Fury over ‘unfit’ hiker rescue at Mt Warning

[Aztec]

http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/fitness/exercise/fury-over-unfit-hiker-rescue-at-mt-warning-during-the-easter-break/news-story/c17122ba0a37441b186c5d31ad261c8b

Interesting article... not sure if they're upset that he was unfit or that he was 115kg...

[GBW]

Wouldn't it be easier/cheaper/safer to take this guy some food and a shelter and sleeping bag for the night and walk him down in the morning?

[GPSGuided]

As they say, there's a thin man inside a fat man. He obviously forgot a few things before the walk.

[wayno]

it goes with the terrirory with SAR . until he gets medically evaluated you can't judge, any one of a number of medical issues could have been making him too tired to continue... going public with comments in this article has the potential to put people off calling for a rescue even when they genuinely need one for fear of public criticism...

[RonK]

it goes with the terrirory with SAR . until he gets medically evaluated you can't judge, any one of a number of medical issues could have been making him too tired to continue... going public with comments in this article has the potential to put people off calling for a rescue even when they genuinely need one for fear of public criticism...

Heat and humidity up here has been appalling for weeks. I have no trouble believing he became dehydrated.

[Aztec]

"Reaction disgusts ‘unfit’ hiker"

http://www.news.com.au/national/mt-warning-unfit-hiker-was-actually-twotour-afghanistan-war-hero-who-suffers-from-ptsd/news-story/d40eabf0638b52b1084c5f52786fe924

[cajun]

I read his reply this morning. The need for "getting the story out" has certainly lowered the quality of journalism.

I wish "Dogga" all the very best.

[wayno]

id debate that the anxiety was entirely PTSD. hot weather conditions would contribute to the stress he was getting with dehydration and heat stress.. anxiety is something that can affect anyone and its cause are not always entirely psychological

[GPSGuided]

Given that the hospital emergency department hardly kept him around, his level physiological stresses are likely to be within what many of us encounters on hot/humid walks, it'd be hard to exclude some kind of psychological state to the predominant determinant. PTSD or not one can't say as a past diagnosis of PTSD does not exclude other co-existing behavioural and psychological states.

[Thatoutdoorsyguy]

I'm not a keyboard warrior and I am happy to say this in a public forum.

Wayno/GPS - Unless you have any experience in PTSD resulting from combat in any recent theatre of war, I suggest you keep your comments to yourself.

We should be praising this chap for being strong enough to call for help, which is essentially broadcasting the fact that he has a mental illness.

This would be far more constructive than reading your uninformed diagnosis of what you think was the underlying cause.

As someone who has an intimate appreciation of PTSD from the Afghanistan conflict and the impact is has on the sufferer, their physiological capabilities and mental state, I feel that you both should be more cautious in making comment on such matters unless you both are experienced physicians in the field of PTSD resulting from armed conflict.

[Strider]

id debate that the anxiety was entirely PTSD. hot weather conditions would contribute to the stress he was getting with dehydration and heat stress.. anxiety is something that can affect anyone and its cause are not always entirely psychological

Why do you need to debate it? It is what it is. The guy has PTSD and thankfully he received the help he needed.

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

[GPSGuided]

Drop Bear, PTSD and related states are not unique to the Afghanistan conflict nor is it a modern condition and nor is it exclusive to the military through history and societies. The discussions above did not exclude the impact of PTSD on the individual but extended the discussion to the circumstances, no different to the discussion of any other medical conditions. Nothing wrong with it.

[Thatoutdoorsyguy]

I'm not entering into online arguments. I have made my comment. I stand by it.

[GPSGuided]

It's a discussion forum.

[RonK]

Even if the person was not a PTSD sufferer, the reaction was appalling, particularly if it came from an SES officer.

Mt Barney is no bush walk, it's a tourist walk on a formed path, albeit fairly steep. Most tourists would tackle it with barely a thought for their fitness.

As for the signage, it warns against starting out too late during winter when the sun sets early and the temperature drops quickly.

However many people do this walk in the dark, by moonlight or by torchlight to arrive at the summit before dawn, so it can hardly be considered difficult except for the aged or extremely unfit.

