Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
019 // Bram's pelvis opens like a book (part 2)
1.1k Plays6 days ago
ENTER to win a $50 Paddy Pallin voucher + Nalgene bottle
The things we love to do in nature can lead us to explore and discover places not just close to home, but to some very remote and uncharted places around the world.
In this special double episode of Rescued, we hear from 3 friends, all highly skilled and experienced canyoners, as they find themselves in the embrace of Taiwan’s small and dedicated canyoning and rescue community, after a life-threatening fall during a multiday expedition.
If you ever needed a reminder of the value of regular, high-quality wilderness first aid training and the importance of being able to rely on the people you adventure with - this is it.
This isn't a straightforward pack n’ send case of helicopter, paramedics and hospital. Their reliance on each other, their skills and a solid sense of humour is put to the test throughout this 2 day ordeal.
Key learnings from this episode:
- The importance of having the right skills, training and experience for the environments
- The ability to make fair self-assessments of the above
- Planning is key to better outcomes
- Research multiple contingency plans, if your exit from a canyon doesn’t work, are there alternatives you can see on satellite imagery? Plan refuge and camp spots
- Being able to rely completely on your adventure buddies if something goes wrong. Q: Can you say this about strangers you connect with on MeetUps or similar?)
- Value of research, local knowledge and connections
- Huge thanks to the incredible and supportive local canyoning community of Taiwan
- Being smart about choosing your emergency contacts and setting up a What’sApp group - briefing them all properly with plans, contingencies and giving them permission to act as your advocates if something happens
- The essential recert and muscle memory of quality wilderness first aid training
- Benefits of choosing to study Wilderness or RAFA over simple Senior First Aid
- Brainstorm and practice of roping and rescue problems at home and in easier environments before being confident to execute them in challenging ones
- Good open, inclusive and frank communication in and around a patient
- How humour can help with stressful situations
- Everyone knowing their job and getting it done
- How party size can change outcomes in an incident
- Importance of essential survival skills eg: fire making, knowing priorities for survival
- Stove, lighters and Nalgenes as essential canyon equipment
- Making sure your first aid kit is up-to-date (when was the last time you made sure you had enough panadol and ibuprofen?)
- Bright clothes, bothy bag, emergency blankets to draw attention
- Knowing how to prepare for helicopters and downwash
- Aussie registered PLBs activated overseas are received by AMSA in Canberra
There's a bunch of different ways you could help support the work of this pod:
- Leave a review on your platform of choice
- Leave a donation towards the costs
- Visit my sponsors at Paddypallin.com.au
- Buy my book - "How to Navigate - the art of traditional map and compass navigation in an Australian context."
- Check out my Navigation Courses
Recommended
Transcript
Giveaway Announcement
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey friends, Caro here. Before we get started in this episode, thanks to our friends at Paddy Pallon, I have a $50 gift voucher to give away for every new episode.
00:00:12
Speaker
All you need to do is simply leave us a rating and review on either Spotify or Apple Podcasts, then jump into the entry form in the show notes to
Listener's Snow Cave Experience
00:00:21
Speaker
enter. So I wanted to share this great comment by M. Rowell, who left this review on Apple Podcasts about episode seven, when James was buried in a snow cave on Cozzy's main range.
00:00:35
Speaker
He says, This was a great episode with so many lessons to be learned. Having had to dig out a buried snow cave entrance by about four metres, I related very much to this episode.
00:00:47
Speaker
I know that moment when you realise that your feet are now where you started digging and your fully outstretched arm and shovel still hasn't broken into the fresh air. There was four of us in the cave and we'd already dug the entrance out twice during the night, so we weren't alone nor as worried about getting out.
00:01:05
Speaker
What I really learned from the episode in this story was what happened afterwards. Definitely worth listening by all those that adventure outdoors. Thank you so much for sharing your stories. Yeah, thanks so much, Emeril. And I've heard similar stories from people who can relate to different episodes of the podcast. So yeah, if you've got a story that relates to an episode or you'd like to just share some of the lessons that you've learned, you may be in the running for that $50 gift voucher for every new episode.
Bram's Rescue Story - Part Two
00:01:32
Speaker
Now, let's get started.
00:01:36
Speaker
Rescued is a podcast of conversations with rescuers and those who've been rescued. It's about the lessons we learn about ourselves, the places we go and why, without judgment or shame, to help us have better adventures, manage risk and deal with the unexpected.
00:01:55
Speaker
Welcome back to the Rescued podcast and part two of the dramatic story of Bram's open book pelvis fracture in a remote canyon in Taiwan.
Helicopter Rescue Confusion
00:02:06
Speaker
If you haven't heard part one yet, hop over and catch up on that first to bring you up to speed.
00:02:12
Speaker
So when did everything change? I think at the moment that we heard a sound. At the at the and a certain point, we heard a sound. that We now knew like this might be some rescue kind of thing. Jason and Maddie ran to the big open rock.
