CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. — Central Virginia’s med-flight team faced a busy couple of days, performing two rescue missions in the mountains over 48 hours this week.
On Tuesday, the sound of a helicopter interrupted the tranquility of nature during a hike at Devil’s Marbleyard in George Washington and Jefferson National Forest, where a teenage hiker suffered a leg injury.
“There are 15 to 20-foot tall boulders halfway up where they were,” said Flight Paramedic Russell Horne.
Emergency services, including Virginia State Police and Chesterfield County Fire and EMS Med-flight crew, responded to the scene.
“It would take hours just to walk back down, not to mention the crews that were going to be needed to carry them out, that increases the risk to the patient, increases the risk to the providers,” Horne explained.
The first responders utilized specialized equipment to hoist the injured hiker to safety and transport her to the hospital.
“She had never flown in the helicopter before. The first experience you have is being lifted up to one on a mountainside and then multiple flights back to Richmond. My partner asked her, 'What did you think of it? Was it exciting?' She said, ‘Exciting was not the word I would use,’ and they laughed,” Horne said.
This incident wasn’t the crew’s first rescue of the week. Just 24 hours earlier, the same tactics were employed to assist another injured hiker on Old Rag Mountain in Shenandoah National Park. This time, however, the team faced looming storms.
“It’s the most dangerous type of flying that we do; it’s extremely dynamic,” Chief Flight Paramedic Greg Jones said. “It was very difficult initially for us to locate them, and we were right in front of them.”
The hiker was eventually located and safely brought to the helicopter.
“We gave each other a hug once you got in the helicopter,” Jones said.
While she sustained an arm injury, she remained in stable condition.
Anja Hamilton, a flight paramedic, noted that calming nervous patients is part of the job. “She seemed calm, but her husband was there as well and he said she would probably need treatment later,” Hamilton said.
The med-flight program has been in operation for 41 years this week, representing a partnership between the county’s fire and emergency medical services and state police. Covering 33 counties for their med-flight service and the entire state for search and rescue, patients do not pay for these services.
Funding comes from the Virginia Trauma Center fund, which collects a portion of fees related to driver’s license reinstatements and convictions for driving under the influence.
“It is really a role model for how government should operate,” Jones said. “The local county here in Chesterfield and the Department of State Police have pooled our resources and talents together to be able to provide this service.”
While this week’s two rescues account for half of the total hiking rescues conducted last year, the first responders are ready for future calls.
“Spring break is in full effect,” Jones noted. “It’s been a cold winter, people have been kind of cooped up or trapped in their houses and now that the weather has broken, people are eager to get outdoors, but with that comes potential risks and hazards — and that’s where we come in.”
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