Brendan Sloan shares over two decades of experience at the intersection of critical care and cave rescue. As a consultant in intensive care medicine and medical officer for the British Cave Rescue Council, he offers a grounded, practical look at what happens when medicine meets mud, darkness, and extreme constraint.
This World Extreme Medicine Conference session delivers a behind-the-scenes exploration of UK cave rescue—from kit and communication to casualty management, inter-agency working, and stories from beneath the surface.
Brendan breaks down:
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What cave rescue really involves—and why it’s so logistically complex
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The clinical considerations of treating patients in confined, vertical, and wet environments
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How pre-hospital care, teamwork, and decision-making change underground
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Real case examples, lessons learned, and what it means for wilderness medicine as a whole