Easter is time for celebration for almost everyone and everywhere. People celebrate for various reasons: religious, arrival of Spring, or simply the extended weekend.
For me it is also a time of the year which brings some special memories. Ten years ago shortly after we came to Britain, we went to Cornwall for one of our first climbing trips. I was really amazed by Sennen granite and really took to climbing it. Slowly I tried to push for harder and nicer lines.
In the end of the second day I made a number of small tiny mistakes which resulted in a helicopter trip to Truro hospital. Sadly, it was only Natalie who got to see the amazing Cornish coast, as I was laying on a stretcher.
I have to say that I have been quite lucky. I’m still in awe how NHS dealt with the incident. It may have been due to them trying to safe beds for more seriously hurt patients, or simply to raise their quota in successfully treated patients. My injuries were deemed insignificant, despite the landing on hard granite 10 metres bellow. I was chucked out of the hospital two hours later, barefoot and wearing some random pieces of clothes, no scans or thoughts about internal injuries.
The waiting list for the plaster for my wrist was two weeks. Fortunately my friend was not only a skilled carpenter and decorator, he was able to make a good plaster, too.
I went back to Cornwall six weeks later, same place, same people to climb with. This time it wasn’t me who flew away, and our experience of what to do when needed proved helpful. Only the people from the ambulance who got first to the scene were in shock first seeing us again.