00:02:27
Speaker
and it came over the over the trees and Jason and I just started screaming and screaming. We knew the helicopters couldn't hear us but we were just so ecstatic. He was so happy that they saw us um and they came a little bit closer and the man in the helicopter,
00:02:45
Speaker
god got to the side door and did this signal pointing down at us and the cross sign twice and then the helicopter flew away and that was at 5 37 and it was getting dark and I thought well at least they know where we are they might leave us here overnight but at least they know where we are and it flew away so we started preparing for the night everything was wet because the helicopter had drenched all of our dry clothing and flown all of our overnight equipment all over the canyon floor.
Maddie's Survivor's Guilt
00:03:18
Speaker
So we spent the next hour trying to dry our stuff out, prepare for the night, and trying to get more firewood, trying to make Bram warm again. And then 6.37 after we had tried to set ourselves up for the night, we heard the second helicopter come in.
00:03:38
Speaker
And we were like, yes, they sent a second one and it was on dusk. I thought they've got to be either rescuing us or at least sending someone down to help us. um So they winched someone down and and Jason was sheltering with Bram kind of holding um the air off his face. And I ran in as they winched a helicopter person down to help them unclip because I thought it would be like Australia where they winch a paramedic down and then they unclip and they come and assess the patient. um And instead of him unclipping himself from the winch cable, he threw a harness over the top of me and then just winched me up. oh And I was screaming at Jason, pass me my phone. I left it on a rock.
00:04:20
Speaker
And Jason was like, what do you mean? I can't come on under the helicopter. And I'm like, pass me my phone. They're going to winch me out if they winch me out without communication with stuff. So he ran over and passed me my phone just as I was being lifted off the ground. Wow. And um they put me in the helicopter. And I think i was like, I won't argue with them. I don't want to waste precious helicopter fuel.
00:04:41
Speaker
maybe they're going to winch us all out now. So I get into the helicopter and I just try and hand signal because no one spoke English. Wow. He's got a broken pelvis. So I was trying to hand signal that and they just chatted amongst each other for about 10 minutes and then they started flying away and I thought I couldn't see a Stokes litter inside of the helicopter. thought maybe they're just going to get Stokes litter and they're going to come back and they're going to rescue him.
00:05:07
Speaker
And then we kept flying and about 15 minutes later i looked at my Gaia and realised they're not going back for him. It's pretty much dark. We're flying to the other side of the island. They flew me probably three hours' drive away on the other side of the island.
00:05:25
Speaker
And I was sitting in the helicopter feeling just ill, knowing that I didn't know if he could actually not urinate from an obstructive bladder or if he could not urinate from pain. But I was just hoping for his life that he was just not able to urinate because of pain and hopefully he would urinate overnight just from overflow and it wasn't actually obstructed because I know that obviously an obstructive bladder...
00:05:51
Speaker
can lead to a burst bladder and then you can die from that as well. So i was really worried about him overnight and thinking, damn, they wished me out and I had needles and syringes in my first aid kit and i could have could have done a cystofentesis on his bladder and emptied his bladder. but Wow. Yeah, you can't take back time. Yeah, gosh. um Can i talk to Jason
Jason's Night Time Efforts
00:06:12
Speaker
and Bram now? What...
00:06:14
Speaker
What was going through your mind when you saw, wow, Maddie's gone and she didn't have any really say in that and that's just happened and now what? I handed Maddie the phone and i saw her disappear. And i just sat there. I went back to Bram and I was sort of sheltering sheltering Bram from the, um you know, downwash. Yeah.
00:06:38
Speaker
And I was just sitting there and i watched the helicopter hover for five minutes or so. And then I watched the helicopter fly away and i felt, you know, a wave of emotion sort of hit me and go, oh, I don't know what's happening. And then ah had to shut that down and go, okay. where We're back again and we are starting again from scratch.
00:07:00
Speaker
With that helicopter hovering there for so long, it had blown our equipment all through all through the um the creek. onion My priority is get Bram dry and get a fire going.
00:07:14
Speaker
Ended up finding our stove and lighters, but they were soaked. The lighters, i went to light them and there was nothing, not even a spa. Oh, gosh. I thought, okay, I need to get these dry somehow. So I shoved them in my undies and I kept going. ah I sort of pile everything together. I find all the dry clothes that we have and I cut the wet stuff off Bram and and ah get them get them dry again.
00:07:43
Speaker
was a bit painful for him, I think, because, you know, you have to lift his legs up and he's got to, yeah that's where the pain is. wow um So got him into dry clothing. i think it took me about an hour to get,
00:07:54
Speaker
get to that point and um i had collected some more firewood and kindling as well and i tried the lighters and one of them had a small spark i thought okay with a spark the stove is here i can use the spark to light the stove and the stove to light the fire and i managed to get a small fire going and With the fire, we could boil I could boil water. um I had the pot, but not the pot lid.
00:08:26
Speaker
ah So I scooped some water up, got it on the fire, had it boiling, and started the process again. And i managed to get water boiled and into his Nalgene.
