A hero mountain rescue volunteer paid the ultimate price as he died many months after plunging 500ft in darkness on a Lakes fell during a call to help lockdown-breaking campers.
Chris Lewis, 62, had responded with other Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team members to assist two men — a 47-year-old man from Leicester and another from Liverpool. The alarm was raised after one began having chest pains in the Red Screes area between Ullswater and Ambleside.
With Patterdale rescuers observing strict COVID guidance themselves, just after midnight on February 6 2021, Chris drove himself to Kirkstone Pass car park on what was his 49th callout since he became a full team member in 2019.
He headed to the scene with other team members, including deputy leader Matthew Cox. He told an inquest this week how he found the casualty, who was assessed and treated. However, there was no sign of Chris, who had previously been seen leaving a path and heading to the site, several hundred metres from the car park.
Mr Cox believed Chris may have fallen and went to search for him. “I then saw broken glasses,” said Mr Cox. He found Chris in a “contorted” position, offered assistance and recalled: “I continued to reassure Chris, to inform him that more help was coming.”
Chris was airlifted from the hillside to a major trauma centre at Royal Preston Hospital where he was diagnosed with complete tetraplegia. He required lengthy rehabilitation to achieve medical stability, and was admitted to a specialist spinal injury centre at Southport, in April 2021.
Chris, of Near Sawrey, was discharged in November 2022, and thereafter received round-the-clock care from this wife, Carol, plus professional carers, and was seen regularly by his GP.
On September 2 2023, he was admitted to Furness General Hospital in Barrow with a chest infection and difficulty breathing. He died two days later, peacefully, with Carol by his side.
The inquest at Cockermouth Coroners’ Court on Thursday heard he died from pneumonia and a traumatic spinal injury with quadriplegia.
Delivering her conclusion, Cumbria’s area coroner Kirsty Gomersal said: “I have no difficulty in finding that Chris’s final illness and his death were due to the injuries he sustained on Red Screes 31 months earlier.”
In the aftermath of that incident, the two campers who sparked the callout were fined £200 each for breaching COVID travel restrictions.
In a statement, Chris’s wife told of the retired engineer’s love of the outdoors — of climbing, walking, running and cycling, and active holidays which also included safaris. Educated in Macclesfield, Chris studied engineering at Durham University before working for ICI, Zeneca and AstraZeneca.
He joined Patterdale MRT in retirement and current leader Mike Rippon told the inquest he was a very suitable candidate due to his experience of the outdoors.
Ms Gomersal concluded the fall was “neither predictable nor preventable”, and that Chris’s death had been accidental.
An independently produced report following the incident proposed recommendations for improving the future response of rescuers to callouts. These had since been implemented by Patterdale members and shared with teams nationwide.
Ms Gomersal reflected on voluntary service provided by rescuers.
“All give their time, skills and experience to selflessly and bravely assist others who find themselves in difficulty or distress.
“No time on the fells is without risk and a cursory search on any social media platform can inform us of the number of callouts and the risks that our mountain rescue teams voluntarily accept on each rescue or recovery,” she said.
“Each member puts themselves at risk on each rescue or recovery: voluntarily, selflessly and without hesitation. Chris paid the ultimate price for his selflessness and his dedication to others.”
