Thread: For Those Who Have Used Your PLB

Originally Posted by Average-Lad

I've used mine once in the three years I've been doing wilderness stuff.

Took family including my mother to a DOC Hut accessible by 4WD, great few days until we were 200-300m from the track at a watering hole and my mother somehow hurt her back. Wasn't able to move at all, then went into shock.

My partner at the time was a ED nurse so handled the first aid and stabilisation, while I handled the kid, and brothers (one of who also went into weird denial type of shock. He tried to stop us helping and kept saying there was nothing wrong) After 15min maybe of seeing if mum was gonna be able to move or be carried we realised she was in too much pain and risk was too high, and that trying to get her to the track and 4WD wasn't going to happen. Dark was less than an hour away and it started to rain.

No-one else could make a decision, so I did and pulled my PLB. 45min later West Coast Chopper got there, kept in hospital overnight. Scans showed serious damage to her back and she kept going in and out of shock for the next couple days.

Very glad I used the PLB.

An interesting observation I have that is in a crisis lots of people make making decisions really hard. You need a single person in charge. So now I make it really clear to people what my medical plan is for a trip, or if they are planning I ask them to explain theirs so they know they are in charge of making decisions.

I learnt this a year prior to this PLB incident when I was stuck in a river in my 4WD with a mate and my brother. Water was literally over the seats, and wheels were spinning trying to get out. I remember being pretty sure the right thing to try next was to swing the ute downstream and come out on the bend, I spent a few minutes trying to get group consensus, eventually telling the other two to get out, and did it myself. And sure enough that was the way to get the ute out.

When my mum had her accident I remember thinking of that right time away and when everyone was frozen (including the ED nurse), I told them "I'm making the call, and it's on me. I'm using the PLB."

You're spot on there, I've seen so many examples of death by committee. Not litterial death thankfully but so many good ideas get buried because people want 100% agreement and don't have the balls to do what you did.