00:08:39
Speaker
And that's what I did for, i think, about the next 10 hours, was keep the fire going and rotate hot water bottles. Braham, did you want to come in at this point and and tell me a bit about what
Bram's Gratitude Towards Jason
00:08:52
Speaker
was happening in your world? Yeah, yeah, of course. When you when you heard two helicopters and you you feel happy and relieved, and then when they fly away, even with the team rate reducing the team with 50%, it's tough mentally as well. like you You then really know, like I have to stay the night here in the canyon.
00:09:11
Speaker
Close to the water, it's going to be a cold night. Luckily, at what what Jason just said, he caught the fire going. So the next 10 hours, the night was long, really painful. I think I was grunting for the full 10 hours, maybe even more than grunting. um I know that Jason in this moment wanted to punch me knockout because he was getting crazy of the sounds that I was making of pain. i was I was begging him for more pills as well. And every time I was like, Jason, please give me more pills. And he was like, no, I have a time for four hours. And for hours you get new pills. And and every time when it got closer, the pain got more. And i was like, Jason, now you have to give me more pills. And...
00:09:52
Speaker
Then it was four hours later and I got some more pills. Thank you, Jason, for the pills.
00:09:58
Speaker
But yeah, sometimes I look to the right where the fire was and where Jason was and it looked tough. Like, it was not just tough for me. It was tough for all of the street, of course. But... I was laying there with all the clothes on that we had, which we resulted in Jason being only in his underwear. But it was a cold night, so he was lying laying inside of the fire. like He was sleeping in the fire. And every 15 minutes, he gave me a new water bottle, warm water. So I have like one water bottle on my chest, one between my legs. And every 15 minutes, he gives me a new warm water bottle. And and I saw him crawling into the fire again. So yeah, it was a really, really tough night. Even without talking, Jason and I got to know each other really good in that night, I think.
00:10:40
Speaker
was It was tough. One of the benefits of having the third person there is... One of the main points of Bram's pain relief was humour. i remember I remember laughing a lot. Even throughout this whole 24 hours, it was you know poking fun at Bram. I said to him, i was I said, there's easier ways to get out of a long walkout night. I remember saying to Bram and after Matty had left, I said to him, I said, you know Matty's having a worse night than we are.
00:11:16
Speaker
You know, she's just been removed from the situation. She's not able to help in any way. ah You know, she wasn't able to to help directly. um She was helping organise a rescue and and whatnot. But, you know, she wasn't in here. And I realised, I said to Brown, yeah, she's just having a worse night than we are. She's having a worse night than we are. Yeah, and she wasn't in the beautiful location that you were. Exactly.
00:11:38
Speaker
exactly Massive thanks for the support from the team at Paddy Pallon, who since 1930 have been leaders in travel and outdoor adventure. In fact, did you know that Paddy himself, a member of the Sydney Bushwalkers Club, was a volunteer in the original search and rescue arm of the Federation of Bushwalking Clubs in New South Wales?
00:12:00
Speaker
Nice one, Paddy. Back to Maddie. Take us to inside the helicopter when you got in. You said you didn't want to waste the rotor time. What happened and and what was the next 12 hours like for you? So after I realised that they were winching me to the others and like transporting me to the other side of the island, like, I tried to get my phone to work, but unfortunately there is no cell reception in a helicopter until you get really close to the ground. So all I could do was kind of just look at the beautiful view as we were on sunset, gliding over the canyon. It was just incredibly beautiful looking at what we missed. The canyon terrain, like the mountains over there are incredible. But we went to the other side of the island um and as soon as we started descending towards a town on the other side of the island, was called Kaohsiung, I got a little bit of reception and I was able to text
00:12:58
Speaker
the group chat that was part of our emergency contacts and say to everyone, i'm in the helicopter. I've been winched out. The men are still in the canyon. um They've winched me to the other side of the island.
00:13:12
Speaker
I don't know how to get back. And I was only in minimal clothing because i gave Bram all my thermals and all my rain layers. so And I had no shoes. They were all in the canyon. Mm-hmm.
00:13:26
Speaker
I pretty much was wearing Bram's clothes, like his exercise clothes, and I gave all my warm clothes to Bram. And so the group chat of the emergency contacts was able to arrange someone they knew in that town to come and pick me up from the helicopter. After um I communicated with all the air rescue team and told them what his injuries were, once I finally got Google Translate to work, why someone came and picked me up from the airport.
00:13:54
Speaker
And then they gave me money, paid for my train ticket to go all the way back to the other side of the country, and then gave me several hundred Taiwanese dollars to pay for any food that I wanted to buy.
00:14:09
Speaker
and And, yeah, sent me on my way cro on a fast train back to the other side of the country where I was feeling extreme survivor's guilt. Yeah. And just hoping that Bram would survive the night. So i think midnight I got back to the other side of the country and where I liaised with some of the rescue team and begged them to let me go on the rescue the next day, the rescue team that was on foot going into the canyon.
