WASHINGTON COUNTY, Utah, Dec. 6, 2022 (Gephardt Daily) — A 72-year-old woman who fell about 20 feet Monday while hiking on Red Mountain was transported in critical condition.
Her hiking partner, a woman in her 30s, called dispatch at about 8:12 a.m., Sgt. Darrell Cashin, Washington County Sheriff‘s Department, told Gephardt Daily.
“There were about 25 people that responded to that between search and rescue, between Ivins-Santa Clara fire, EMS, LifeFlight and the DPS Aero Bureau,” and Sheriff personnel and trained search and Search and Rescue volunteers, he said.
Helicopters were unable to land on the steep, craggy mountainside, Cashin said, so medical personnel were lowered to an area near the site, which was about halfway up the mountain.
They treated the critically injured woman, who suffered head and back injuries, but whose vital signs were stable.
She was later loaded onto LifeFlight, which had landed on the street below. The woman was flown to St. George Regional Medical Center for treatment, Cashin said.
Partway through the three-hour operation, a drone appeared in the airspace, and all action came to a halt. Helicopters cannot safely fly with a drone in the air, Cashin said, so life-saving efforts were delayed.
The drone operator has not yet been identified, he said.
“It went very smoothly, and we got her off of there as quickly and safely as possible,” he said, of the overall rescue operation.
“I was really pleased with the way the operation went. It’s amazing to see all these different agencies and all these different elements all come together with different skills, and it worked very well.”
