Return or go on? Decisions, decisions......

[bilbobaggins]

'Not in the syllabus.....'

Situation:

On passage from Scilly St Mary's to Cork, around halfway, one of your crew members falls ill and shows the symptoms of angina pectoralis.

Would you go on, or turn back? What are the considerations? How do you decide.......?

/forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

 

[l'escargot]

Which has the better hospital St Mary's or Cork?

 

[Talulah]

Depends if the crew member is the wife or not.

 

[owen]

depends on direction of wind and weather. but before you decide why not vhf the coast guard and get some advice from a doctor. it may just be a matter of having a few puffs of the spray or the crew may need evacuation definitely one to get some advice.

 

[bumblefish]

Half an aspirin, GTN spray and patch, get out the AED, pan pan?

 

[Rabbie]

Unless you can adequately diagnose which of the three types of angina pectoris it is, and I doubt you could, then you should PanPan Medico without delay.

 

[BrendanS]

Pan Pan only, Pan Pan Medico no longer exists, though the coastguard still respond.

 

[bumblefish]

CVP and arterial line, ODP, TOE, on-board angio, damn, back at work!!

 

[fireball]

I think you'll find they respond if you picked up the VHF mike and yelled "HELP HELP HELP" down the mike!! .... But you're right - better to try and use the correct protocol where you can .... /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[jimi]

I'd throw it back, never eat fish with funny names.

 

[billmacfarlane]

Obviously Pan Pan, follow medical advice and decide on where is the quickest port to get to bearing in mind that the quickest might not be the most comfortable for your ill crew and if you return to St Marys then your crew might have to be airlifted to the mainland.

 

[misterg]

Pan-Pan for medical advice, even if the individual has GTN spray. Once alarm has been raised, I assume evacuation would be required at earliest opportunity (even if not strictly necessary). Which direction you go next depends on where the helo / lifeboat is coming from.

(See: Plotting an intercepting course /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif)

0.02p

Andy

 

[Plomong]

If Dunmore East is nearer, go for it -- good hospitals are just a short ambulance ride away. I should know !!!

On the other hand, the Bon Secours hospital in Cork is first class, very up to date and has excellent doctors.

As for the more nautical aspects -- it could all depend on the wind. If Cork or Dunmore are dead beats, maybe turning back is a better bet, but not to St Marys. Maybe Milford Haven (possible broad reach) or somewhere in southern Cornwall (a broad reach or run??). I'm not familiar with hospital facilities in that area, so could not advise.

 

[grumpy_o_g]

If he's been diagnosed with it already he'll know what to do and is probably the best person to make the call. If it's that bad he's clearly suffering I'd say a Mayday, as his life is in imminent danger.

If he hasn't had it before then defintely a PAN PAN and they will almost certainly get a chopper out to him. Time is absolutely critical in heart cases. It's more important to get him to an ambulance or similar very quickly than to a hospital fairly quickly I'm told.

The trouble with a "heart attack" is that the symptoms, apart from chest pains, include difficulty breathing, anxiety, clamminess, sweating, unpleasant taste in the mouth and pretty much everything you likely to feel anyway if you've got a gippy tummy and you're convinced your ticker's decided to stop miles from anywhere.

This is NOT a medical opinion but I've had a "heart attack" (got a blocked artery) and suffer from a gastric compliant that causes chest pains and generally identical symptoms. It took the hospital months to convince themselves (and me!) that it wasn't Angina.

I believe that using a GTN spray can make things worse if it's the wrong type of Angina.

 

[LymingtonPugwash]

[ QUOTE ]
I'd throw it back, never eat fish with funny names.

[/ QUOTE ]

Keep the fish! The fish could come in useful to eat...... throw the inconsiderate crewmember over instead! How dare he come sailing with you and disrupt your precious quality sailing time by threatening to die? /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif He should do that sort of thing in his own time, not yours!
Actually, if I were feeling somewhat charitable, I might place him in the water carefully with a good lifejacket on and an EPIRB attached and let the coastguard know, so that when he's been picked up they can let you have your lifejacket and EPIRB back! /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

 

[ean_p]

but don't forget to relieve him of a couple of quid for a new gas canister for the lifejacket eh!!

 

[LymingtonPugwash]

[ QUOTE ]
but don't forget to relieve him of a couple of quid for a new gas canister for the lifejacket eh!!

[/ QUOTE ]

Goodness! How could I have missed that? You are obviously a man on my wavelength sir! Have a beer!
/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

 

[bilbobaggins]

Re: \"Beam me up, Scottie!....\"

Interesting how many consider the answer to life, the universe, and everything is a VHF radio ( or H2G2 )

As I recall, the distance between the Scilly Isles and Cork is more than 125 nautical miles. Surely some of the folk who've replied have done the VHF/DSC course and had the limited range of a yot's VHF kit pointed out to them? Wassat? Doan' know what I'm on about? Not done the course? Not got a 'license to operate.....?'

Maybe it just wasn't clear.....

The point of the original Q. was to ask how one works out whether it is quicker to go on or go back, and what are the considerations in making that skippery decision. If you haven't got comms, you haven't got others to make that decision for you.

Back to the drawing board, methinks.......




/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

 

[jenku]

Re: \"Beam me up, Scottie!....\"

Surely the question cannot be answered without knowing about wind direction and speed, weather, type of boat, engine and so on....

..on the other hand a prudent sailor would probably not go out on that passage if not the weather and wind were favorable. Once gotten half the way the best thing would then be to continue...if not the weather had changed during the passage. So do I get a donut now?

 

[BlueSkyNick]

Re: \"Beam me up, Scottie!....\"

there may be a vessel in the area who could relay a message or even have a doctor on board. Putting this aside, I would take the shortest route to terra firma, based on ability to sail/motor the boat. eg wind direction, sea state etc.

The Scillies do have working medical facilities (my cousin was a GP there), and anything ashore is better than a longer time spent at sea.

All IMHO of course

(I trust this isn't one of those 'I've got a friend who.....' threads !)