Tweed Valley MRT members and the air ambulance at the incident site
A horse rider was treated by a mountain rescue team after injuring herself in a fall from her animal during an annual event.
Tweed Valley Mountain Rescue Team was alerted at 8am on Friday to the injured 16-year-old girl who had fallen during the Selkirk Common Riding event.
The team was on standby for the event, in which riders follow the burgh boundaries and was called to aid the girl who was suffering from a suspected broken collar bone after the incident on Foulshiels Hill.
A spokesperson for the rescuers said: “TVMRT team members attended the scene of the incident and carried out an initial assessment of the casualty’s injuries.
“The casualty had broken her clavicle in more than one place. Due to the height of the fall from the horse and the casualty complaining of neck pain, TVMRT immobilised her in a full body vacuum mattress as a precaution in case of a more serious spinal injury.
“A vacuum mattress is a specialist piece of kit used by mountain rescue teams which allows the casualty to be fully immobilised during transportation to a place of treatment.
“Although a TVMRT 4×4 ambulance could get fairly close to the casualty, a decision was made to request a helicopter evacuation to allow the casualty to reach specialist hospital care in the minimum of time.”
A Scottish Air Ambulance helicopter flew from its base in Glasgow and the casualty was airlifted to the Borders General Hospital in Melrose where medics confirmed that the girl’s collar bone had broken in two places but there was no spinal injury.
Team leader Steve Penny said: “Being based in Selkirk, TVMRT is always pleased to be in a position to support to Selkirk Common Riding. This incident demonstrated good partnership working between the team and the ambulance service and we are pleased that we could help out.
“On behalf of TVMRT, I wish the young lady a speedy recovery and hope she will take part again next year.”
The Common Riding commemorates the historical tradition of patrolling the burgh’s common-land boundaries to check from encroachments.
Eight members of the rescue team were involved in the incident.
