Midnight helicopter rescue of injured walker near Dancing Ledge

Volunteers from Swanage Lifeboat Station and the Swanage and St Albans Coastguard teams went to the aid of a woman who was in considerable pain.

The walker had injured her ankle on the path above Dancing Ledge near Langton Matravers.

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The coastguard was first on the scene of the incident on the night of Tuesday 3rd August 2021. They administered first aid but called for back up due to the amount of pain that the woman was in.

Both Swanage Lifeboats launched at 11.45 pm arriving just after midnight. The inshore lifeboat took two crew members ashore, along with Entonox pain relieving gas from the all weather lifeboat.

Dancing Ledge viewed from the sea
Library image / Caroline Abbott

The path above Dancing Ledge is extremely steep in places and can be dangerous to walk along at night

“Given some Entonox to reduce the pain”

Swanage Lifeboat Station reported:

“Due to the casualty’s location, the easiest method of extraction was going to be by coastguard vehicle back up the hill.

“The casualty was assessed, given some Entonox to reduce the pain, transferred to a stretcher and carried up to the vehicle.

“The two RNLI volunteers needed to stay with the casualty to administer the Entonox but as the lifeboats were no longer required they were released to return to Swanage.”

Coastguard helicopter at Dancing Ledge
Library Image / Swanage Coastguard

The coastguard helicopter is no stranger to rescuing people from the Purbeck coastline near Dancing Ledge

Suspected broken ankle

By this time, Coastguard Helicopter Rescue 175 from Lee on Solent was available, so it arrived and was able to fly the woman with a suspected broken ankle to Poole Hospital.

The two RNLI crew were then given a lift back to the lifeboat station by the coastguard.

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