Coast Guard Rescues Injured Hiker

On Tuesday afternoon December 2nd, at approximately 4:00 pm, Depoe Bay Firefighters were called to a location just South of Depoe Bay in an area known as Big Whale Cove.

The initial call was for a 19-year-old male suffering from an unknown medical issue. Firefighters reached the patient within 10 minutes of the call and had determined that the 19-year-old hiker had reportedly suffered seizures and had become immobilized. Emergency personnel quickly decided the best extraction would be by a helicopter. Within minutes a MH-65 Dolphin Helicopter from Coast Sector North Bend was dispatched and deployed.

An MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew prepares to land on the cove shelf in a tidal pool during the medevac of an immobilized hiker off a cliff in Whale Cove, Ore. (Photo Courtesy U.S. Coast Guard Dist. 13)

Depot Bay Fire Department Firefighters and Pacific West Ambulance personnel stabilized the patient and waited for extraction. A crew from Coast Guard Station Depoe Bay was also on scene and relayed information between first responders and the Helicopter team during the extraction.

(Photo Courtesy U.S. Coast Guard Dist. 13)

Due to tree height and a strong east winds over the steep terrain, the air crew was unable to hoist the hiker from the cliff. With cooperation from Mother Nature in the way of a low tide, the U.S. Coast Guard helicopter was able to land on a tidal pool area on a cove shelf 100 feet below the cliff and safely conducted the medevac.

A Coast Guard aircrew from Sector North Bend, paramedics from Depoe Bay Fire and Rescue and the injured hiker’s father carry the immobilized hiker in a stokes litter across tide pools below a cliff in Whale Cove, Ore. (Photo Courtesy U.S. Coast Guard Dist. 13)
(Photo Courtesy U.S. Coast Guard Dist. 13)

Once he was loaded, the aircrew safely transferred the 19-year-old hiker to medical personnel at Samaritan Pacific Communities Hospital in Newport.

No patient identification or other information is available at this time.

Please Like, Share and Follow the …