Did not see this posted elsewhere. Apologies if I missed something.

From the National Park Service (NPS) Morning Report for 28 March 2008.

Scroll down to the second item.


http://home.nps.gov/applications/morningreport/

Tim

Glad the guy is alright. I was a bit worried there it might have been a friend of mine.

I talked to a park ranger there on monday, he made it sound like it wasn't a big deal.

I tend to think a broken hip is a big deal.

Sounds like he may have been on the standard 5.8 first pitch. That pitch does lack some gear. He may have taken the pendelum from there towards the 5.10 variation. Yeah a broken hip is a pretty big deal. Luckily they were only on the first pitch and they were able to get to him pretty easily.

I'd follow up to JL and say this injury can be a big deal [Post edit: upon diagnose, it was found as a pelvic fracture]. You don't really know the severity until the x-ray & in the meantime of deciding what to do on the wall, it can be a life threatening situation. The area of the body has all kinds of vascular items and a fracture can easily damage anything there. Also, because of the nature of injury and proximity to the genitals, this can be an embarrassing concern leading to refusing/delaying aid; really, this is one of those times not to be bashful.

This can be a situation that requires stabilization of the pelvis & a litter evac. As far as a self/buddy evac situation, I think this definitely needs more hands & having a stabilizing bean bag with litter teams is a big plus in saving a life during the evac if the initial trauma hasn't caused a mortal injury.

Interestingly, pelvic fractures can run the gamut from minor to life-ending. You can bleed out from a pelvic fracture, hiding lots of blood in the pelvis. Hip fractures, while quite debilitating, typically are less life-threatening in the younger folks.