00:14:35
Speaker
They refused, t which I can understand. Yeah. So were they the police or were they volunteers or what kind of... volunteers it's kind of like bsar is in australia so there're a whole heap of recreational canyons and guides and everything that volunteer their time and there was people who were had work And they'd called in sick for work just so they could be there. It was pretty much the whole canyoning community of Taiwan. There probably maybe like 40, 50 people. Wow. That had taken time either off work or off their personal plans and all arranged to wake up at like 2 or 3 a.m. in the morning and hike in to go and get those guys out of that canyon. So even though there was, like you said, about 40 people and preparing to go in on foot, the first thing you hear is is helicopter. So what what happened? Yes, I think i can I can tell you exactly what happened. It's 8.15 and I hear the helicopter roll around.
00:15:29
Speaker
I know what's going to happen. I know that someone's going to get winched down and the rescue's going to occur. So I put her helmets on and, you know, shield shield Bram from from the incoming debris. Yeah, because by now you're pretty much used to knowing what's going to happen. Everything's going to go everywhere.
00:15:46
Speaker
Exactly. And I sit there and next to Bram, you know, we're smiling, we're laughing. I take a selfie. And I i just watch the first person get winched down.
00:15:58
Speaker
I run over to speak um just to make sure, you know, see see what what is what's going to happen next. He spoke English. He very quickly says, stop. First of all, are you injured? i I'm not injured.
00:16:12
Speaker
He's like, second of all, how is your mental state? are you Are you there? I tell him I'm okay and i'm I'm fit, able to help, and he instantly puts me to work. well Stop. Great. Extinguish the fire.
00:16:24
Speaker
Put your harness on. that's that's That's the two things you have to do. and you know He says, do not do anything I do not tell you to do. Great. And how did that feel having, you know, you've had decisions, you've had action on your head and shoulders for the last 24 hours and in an intense way, how did that suddenly feel to have that completely change?
00:16:46
Speaker
It was good. yeah i you know It's been 24 hours since the incident happened and I've had to make several hard decisions yeah and you know be put through put through this and it was now at the point where, okay, there's professionals here um who who who are going to help.
00:17:00
Speaker
So yeah, so i I get to work, I put my shoes on, i get i get my harness on, I put the fire out and you know run over to Bram and while while I'm doing all of that, ah two others in ah and a litter end up getting dropped into the canyon and We have a little um a moment of, you know, we're chatting and we come up with a game um they come up with their game plan.
Team Effort in Bram's Rescue
00:17:22
Speaker
I tell them what they need. And I remember coming to an agreement with Bram throughout this this time. and I said, I will not let you be moved without some form of pain relief, without some form of morphine or ketamine or just something. So we can't feel it
00:17:38
Speaker
um and I chat with them and I discover that none of them are doctors, none of them paramedics, and there is pain relief on board. Oh, no. I look at Bram and I felt um maybe a little guilty, but, you know, I just felt i felt bad. And I remember we had a – a sam splint uh with us yep um not particularly useful for a pelvic fracture but it does make something really good to bite down on when you're in a lot of pain oh my gosh and next thing you know we're lifting him onto this spinal board getting him onto this board and strapping him down and into the litter um you know there's three three rare skewers and myself and i'm
00:18:19
Speaker
you know I'm given instructions. You're going to lift here. You're going ah you're going to hold Bram's hand. you know You're going to comfort Bram. And just listening to what they had to say and just doing only what they had to do. and ah Being Bram's advocate as well. Yeah. Some things I think would have hurt a lot. You know, they they came up with this initial lift plan and I said, that's not going to work. Yeah, right. Let's reassess here because the way they wanted to lift him would have really caused some injury. There's a really interesting word you said there, which was advocate and being like being able to be Bram's advocate. no um
00:18:57
Speaker
Yeah, i I think that was really useful as well. And the rescue team actually listened as well, which was i was surprised about. it like Normally, a rescue team is like, okay, we have learned from this, we know what to do, it's bam, bam, bam, and we do it.
00:19:10
Speaker
um But they actually listened to not just where my pain was, because we thought they they knew where the pain was, of course, but... what Jason said, he actually told them what we had experienced the last 24 hours in my pain, what was hurting me, what what can I do? And they they made a plan, they changed their original plan, they changed it to something that Jason said, it worked perfectly. um And actually in this moment, the pain worse was there, but it was not extreme, extreme. Like I got on the board, they moved the board to the bigger the bigger stretcher that that could could be airlifted. um So yeah, the pain during this rescue, at least in this moment was bearable.
00:19:47
Speaker
Do you have a personal story about an incident or time during an outdoor trip when something didn't quite go to plan? Maybe you got lost, injured, let down by some gear or something else. Look, honestly, it can happen to any of us at any time, regardless of how experienced we are.
00:20:05
Speaker
And it's by sharing these stories that we can all learn and help avoid them in the future. If that's you, I'd love to hear from you. So please drop me an email to rescued at lotsafreshair.com.
00:20:18
Speaker
That's L-O-T-S-A, freshair.com.
