AUGUST 15, 2020 Dan Oakaby on first day of a climbing weekend Lungs collapsed...he twice went into cardiac arrest
– Nicola Burton
When Dan Oakaby plunged more than 80 feet while climbing in the Lake District, he crashed into ledges and rocks as he fell.
The impacts inflicted life-threatening injuries but slowed his fall and, probably, ensured he was still alive when the rescue team reached him on Langdale Pikes.
What happened in the hours, days and weeks to come is a remarkable story of bravery and skill, of volunteer rescuers and medical professionals firstly saving his life and then rebuilding and repairing his shattered body.
After a treacherous night-time rescue on a dark hillside when a volunteer doctor put Dan into a coma and gave urgent lifesaving treatment, he was flown 150 miles to Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital for world-class care at the hands of the team there.
After a month in hospital he was able to return home – on a plane capable of flying at low altitude to protect his damaged lungs – and is on the road to a full recovery. Here Dan and the people who saved him tell their extraordinary story of calamity, rescue, recovery and hope.
THE CLIMBER
The last thing Dan Oakaby remembbers is hammering a metal spike intoo a rock as he climbed in Langdale Pikess in the Lake District.
What happened next was to rewrite the textbook of survival from major traumma. Car diagnostic technician Dan, an avida rock climber and BMX rider, was on the second day of a climbing and campping weekend with pals on August 15 andd 16 last year when he crashed 82 feet dowwn a mountainside. Striking boulders as he fell,f he seriously injured his head, chest, luungs and arms and even his heart.
The third of his metal piton spikes hadh given Dan, way, 37, from despite Exeter, being said: carefully “I fell do haamown mered into the rock face. the mountainside, hitting my head, fface and rest of my body on boulders durring the 82ft fall to the gully below.
“The three friends I was with dialled 999 and a full-scale rescue was mounted. I hadh survived but was so badly injured I woould have died if I had not been operatedd on the mountainside and put into a coma
“Even with lifesaving surgery, I had two cardiac arrests on the route to Glasgoww on the helicopter. It was only thanks to the doctor on the rescue team and a parameedic on board that I am here today. At the hospital spi I was kept in the coma for two weeks and ICU kept me alive as lung, facial and orthopaedic surgeons repaired by battered body.
“The doctors and my family worried I would recover with serious life- changing injuries but I wanted to survive as best as I could and worked through rehabilitation.
“Doctors told me it was only because I was very fit from mountain climbing and my love of BMX biking that I managed to survive. I reckon my BMX safety helmet saved me from catastrophic brain damage.
“A rescue team of about 40 people – mostly volunteers – helped me live that day and I will be forever grateful.
“Everyone has been stunned at how quickly I have recovered. I spent just four weeks in hospital and was back at work just 12 weeks after the accident.”
much air in the chest cavity that there is no space for the lungs to expand and get oxygen. We had to put him into an induced coma on the mountainside and operate to drain blood and a i r w h i c h we re filling his lungs.”
The team worked for three hours stabilising him for transfer to the QEUH by a coastguard rescue helicopter that had been called out from Prestwick. “Three hours sounds long but the technical nature of the rescue and the extent of Dan’s injuries necessitated this to keep him alive,” Dr Ferris added.
“During that time we had to move him twice to secure a safe place for the helicopter to hover and hoist him up with an accompanying winch-paramedic.”
During the flight, Dan twice went into cardiac arrest. “In Glasgow the trauma team was waiting for us at the handover. Among them were some of my old colleagues whom I had worked with at the Scottish retrieval medicine team. I got updates of Dan’s recovery and was both surprised and delighted that he had recovered so well.
“I have kept in touch with Dan’s family, who send regular updates and we hope to meet up in the summer.”
Davy and wife Nicola wear the first gold mined on the site every day.
“In 2016, the company purchased a mini processing plant to do a trial of what we’re doing now, and we ran the rock that came out in 1990 through it and managed to pour some gold from it,” Davy said. “Nicola’s engagement ring and our wedding rings are made from that.
“Sheila Fleet, the jeweller in Orkney we used, did some research
The white gold rings and reckons that it’s the first time anyone had made Scottish gold into white gold.”
Nicola said: “My wedding rings mean everything to me. The fact my husband poured the gold they are made from is not something every person can say.
“Davy actually poured the gold on my birthday the first year we were together and then proposed to me on my next birthday.
“I hope to pass these on to my daughter and keep the story of them going through the generations.”