Liverpool Wilderness Medicine Society crowned Wild Trials Champions 2024
The Liverpool Wilderness Medicine Society (LWMS) took part in the annual Wild Trials, emerging as crowned champions for 2024. This national competition tested wilderness skills and knowledge, pitting university teams from across the country against each other.
Their victory highlights the incredible teamwork and dedication of Wilderness members during a gruelling two days of competition and mass casualty simulations. Social Media Secretary for the Wilderness Society, Sian Parry, recounts the tough scenarios, intense challenges, and expertise drawn upon.
“Wild Trials is a national wilderness and pre-hospital medicine competition where teams of four students compete to correctly diagnose and manage a circuit of simulated patients with a variety of complicated presentations. This year, Glasgow Wilderness Medicine hosted 24 teams from across the country to compete in Carlisle.
We were able to send two teams which meant we had team members with a variety of experience. Our first team was our more experienced team – Aeron Raphael Ibanez Alvarado (5th year, Team 1 leader), Bella Walker (4th year), Uffa Wilson (3rd year), and Emily Jones (2nd year). Our second team consisted of myself (4th year, Team 2 leader), Alice Hodge (Intercalating student), Alex Megahy (2nd year) and Ty Wazir (1st year).
Team 1 receiving their trophy
This year, the circuit involved patients in the desert, jungle, water, and mountains, separated across two days of competition.
On day one, our teams treated cases such as heat stroke, severe hypothermia, crush injuries, snake bites, and post-partum haemorrhage.
Day two saw Team 1 work with 11 other teams to deal with a train crash mass casualty, while Team 2 worked with the rest of the teams in an explosion mass casualty scenario.
To win, Team 1 successfully treated all patients effectively, with fantastic teamwork and empathetic patient reassurance. They had to think outside the box, with multiple stations having equipment or space restrictions that meant first line management could not be used. Assessors commented on both teams’ rapid management and thorough assessment of patients, and on the preparation each team had made to prevent mistakes being made in the panic of the moment.
Liverpool was credited with having fantastic communication skills whilst reassuring patients in traumatic situations.
Team 2 in a scenario
LWMS has weekly teaching sessions and two annual simulation weekends away, all of which helped our team to beat the competition! These sessions are open to anyone interested in wilderness medicine and helped give our teams the knowledge and experience they needed for Wild Trials.
These sessions helped prepare our teams for scenarios that went really well and led to many highlights of the weekend. Team 1’s highlight was the effective management of a hypothermic arrest – this station required specific knowledge of complex resuscitation guidelines, all while managing a very anxious relative.
Team 2’s highlight was the management of a patient who had fallen into a glacier crevasse. This scenario meant that the team had to assess and manage a polytrauma in a very restricted space, while preventing any exposure injuries.
Team 1 working through a scenario
There were also many challenges, with scenarios designed to catch out competitors as the competition progressed. This included a snake bite which caused multiple challenges for Team 2 – particularly when they forgot which desert to send the antivenom to! Team 1 also fell into a classic Wild Trials trap when they didn’t correctly assess the danger in a jungle scenario, resulting in the whole team being declared dead.
Liverpool Wilderness Medicine Society will be running teaching sessions and similar scenarios all academic year next year, with a taster session in September. We welcome all abilities so please come along! This year, we are about to start our revision series of teaching sessions, every Thursday at 7pm. Please check our Instagram @wildernessliv for more details!”
What a superb achievement! Well done to everyone involved in the Wild Trials competition!
Discover More
- If you’d like to join the LWMS, take a look at their Instagram page (link) or X (link) for more details.