Seriously Injured Teen Extricated From Under Bridalveil Falls

Yosemite National Park (CA)
Seriously Injured Teen Extricated From Under Bridalveil Falls

Park dispatch received a 911 call from a visitor at Bridalveil Falls on the afternoon of August 5th, reporting that a 16-year-old boy had fallen 30 to 40 feet and was unconscious. A number of visitors had seen him scrambling on the large boulders below the falls, then slip off the face of one of them and out of their view. Rangers, Medic 3 ambulance and a SAR carryout team responded. An air ambulance was also requested based on the visitor report that the boy was unconscious. Rangers found that the boy, who was at the edge of one of the pools directly under the 640-foot waterfall, was gravely injured. The first park medics to arrive in the area immediately called for a short-haul extraction, based on the terrain and seriousness of the boy’s injuries. Helicopter 551 with pilot Richard Shatto and a spotter were flown to the scene. Shatto positioned the helicopter in the spray of the giant waterfall, then slowly lowered medic Keith Lober, dangling from the 150-foot short-haul line, down to the site. SAR personnel helped Lober hookup the teenager, who was already packaged in a litter. He was flown out just a bit more than an hour after the initial call for help. The boy was flown to the trauma center at Memorial Hospital in Modesto, where he was treated for his life-threatening injuries. The IC was ranger Chris Bellino.

Crazy! I bet that was a site to see the helicopter so close to the falls.