The mission's log. A day in which life won!
The phone rang on Tuesday evening (7 August) around 11 PM. It was our friend Benko Zsolt, a member of Salvamont Harghita Mădăraș (mountain rescue), calling at the request of Nicu Gabor, the head of Salvamont Miercurea Ciuc. In short, we were asked to take part in a search mission for a 69-year-old man who had gone out to pick forest berries on Monday morning from his cabin in Santimbru Bai (the Harghita Mountains) and had not returned.
We got the little information Zsolt had at the time and agreed to meet at 8 AM in Santimbru Bai. After we had prepared all the equipment for the mission, we had one hour of sleep left before 2 AM, when the "wake-up" was scheduled. At 3 AM, our brave Matiz set off with two people and a dog on board. By 6 AM we had reached Lupeni, where Zsolt was waiting for us with hot coffee. There we switched to his car and set off for Santimbru Bai. Once up in the mountains, we met the other teams who were to take part in the mission. The Salvamont rescuers, the gendarmes, the missing man's friends and his nephew all pooled the information they had. We looked at the maps, and Nicu Gabor decided how we would run the search.
We started the search about a kilometre from the resort, on a slope on the left side of a forest road. The people lined up across the terrain and we began "combing" the area, moving along the road. The terrain was difficult because it had been logged many years before and the ground was covered by a thick layer of dry branches, covered with raspberry and blackberry bushes, ferns and very dense young fir trees. Moving forward was quite difficult both for the people and for the dog. In only a few places could you actually see the ground, and the raspberry bushes seemed to be trying to hold you back. After about half an hour of searching, Fedor suddenly turned right, and we thought he was trying to reach Călin, who was further up, to my left. I looked for him among the bushes and saw him reaching a PERSON. I ran after him immediately, and in those seconds a million thoughts and feelings ran through my head and heart. Was this the man we were looking for?... Or was it someone resting? Then I felt immense joy when I realised that the man, lying under the branches of a small fir tree, was wearing the T-shirt described by his family… then fear that we had arrived too late…. then IMMENSE JOY when I heard the weak voice asking for help, amid my own shouts announcing to the other teams that WE HAD FOUND HIM!!! The search was over and the RESCUE was beginning. Călin and the two gendarmes who were closest reached us very quickly and began tending to the man on the ground, at the same time announcing the good news over the radio along with some details about his condition. He was conscious and spoke to us. He was pale, exhausted and dehydrated, but glad to see someone. The others had a hard time locating us because of the very dense vegetation, but the directions given by the gendarmes over the radio and our shouts quickly led them to us. The man's nephew was laughing and crying with joy at the same time. The Salvamont rescuers, led by Nicu, examined the victim and determined the priorities for his care. A stretcher for transport and materials to immobilise his hand appeared right away. Nicu's orders came "in rapid fire": "Call 112 to send an ambulance…. go out to the road so you can guide it in… get the stretcher ready… two men on the handles in front and two behind… I want water and a cloth… you at the feet… you at the hand… now: 1, 2, 3 and…" and all the participants were given clear tasks meant to help carry the victim to the ambulance. I stepped back a little and looked at my dog, telling myself: "See? We're not crazy! We've worked for years, but we've done something extraordinary!" I hugged him with all the love I have for him and, as I gave him water, my thoughts went to everyone who had helped us prepare for this: our teammates, and our friends and instructors from Austria, France and Romania.
The stretcher set off across the bushes towards the road. Then along the narrow, uneven road to the point the ambulance could reach. A talkative gendarme kept the injured man "on his toes" the whole way with his barrage of questions. The road, punctuated by stops to check on the victim and give him water, ended at the ambulance door. There the doctors and paramedics took over, and we could all enjoy our success, wishing the man good health and strength to recover as quickly as possible. Fedor received plenty of thanks, pats and an unexpected gift. A friend of the victim's offered him a summer apple, which Fedor devoured with great appetite! We all set off for the place where we had left our cars. There, the victim's wife and other friends were waiting anxiously for the ambulance to come out of the forest. After the ambulance had passed, accompanied by all our wishes for the injured man's speedy recovery, we loaded all the equipment into the cars, shook hands warmly, and each went on our own way.
An extraordinary day was coming to an end! A day on which life won!!!!!!
Oana Ciora, President of CST