00:20:23
Speaker
Can you remember that moment when you were being lifted up and winched into the helicopter? Yeah. Yeah. so So Jason gave me the, in the end, empty promise of not letting me move without any pain relief. At the moment that he found out that he cannot hold the promise of giving me morphine or something else ah before they touch me, he changed the promise promise to being lifted after me. Because, of course, Maddy could lift it out and was gone away. He said, okay, but at least you will be in the helicopter before they lift me out. Like...
00:20:53
Speaker
you know, just, just see change the, and that's what happened as well. So the wind was actually getting stronger, I think, or they couldn't move my, my, my stretcher to a really good point. So they had to, there was a rock to the left, I think. So they had to guide my, my stretcher around this rock.
00:21:10
Speaker
ah when I was winched up. um The only painful moment in this whole rescue actually was getting in the helicopter because once you are hanging in your stretcher next to the helicopter, you need to push. You need to get from hanging next to the helicopter to go inside of the helicopter.
00:21:26
Speaker
um So in this moment, they just give you a hard push and then they drop you like 10, 15 centimeters then into the helicopter because there is no soft way to do this. There is no there's no other way. So of course that hit hurted a little bit. um But then read it quite quickly, Jason was next to me in the helicopter. Everyone was inside and we we flew away.
00:21:47
Speaker
And we knew it was newer dis over. we got We actually didn't fly to the to the hospital because the hospital is so small that there is no helipad at the hospital. So they they drove us to a different place ah where there was a helipad and where there was an ambulance waiting for us, getting the transfer from the helicopter to the ambulance. And then we drove for 10 more minutes to the actually hospital. hospital And when we got rolled in the hospital, they wanted their stretcher back, of course, because the stretcher belongs to the to the helicopter. So the way to do this is to push me to the side and then get pull pull off the stretcher out. And at that moment, I was getting angry. Like, was...
00:22:23
Speaker
I still didn't have any pain relief in me. um So I was actually not screaming. I was still a nice guy, I think. But I was really strong on getting some medicine in my body before they got the stretcher.
00:22:36
Speaker
And at that moment, the doctor came walking as well. And I said to the doctor, I didn't pee for 27 hours. And at that moment, the doctor was like, okay, we're going to solve this first. So in this moment, I think directly in the spot, I was just in the room where they drove me in. I got a catheter in my, in my penis and I got my morphine.
00:22:55
Speaker
And at that moment they took the structure back and I was a little bit relieved. Morphine is really nice. Yeah, if you are in a lot lot of pain, of course. If you're in a lot of pain. So morphine and peeing for the first time in 27 hours. My bladder was really big. It was on on the point of collapsing. That's what the doctor said as well. The doctor said a couple of things. Like, yeah, this peeing thing wouldn't have taken an extra hour.
00:23:20
Speaker
ah And he also said when he took off the the thing that Maddie built around me. The splint? Yeah, when when when he took the splint off, he said, wow, this splint actually saved your life. Like it was good. It was tight. It was in the right position. So yeah, there was some really relatable moments that the peeing, the morphine and that the splint was a good splint.
00:23:41
Speaker
Wow, good team. Wow, wow. so Jason, were you all there together? Yep, so Bram got winched up first, I got winched up second ah and pretty quickly we were gone. We were on our way to the airport, from the airport into a road ambulance and pretty quickly into the into the hospital.
00:24:02
Speaker
Yeah. It was a bit of a of a shock to the system because I had been, you know, in in this survival situation for the past 24 hours and the first thing I got asked for in the hospital was my passport. And to go through the paperwork that you have to go through when you get admitted to the hospital and trying to track all that stuff down and, and you know, ah go through that, I just didn't have a moment to to rest and stop thinking really.
00:24:32
Speaker
Talk to me about emotionally what was sort of happening to you. And it's probably a um it's a question for all of you, but but Jason, you know, you you think it's over, but no. Yeah, I do remember a moment in the canyon during all this and Maddie and I were talking and I said, we need to not be emotional right now. We need to focus on what we're doing and we can have a cry when we're in the hospital.
00:24:56
Speaker
Yeah. You know, it took a while. um Like we, I remember we got, I was in the hospital, i was doing all the paperwork, you know, i was organizing, I finally had reception and I was trying to get in contact with with Maddie to meet because at this point we hadn't hadn't seen Maddie. Maddie was still, she was not there. we got Okay, we're at this hospital and she...
00:25:18
Speaker
eventually met us and that was a ah pretty emotional point when Maddie had arrived and all three of us could be back together and in ah in a safe environment. Yeah. so I've heard from Bram, he's he's just peed, he's got morphine, he's a little happier than he has been.
00:25:35
Speaker
Jason's doing paperwork and admin. Maddie, can you bring us up to speed to to bring yourself into the the hospital to be reunited with the two of them?
