High drama of search team's snowdrift rescue
This is the dramatic moment a search-and-rescue team struggled through snowdrifts after a woman fell ill in countryside cut off by bad weather.
Images emerged today of expert rescuers using a special sled stretcher to carry and pull the woman through the snow to a waiting Land Rover which then took her to an ambulance.
They stepped in following a call from police for help in remote countryside near Welshpool on Sunday.
Becky Ashcroft for the North East Wales search-and-rescue team said: “We had a request from Dyfed Powys Police to evacuate a patient with a serious medical condition from her remote home near Welshpool.
“In these circumstances a helicopter would be the best choice, but with low cloud and fog neither the coastguard nor air ambulance could assist.
"It was back to the good, old-fashioned stretcher work.”
The woman had to be lifted over drifts in the stretcher and onto the side road where a waiting Land Rover was able to take her to Welshpool for handover to the Welsh Ambulance Service.
Rescuers thanked a team from Severn Trent Water for its work with a snowplough. Members of the public also assisted.
Volunteers in the search-and-rescue team spent much of the weekend helping take patients to hospital.
They were also involved in rescuing people from cars stranded in the freezing cold snow, including those stuck on country roads near Corwen and Conwy.
Donations for the team can be made at newsar.org.uk/fundraising/donation/
