San Diego: Helicopter Rescue of Injured Hiker

INCIDENT DATE/TIME: 11-7-21 8:42 am
LOCATION: Cowles Mountain
CITY: San Diego
DETAILS:

A female hiker had fallen and badly injured her leg/ankle while hiking on Cowles Mtn. Firefighters climb up to her relocation, and they determined injury warranted a helicopter rescue.

A paramedic was dropped down to the location and she was hosted up to the helicopter and transported to a landing zone for transport to a hospital via ambulance.

[darrens.]

Thank you San Diego Fire-Rescue, you all do an awesome job as do the other agencies.

[Project]

Finally, not a DUI wrong way vehicle versus pedestrian after kidnapping and swat standoff leaving an arson scene with shots fired.

[rolpal]

Saw that Helicopter from Lake Murray this morning. I thought another rescue and I bet Doug is going to be there. lol.

[darrens.]

Cowles Mountain once was great for hiking/walking, but it became far too populated. There are so many rescues now I suspect they'll need to build a fire station at the top of the hill.

[karlkeating]

In California, rescued people are not charged for search-and-rescue operations, the idea being that if charges were known to be levied many people would refuse SAR help and would end up either in worse shape or dead.

Regarding this case, it would be interesting to learn why SAR didn't use a stretcher to move the hiker the 100 yards down the trail (which at that point isn't particularly steep).

[peaceandwealthseeker]

never understood the people that sprint down cowles.

[AniBuster]

I have easily hiked Cowles Mt. over 1200 times in my first 10 years of hiking, I once carried a woman from near the summit and back to the parking lot because she twisted her ankle. We took a decent mount of breaks, but I managed to drop her off to her vehicle. Surprises me that the firefighters did not volunteer for the task, considering how close she was to the beginning of the trail. Overachieved effort is you ask me.

[dogloverjb]

she was close to the beginning of the trail...why a helicopter? There had to be a better and more economical way. With help, she probably could have made it down the mountain to an ambulance or a drive to the emergency room.

[soupdejour]

That’s gonna be a helluva medical bill.

[EstosWebos]

They need to install a escalator so that this doesn’t happen again.

[Baenamusic]

Bruh this happened to me 2 years ago but I walked down the mountain on my own, my doctor didn't appreciated it tho, but I was to embarrassed to ask for help haha

[bjamin]

Maybe a few glasses of milk here and there will help in the future is she recovers to hike again.

[rd]

I have to chuckle. The patient is two minutes from the street, but she was flown out on Copter 1. ETA to the hospital in either case, flight or drive, would be the same because the copter takes a lot longer to get on scene than an ambulance. Patient comfort, the same either way. Somebody made the call to spend a couple of thousand dollars of taxpayer’s money to lift out this victim when it wasn’t appropriate. Was this person special?? When you have lots and lots of expensive equipment, a budget that relies on other peoples tax money, and lax oversight, the expensive toys will get used whether you need to or not.

[SagebrushRambles]

That ride is going to be spendy, but great practice for SDFD lol.

[imBadMove]

Common occurrence in the neighborhood.

[stupadasol]

Firefighters to weak to carry her down to an ambulance? Stokes litter is how we did it back in the day. We watch our budget.

[apr]

I would've got a couple men and women volunteers to carry me down 100 yards lmfao what a waste of resources.

[moeoeolycus]

gotta spend the money in that budget before the year is over