00:25:46
Speaker
After I spent a certain amount of the night catching a train back to the other side of the country do unite with the rescue team, i spent like the whole night just plotting how I could try and get on the rescue team the next day and ended up getting left in the fire station whilst the rescuers went out and um just waiting on news to hear what was happening, if the helicopter had gone in yet and if the rescue team had gone in. And I remember just being so frustrated and feeling like such a useless human. um
00:26:16
Speaker
And I just decided I'll just go out and clean the car. And I went out to clean the car and at about 8.45, I saw the helicopter fly over in the direction of the hospital. And I just remember thinking that has to be them. They just flew from the direction of the canyon towards the hospital and then they wouldn't let me go to the hospital for about 40 minutes because they said the press would be there. um Yeah, by the time I got there, the press had all left.
00:26:43
Speaker
And I walk in and I see Jason I just like hug the heck out of him. Like i was just so relieved to see him. and then I walk in and see Bram just from this smile on his face, like the biggest smile on his face.
00:26:58
Speaker
He just looks so happy. He's like, a finally some real pain relief. He was so happy. I'd never seen him so happy. and then I had like, i think one or two doctors walk over to me and say,
00:27:12
Speaker
That's lint you put on You saved his life. Hey, folks, it's Caro here. There are five different ways you could show your support for the work of this podcast.
00:27:24
Speaker
Number one, you could share it with your outdoorsy mates and your adventure buddies. Two, you could give it a rating on your platform of choice. Your comments about the learnings from each episode are so good.
00:27:35
Speaker
Three, you could visit my sponsor, Paddy Pallon's site, for that bit of gear you've been meaning to update. Number four, you could buy my book, How to Navigate. Yes, the link is in the show notes or five. You could even leave a donation towards the costs of the podcast over at Ko-fi.
00:27:53
Speaker
That's kind of like ko-fi.com, but Ko-fi. Yeah. Anyway, there's a link to that in the show notes too. So thanks everyone. I really appreciate your support. Now, back to the story.
Medical Journey from Taiwan to Netherlands
00:28:05
Speaker
So you're speaking to us from the Netherlands now, Bram, but in very broad broad strokes, what has happened between the 23rd of May and the 17th of July for you?
00:28:19
Speaker
a lot, actually. um Of course, got a surgery in in Taiwan in the hospital that they brought me to. um where they put a big plate in the middle to connect the two parts and a big pin on my right side to stabilize that side as well.
00:28:37
Speaker
um I was in the hospital bed for a long time with with a lot of morphine and a week after the surgery they took out the two drains that are inside of your body to drain the leftover blood and excess stuff inside of your body after the surgery. And when they removed one of those drains they actually pulled artery in English, I think. Yeah. So I started bleeding a lot ah real quickly. It was pretty bad. It was a ah really big vein. So within one minute, my whole face was was gray. My mom was
00:29:13
Speaker
flown over and sat next to me and she was actually scared. The doctors got pretty scared as well. And after three minutes, I was again on the surgery table to restore this this artery. It was pretty bad. I got five or six bags of blood transfusion. I almost bled to death. again after this moment so in this moment again my my catheter was blocked with blood so the the catheter was full of blood as well so i was put in the intensive care where they put a second catheter in me ah that went straight through my abdominal muscles into the bladder
00:29:52
Speaker
I actually peed through this second catheter for three weeks. and But also this hospital was in a small village. So they said, we cannot actually help you in a good way with the second catheter. Like our expertise is not in this part. We have to transfer you.
00:30:06
Speaker
So I got an ambulance transfer to Taipei, to the main city, which is normally like a 10 hour drive. um We did it with the sirens in five hours. It was pretty cool. Yeah. So I arrived in the big city where I was put in a hospital and they took good care. care They emptied the catheter and actually found out that it restored itself after a month. So they took out both catheters and I could pee again by myself, which was really nice. After four and a half, five weeks,
00:30:36
Speaker
I was strong enough to leave the hospital and fly back to the Netherlands where I went directly to the hospital again because I did develop a bacteria but bacteria in the in the surgery wound. So I had surgery again in the Netherlands, ah remote cleaning the whole wound, cleaning the whole area and getting the bacteria out and getting myself on antibiotics.
00:31:01
Speaker
No, I'm already home for two weeks. and I'm walking actually with crutches, two crutches. So yeah, building myself up and hopefully in five, six weeks, I can walk without the stakes. I can start working again and start enjoying my life again.
00:31:16
Speaker
Incredible, incredible. The question of the media, the press, so did it get some coverage in Taiwan? Did it become news story? A lot, a lot. news Actually, i was, during this month, I was a famous person. I actually felt like a famous person. There was news articles, there was actually TV coverage of news. It was in the news. It was everywhere. In the second hospital that I was in, the nurses came in the second day and were like, are you the guy that I saw on the news? It was everywhere. There was a lot of coverage on on the news.
00:31:47
Speaker
And what was your perspective of that, Jason and Maddy? I think ah we were just getting sent news articles from different people and I remember seeing one of them and thinking, why did they choose that photo? It was this horrendous photo. i think i was in my underwear.
00:32:05
Speaker
Bram was still in his wetsuit. We had taken this photo on the way out of a previous canyon that we had done on the trip, and it was this it was a horrible photo, but and it was on the front page of of one of the Taiwanese news articles. I do remember coming out of the helicopter and seeing cameras in the hospital, um at least at the front of the hospital, there were definitely cameras and press and whatnot, but thankfully they were not allowed into the hospital.
