we need on this particular night we get to medevacs back-to-back they tell us that there's somebody who's falling down a flight of stairs and possibly heard it back broken some ribs and she's up on the Saki River really close to Canada it's not that far away but we have six to eight thousand foot mountains in route the Sun is going down at this point so most likely we're gonna be doing a horst at night wall in route we started briefing the current SAR case we're getting everything set back up for a hoist if need be because we just didn't know what to expect oh sorry helicopter yes we see smoke psychosis now this might be a little harder to land just you guys are aware like let us freeze there but I don't want to freaking hoist over all those boats the guys on the ground just started blowing up our headsets definitely a lot of radio chatter okay yes sir we copy uh we are discussing our moistening offices down fine well I would say lending is probably not an officer like that there you know what have to be a sweet verbal landing into that spot let's just check out this open area that he keeps yelling about who's got a concern down here we'll have to look at just got a bunch of boats it go fall trees don't make it a little difficult always it's getting dark outside when we show up there's actually a ground party there that's trying to be very helpful they cut down what they thought was going to be a suitable landing site for us but it certainly was not big enough for the h-60 helicopter [Applause] kind of holding forth okay this is 100 feet right here and I think we can safely get right front of that four-wheeler we got Dave to the door I got him hooked up with the hoist it looked good from there on so we just held the hover and we sent Dave out the door it was a very high host over 100 feet which is the highest I've ever been hoisted as I was getting lowered down I got caught up in the trees a little bit wasn't able to free myself [Music] I get on the ground safely and then went up to the cabin with the backboard to do my patient assessment they had the patient inside the cabin and I saw where she fell and it looked like a very painful fall we get back in hover over the survivor and being that high the survivor starting to spin in pretty bad [Music] hover at Taku Inlet the patient had a possible broken neck and head trauma she started spinning pretty bad there's not a whole lot we can do about it we just hope she closes her eyes and doesn't puke on the way up so I try to speed up the voice as fast as I can getting her up to the bottom of the helo once josh gets the patient stable in the helicopter I hooked up and he picked me up without a hitch I stayed out of the trees this time and got me in the helicopter once we take off our only task is to get the helicopter to Juneau as quickly as possible all her vitals were normal her breathing was was rapid mostly due to the pain we were so close did you know there really wasn't too much I could do with a small amount of time I had except ensure that the ambulance would be on scene when we got [Music] we had called for the ambulance to be at the airport when we landed nine times out of ten they're always there waiting for us in this particular case of course the ambulance wasn't there it was in row [Music] it was heartbreaking when I had to tell her that the ambulance wasn't there they were still still on their way the whole crew realized how much pain she was actually in at that point [Music] my name is Kathy patcher and I live in Juneau Alaska when I lost my balance and was falling I knew that it wasn't going to be a good situation because I was up about I'd say ten feet and I was going headfirst I am so thankful to the crews that responded to my incident they were wonderful very professional and helpful and caring living in southeast Alaska it's just a vital service we are so remote here that we really really valued the services of the Coast Guard [Music] wrote and said if you don't win and you're sleeping on the couch tonight well I have duty sir so I'll be sleeping now lieutenant Brooks Crawford from air station sitka just out here having a good time on this unit kayak race yeah we just had two back-to-back aces so it's nice to be able to kick back and have a little fun well my name is commander Ward Sandlin the individual racers will do a time trial from there we take the top four and then they'll do a head-to-head race and then the winners from those two heats will meet in the final the grand finale and that will decide the winner for the day go it's awesome opportunity to get out and play a little bit today do some paddling of course bragging rights are always important and then the CEO sweeten the deal by throwing in 24 hours of Liberty for the winner for 26 three minutes 52 seconds Zizi I mean it's David White I just did the first leg of this awesome kayak race I'm gonna win the top spot now we finished up our time trials we're moving on to the head-to-head first semifinal heat we have payoffs for Chris Miller and then lieutenant Brooks Crawford [Applause] [Music] [Applause] for our second round of semifinalist heats we've got fit our globe eyes'll against petty officer Dave white [Music] so now we have going for all the marbles Dave white and Brooks Crawford yeah and Luxor your love again do it all we can to see what happens going all out next go I'm not intimidated at all and maybe a little bit he's got [ __ ] power yeah [Music] oh you're trying to go through risky maneuver that might have been the game-winner it could be the opportunities to do things outdoors in Alaska are amazing and it's great for morale people are happy when they kind of have a little bit of R&R they work smarter they work safer so for me is the commanding officer here this is not just about everybody having a good time in some small way it's also about mission readiness [Music] when everybody's improvising adapting and overcoming that epitomizes what air station sitka is all about what we're good at we succeed when other folks can't from flight crews that the folks work in the galley to the folks who buy the parts to the folks who install the parts it's amazing and it really makes me humble that I'm able to be a part of his team grand prize GoPro camera thank you thank you

Channel: DangerTV

Views: 519,069

Keywords: deadly atv accident, coast guard alaska, full episode, coast guard alaska full episode, coast guard alaska season 3 episode 7, coast guard alaska season 3, full episode of coast guard alaska, full episode of coast guard alaska season 3, full episode of coast guard alaska season 3 episode 7, danger, dangertv, danger tv, dangertv coast guard series, Danger, DangerTV, Danger TV, us coast guard, us coast guard alaska, united states coast guard, united states coast guard alaska, alaska, us

Id: rv6_vIHrXJk

Length: 42min 33sec (2553 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 20 2020