So if somebody called for help I'd be fairly sure that his distress was genuine.

[GPSGuided]

Even if the person was not a PTSD sufferer, the reaction was appalling, particularly if it came from an SES officer.

It is curious that the emergency services would come out and voice it in such a way, they are usually more professional than this and leave the judgement to others. I now wonder if we have all been pawned by the media by the way how the story was reported as they are known to twist words and grossly sensationalise stories.

[taipan821]

I'm not a keyboard warrior and I am happy to say this in a public forum.

We should be praising this chap for being strong enough to call for help, which is essentially broadcasting the fact that he has a mental illness.

First, It was a successful rescue, going from experience they can be less common then unsuccessful ones.
i don't think the ptsd has anything to do with it, rather the man had the humility to call for help.
this situation happens more than once all over the place (Alligator Creek Falls/Mt Elliott after rain) where people/tourists who don't know the risks get caught out.

As a volunteer with SES I have no problems with people calling for help, granted the cost involved in a search and rescue are quite high (helicopter flight hours, overtime for police, costs involved with activating a volunteer search team/s) but who knows what could have happened during the night.

congrats to the helicopter crew and the search team, even though they didn't get to play

just don't go wandering down a mountain range looking for phone reception.

[Gadgetgeek]

I think its poor reporting, and someone got on the phone without the press-officer. this is exactly why you have a press-specialist to answer questions. The member who made the comments probably said more, or thought he was giving background, but the reporter spun it.

As for the rescue, glad it was a success, and I really hope it doesn't prevent the next person who gets in trouble on an "easy" track to call for help. rescue beats body recovery.

As for the rest of the details, every time something like this comes up, we all want to know what to learn from it to make sure we don't make the same mistake. In this case I don't know what there is, rather than considering that the solo walker has few options but to call the chopper. for many, that's enough, and I wouldn't suggest it should be different. But there are those who might want to consider having at least a little backup, at least to avoid embarrassment.

Dropbear, The way I read the PTSD comments was not it should be discounted, but to consider it as an additional factor on an already tough situation. One tough enough to justify calling for help on its own. If someone knows themselves well enough that they push the button before they do something completely out of panic, that it simply means they made the right call. Each of us has some factor that affects us more than others. It might be heat, cold, bugs, bad food or no food. For some its stress, and if he knew that crossing that threshold would be a point of no return, and knowing that help was coming was enough to keep him from going there, then its no different from a 60 kg person in the cold and wet calling for help before the hypothermia gets them when everyone else is fine, or the diabetic running out of food and calling it in before they crash out. Its just a factor, nothing more, nothing less.

[wayno]

+1 @gadgetgeek

[mickb]

My thoughts.
1. Sounds like retard Journalism
2. PTSD, tired of hearing it these days. Afghanistan, barely 4 combat deaths a year, less dangerous than underground coal mining, 99% of aussies never saw action on deployment, they made made six figures dosh tax free and earnt medals for eating at 3 course dining halls. I should know I was one of them, several times. And I have a tonne of mates going for the PTSD thing, its one of the most heavily abused areas of claiming. I can understand special forces, a small % of combat corps and people who received severe injuries fine. But for 99% of the army , a metro city paramedic will see more blood, guts and threats of violence in their first year than 20 years of army service. Give them a PTSD pension instead.
3. No problem spending time and money to rescue a bloke doing something healthy. It costs tens of thousands each time a meth head overdosing need a chopper flight from a small town to a big hospital. Millions spent every weekend around Australia spent on these twits, no one complains.

[neilmny]

I read his reply this morning. The need for "getting the story out" has certainly lowered the quality of journalism.

I wish "Dogga" all the very best.

I wholeheartedly agree cajun.
Journalism has been rock bottom for a long time now.
There is very little substance or value in most of the manure that gets poured on us.
Once again we see the comment regarding the poor *&%$#! "tax payer" coping a bit of expense, jeez what have we become that we begrudge a rescue
or is just the journalist making the story as sensational as possible to make sure he or she gets paid for the article.
The report and disrespect for a human being in trouble shown towards this bloke is shameful regardless of his service in Afghanistan.