00:32:33
Speaker
um So it was a bit of a safe space for for everyone to to shelter wrong yeah from the prying eyes. Can I ask you about something that usually happens in, you know, commercial trips? Like you go out on a day out, you come back and you do like a debrief, you know, how was the day?
00:32:51
Speaker
Did you guys have an opportunity for just spending some time with each other and stepping through it? I think Jason and I did, but we didn't really talk to Bram because he was still had so many of his own battles to fight through. Yeah.
00:33:08
Speaker
um I remember Bram was in the hospital. he was taken away for the triage and, you know, um all of that. Maddie and I were left outside and we walked across to the 7-Eleven to get some get some food, some hot food and some coffee and sort of tackle the admin. you know we were we were The next day, i think we were meant to be leaving, like leaving the country. flights were booked for the next day. So we had so much to do. We had to get back. you know We had a six-hour drive back to Taipei. We had to clean the car, pack our gear, organize all this stuff. So we just had no time to...
00:33:43
Speaker
to really stop and do it do anything apart from, you know, hug and, you know, hang out bedside, I guess, with with Bram and chat to some locals. Like we didn't have a proper debrief, but we we got to spend some time, you know, the three of us. And there were so many people that came to say hello to Bram. Like we had met so many locals in our travel on the trip and everyone came to say say hello and check in on how Bram was doing. Amazing. What's your impression of that community, of the Taiwanese canyoning community, of the people who helped and and the general feeling towards all of you?
00:34:21
Speaker
They have to be some of the loveliest humans I have ever met. Like some of those people took days off work and it was their main income, the weekend income. They took days off work just to come and help rescue us. And the foot team that was walking in got called off after they were winched out. But four two of them continued on down into the canyon. And because we weren't allowed to take our bags with us, in the helicopter, they went down and they collected all of our bags. wow So three people's worth of gear, overnight canyoning gear. So our bags were heavy. They were probably about 25, maybe even 27 each when they were wet.
00:35:03
Speaker
And two people carried that gear all the way out. And that was a whole day hike. It was probably about 15, 16 hours hiking for them. And then they drove, i think, yeah, they drove and came and saw us at the hospital and handed all our gear over. They were diving through pools and everything when it had been like sprayed and washed into the pool. They found all our gear in the bottom of the water. i was just so overwhelmed when they came and they brought food to the hospital. Like it was just the most incredible community.
00:35:33
Speaker
i've never met and nice a nicer bunch of people. Amazing. And Bram, I did see some photos. It looked like all the staff at the hospital developed a real a friendship with you over the time and and in terms of just taking care of you.
00:35:49
Speaker
yeah Yeah, that's true. like English, of course, is not the first language, but we we made it work. The nurses actually spoke pretty good English. Even sometimes the nurses had to translate for the doctors because the doctors spoke only Chinese. um So yeah, the bond with the nurses became pretty strong. um I even want to say they're friends now. They still send me messages every week like, how are you now? How are you recovering? How is it going? Do you feel better? like they They're really nice people as well. um helpful as well in the hospital if if something i didn't understand or they wanted to help me they hospital food wasn't the best but they bought me food from outside of the hospital sometimes like yeah i really loved the nurses and people drove i think five hours across the country just to visit him yeah and then five hours back like they're just insanely kind humans
00:36:41
Speaker
Yeah, amazing. Amazing. So what does the future look like
Bram's Recovery and Reflection
00:36:46
Speaker
now? For you, Bram, it sounds like you're pretty keen to getting into guiding and working or you know, finding yourself in wild places again. Yes. I want to build it up slowly as well, I think. Like, i don't know if I have a little bit of a trauma or not. In the first two weeks after the accident, I actually had three times a dream that shook up where was falling again. And just before you hit the ground, you...
00:37:11
Speaker
shook up in the bed and you're awake and your heart, heart beat jumps to 140 and all the nurses look at you like, what's, what happened? Are you okay? yeah Yeah. So yeah, maybe I have to build it up. Don't start with a big expedition again, but just start maybe guiding again and guided Kenyans, easy Kenyans. But I'm definitely keen to, to be out there again, to, to travel again, to, to come to Australia again.
00:37:34
Speaker
For all those nice long walking canyons. say Yeah, no, I'm keen. And do you think it's changed you in any way? i think that's hard to tell at this moment um because I haven't been out there yet. I haven't seen myself in the canyon. I don't know if I'm more scared now or not.
00:37:54
Speaker
i I think I'm not actually, like what I say, the dreams were in the first two weeks, but that's two months ago now almost. Like the last two months I haven't had any dreams. I haven't been scared of stuff. I haven't done stuff. So I think I can tell that only after I've been in the cane again, I've experienced the water and the anchors and the ropes and and everything. But I don't think, i hope I'm not changed. What about you, Jason? Do you feel that this has changed you in any way?
