A senior was airlifted to hospital after falling off a cliff at Pipers Lagoon Park last night.
Nanaimo Fire Rescue and B.C. Ambulance crews were called to the park at about 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 11, after a man in his 60s fell from atop an 18-metre cliff onto rocks at the north end of the park.
Firefighters were called to conduct a rope rescue operation to lift the victim from the bottom of the cliff.
“After recon-ing where the patient was, we brought in all resources to create a rope rescue team, due to the terrain,” said Troy Libbus, Nanaimo Fire Rescue assistant chief. “We had all resources and hands on deck to get the patient out. B.C. Ambulance had already called for a helicopter and it was on standby on the grass at [the] park.”
Libbus said the victim suffered head injuries from the fall and was unconscious when emergency crews arrived, but was in and out of consciousness as he was delivered to an ambulance, which transferred him to the helicopter.
“The rope rescue team brought him up and we packaged him and took him up in a Stokes basket and took him out to the ambulance … to get him on the helicopter and shipped away,” Libbus said.
Libbus said the entire rescue operation was completed within about one hour.
Glen Heese, B.C. Ambulance Service paramedic supervisor, said the patient was flown to a trauma resource centre, either in Victoria or Vancouver.
“He was in critical, but stable condition,” Heese said. “Our critical care crew was on scene, a helicopter crew out of Vancouver. They stabilized him on scene and then flew him to the appropriate hospital.”
Heese said two ambulances, a helicopter and a supervisor responded to the scene.
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