Tributes have been paid to Dr Ieuan Jones, a well-known doctor at the former C&A Hospital in Bangor and Ysbyty Gwynedd, and a former member of the Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Team, who passed away recently.
Ieuan Jones was born in 1935 near Llanelli, South Wales. He started climbing on the Gower. After schooling, he trained as a doctor at Guy’s Hospital in London, and qualified in 1959 specialising in trauma and orthopaedics.
He started work at the C & A Hospital, Bangor in 1960. After a short period with the National Coal Board, he returned to the C & A in 1966 as Senior Accident Officer.
Ieuan joined the Territorial Army in 1970. He was called up for the First Gulf War and also served in Bosnia and Kosovo. He retired from Ysbyty Gwynedd in 1997 as a Consultant in Accident and Emergency.
With Ieuan’s involvement in mountaineering, including trips to the Alps and Himalayas, and his interest in mountain rescue, he was approached with requests for training in first aid appropriate for mountain casualties.
He developed a series of lectures with associated practical work, amply illustrated with colour slides of actual injuries. His course was certificated by the St John Ambulance Brigade in Wales and was one of the first – if not the very first – courses specifically designed to provide quality treatment for mountain casualties. Instructor and advanced level courses followed.
Initially he lectured in Bangor, often smoking a cigar. His live lectures, lasting some two hours, held the audience enlivened by comments such as ‘the next rather gory slide shows…During one practical session, a candidate – a keen photographer – asked how he managed to shoot the casualties? He received the reply, ‘Actually we try to save the casualties.’ Because of increasing demand he produced a series of taped lectures to be used by his instructors. In the late 1990s, the course was developed into a series of PowerPoint presentations.
In the early ‘70s, Ieuan gave a memorable lecture to a large audience in London entitled ‘Preventing an accident becoming a tragedy,’ which illustrated a systematic and robust examination of a casualty in the mountain environment.
By the late 1970s, the course was well established as a standard for first aid in the mountains. Between 1978 and 1983, some 2359 candidates had attended the Basic Course with a pass rate of 69%. Many found the contents and standards required anything but basic. The use of colour slides not only illustrated the range of injuries, but also laid the foundation for what could be encountered on the hills.
Unintentionally, this proved to be an early example of ‘psychological inoculation’ to reduce stress. It was not unknown for the occasional candidate to faint when a particularly gory slide appeared on the screen.
Courses were delivered widely in the United Kingdom, Eire and the Channel islands as well as to the Mountain Rescue Team of the Civil Aid Service, Hong Kong.
Dr Ieuan Jones’ funeral will be held at 11.00am, Tuesday 9 May, at Bangor Crematorium, followed by the wake at Bangor Rugby Club.
Photo & Text: Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Organisation