00:38:23
Speaker
It's definitely maybe, I guess, slightly more cautious um in what I'm what i'm doing. ah That said, I think within a week I was in a canyon again. ah You know, I felt very happy with the way we handled the situation. And I think yeah that was the main thing. it It was I look back on what happened and after the accident actually occurred, I wouldn't i wouldn't change it. Yeah.
00:38:51
Speaker
Every decision I did make and every decision we we made together, i would make again in a heartbeat. I think we did everything right after the fact and that's what has really helped me through through it. And, you know, it was a good outcome at the end of the day. you know, Bram is alive and here to talk about what happened and we can look at it and and laugh. yeah And be getting back out there again to these places that we know places that heal us and make us and make us feel alive.
00:39:16
Speaker
exactly What about anything else that we haven't talked about already that you think you'd like to say or anything else that you wanted to add for from anyone?
00:39:27
Speaker
I think really just the main important thing is sometimes we can have a bit of complacency when something's already pre-placed by someone else. For example, even just like a tape in a canyon. I know that there's a lot of dodgy anchors that you can come across in wilderness canyons and even tapes that are placed by people that you know and that are in your group it's always worth getting someone to double check it it's always worth being cautious with all anchors as well so just making sure that if it is a piece of tape making sure it's tied correctly making sure you weight it in a safe area before you fully commit to it and go off a cliff
00:40:04
Speaker
making sure you have a PLB on you, it'll save your life, making sure you have appropriate emergency equipment, making sure you have good emergency contacts that know your route plan. I had um my husband who knew my exact route plan,
00:40:21
Speaker
um He shares my membership for Gaia. So he had my plotted route and my plotted emergency routes. and We also had like a group chat that knew where we were planning to go in, how many days we were planning to be in there.
00:40:37
Speaker
how many days of food we had and when we were expected it to come out. It's definitely good having plans of what's going to go wrong and who will hopefully be your emergency contact and having all that gear to try and keep you alive in the meantime.
00:40:52
Speaker
but So much is right, like so much. Yeah, I just want to say, like, you know, you you you spoke earlier about where you learnt, you know, to Canyon and and this training that you had that helped the situation. i think all this training is is really good, but there's nothing that replaces just getting out there and, you know, yeah being and surrounding yourself with more experienced people. Like, we, the night before the incident happened, we had literally spoken about pelvic splints.
00:41:22
Speaker
I'm sorry I mentioned it. We were in the canyon with an emergency blanket out and we spoke about how do you treat a pelvic fracture? And, you know, I i am not 100% sure that i would have remembered how to do it.
00:41:35
Speaker
I'm very glad that Maddie, you know, Maddie was there. She's, you know, more experienced in first aid and, than I am and I'm very glad she had the experience to help out. Surrounding yourself with experienced people is just so important and, you know, we came into our own with our skill sets. You know, i I had a lot of um skills with building fires and general survival. She had a lot more medical background so it just fell into it into place.
00:41:58
Speaker
Bram, it sounds like you couldn't have been with two better people. I'm really grateful that I had Maddie and Jason both saving my life. Yeah. So there's going to be loads of ah notes show notes with this one because the the number of things that they had done in preparation that are just great learnings for everyone in terms of just being solid, being solid, and there's so many examples of that. so stand by for that. In the show notes there'll be that. Hopefully you won't mind sharing a few photos from the experience as well, hopefully not the ones of you in your underwear. I think the one of Bram's wetsuit underwear is the most flattering.
00:42:43
Speaker
I think, yeah, that one has certainly done the rounds on social media. So if you don't mind sharing, that would be great to help us visualize and be in the canyon with you. Bram has no shame. It's okay. Thank you for your incredibly generous storytelling, all of you, because it's Like you've touched on there, Bram, is that when things happen in places that we love, when we go through trauma that happens in places that are, for all intents and purposes, they are our home, our wild home, that certainly places everything we think we know about home or it's quite shattering. Yeah.
00:43:23
Speaker
to be able to, you know, hear your stories, for your generosity and humility in sharing them um so so many of us can learn from it. And there's so many things that we can learn from your stories. So, yeah, thank you so much. And I look forward to seeing photos of you on a nice long canyon walk in so, successful. australia bram when you come back and head out into into the great aussie bush yet again yeah thank you for this this podcast as well think it was nice also for us three to to once again walk through the events and and just talk about it as a casual thing at least for me it was a good feeling to just walk but but through it and just see all the steps what happened and
00:44:11
Speaker
If you've enjoyed this powerful story or one of the many others from my super generous guests, you can help more people connect and hear these valuable lessons simply by leaving a five-star review. And why not even click that little bitty share button on your podcast app and help your outdoorsy mates find it too.
00:44:31
Speaker
The Rescued podcast is produced on the unceded lands of the Gondungara people of the Blue Mountains of New South Wales. I pay my respects to the elders past and present and acknowledge their enduring connection to and care for country.
00:44:46
Speaker
Special thanks to our sponsors, Paddy Pallon. This has been Lots of Fresh Air production.