A lone hiker who broke his leg on the Isle of Skye was saved after using a location app to raise the alarm with emergency services. John McGuire had walked around a mile-and-a-half towards the Fairy Pools during a solo holiday on Thursday, February 9, when he tripped over a tyre track on a rural path.
The 62-year-old, from Yorkshire, realised he was in trouble and managed to lower himself to the ground before attempting to call 999. The experienced walker had downloaded the what3words app and was able to pinpoint his exact location for paramedics and mountain rescue teams despite poor mobile phone signal.
Around two hours later, the dad-of-two, who was on the brink of hypothermia due to chilly weather conditions, was stretchered off to an ambulance and taken to the nearby Broadford Hospital. He has since had a metal plate and three pins fitted into his broken fibula bone.
John said: "I'd only walked about a mile and a half when I turned my ankle on a tyre rut. I heard the snap in my leg and realised my foot was working independently with my leg so I decided to sit down.
"I’m fairly good at keeping quite calm in situations fortunately so I told myself to concentrate on getting help. My phone said it could only make emergency calls so I went ahead and dialled 999. Because I had the what3words app, I was able to tell the call handler where I was exactly.
"Sitting on the ground waiting did feel like an eternity but I was actually only there for about two hours. I had a sense of anxiety about the whole thing but I was confident that they were going to come and get me.
"There was a decent wind up there and thankfully I had waterproof trousers on and was leaning against my backpack which helped keep me dry. The fingers and toes were starting to tingle a bit.
"Everyone assumes I was in excruciating pain but I wasn’t. There was just a dull ache in my leg. My body temperature had dropped to 35 when I got into the ambulance which was on the brink of hypothermia.
"Had I not used the what3words app, they might have spent half a day looking for me and I might not have been quite so fortunate. The app is absolutely brilliant but the emergency services and all the staff at the hospital were also incredible."
Since John's wife passed away and he retired in 2017, he has become a frequent hiker and covers around 1200 to 1500 miles a year - with Scotland being his first choice for a walking trip away from home.
Luckily he had already downloaded the what3words app a few years earlier. The app gave his exact location to rescuers using the words 'tasters, chiefs, papers'. A crew from the Skye Mountain Rescue Team and Scottish Ambulance service were dispatched and soon found the stricken hillwalker.
"A few nights later I was lying in my hospital bed reflecting on what had happened and thought about how critical the what3words app was to my rescue", he said.
"I've encouraged my friends and family to download the app. Whilst this app has social benefits it can be a life saver and perhaps it was for me. I feel really strongly about everyone downloading it. It is phenomenal."
John has since made the rather uncomfortable 440 mile drive home after his son travelled to Skye to collect him and his camper van.
A spokesperson for the Skye Mountain Rescue Team said: "This was a very quick and simple rescue as Mr. McGuire was only 500m from the road and our input was just to carry him to a waiting ambulance."
A spokesperson for the Scottish Ambulance Service said: “We received a call at 1429 hours on February 9 to attend an incident in Skye. We dispatched one ambulance to the scene and also requested the assistance of the local mountain rescue team. We transported one male patient in his 60s to Broadford Hospital.”
The what3words app is free to download on both iOS and Android, and does not need an internet connection to find your current what3words address - it uses GPS.
Find your what3words address by clicking here.
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