I just looked it up, and if we choose to not take a rest of any kind we move along towards rescuing the dwarf faster, but it is only 5 minutes faster. If we think this will make a difference, and it will cost him his life, then I say we don't do it. We spend a surge and move on, but given that it is only 5 minutes I think we can do it. This is why I wanted to clarify, but we got cut off.
Here are the details of the two types of rest.
SHORT REST
✦ Duration: A short rest is about 5 minutes long.
✦ No Limit per Day: You can take as many short rests per day as you want.
✦ No Strenuous Activity: You have to rest during a short rest. You can stand guard, sit in place, ride on a wagon or other vehicle, or do other tasks that don’t require much exertion.
✦ Renew Powers: After a short rest, you renew your encounter powers, so they are available for your next encounter.
✦ Spend Healing Surges: After a short rest, you can spend as many healing surges as you want (see “Healing,” page 293). If you run out of healing surges, you must take an extended rest to regain them.
✦ Using Powers while You Rest: If you use an encounter power (such as a healing power) during a short rest, you need another short rest to renew it so that you can use it again.
✦ Interruptions: If your short rest is interrupted, you need to rest another 5 minutes to get the benefits of a short rest.
EXTENDED REST
✦ Duration: An extended rest is at least 6 hours long.
✦ Once per Day: After you finish an extended rest, you have to wait 12 hours before you can begin another one.
✦ No Strenuous Activity: You normally sleep during an extended rest, though you don’t have to. You can engage in light activity that doesn’t require much exertion.
✦ Regain Hit Points and Healing Surges: At the end of an extended rest, you regain any hit points you have lost and any healing surges you have spent.
✦ Powers: At the end of an extended rest, you regain all your encounter powers and daily powers.
✦ Action Points: At the end of an extended rest, you lose any unspent action points, but you start fresh with 1 action point.
✦ Interruptions: If anything interrupts your extended rest, such as an attack, add the time spent dealing with the interruption to the total time you need to spend in the extended rest.
I think it would be safe to take a short rest now, use a surge or two (without costing us second wind) and have the Cleric roll up our bonuses for doing it. It will also allow anyone who levels from this, to level. If the cleric levels, then we get him to roll after he does his leveling, so we get a better bonus for him assisting our healing

Thoughts?
Winston, how urgent is it that we move on for the rescue? Because I think the 5 minutes shouldn't hurt anything, but that all depends on whether or not we think he is in dire straights and all that.