At 2:15 p.m. on Sept. 27, WCSART received a 911 call for a man who had fallen at the base of Cloud Splitter. Minutes after receiving this call, a separate emergency 911 call came for an unresponsive hiker on the Sheltowee Trace who was located past Cloud Splitter approx 1.25 miles. With two emergencies occurring at the same time, we placed a mutal aid request to our friends from Powell and Lee County Search & Rescue teams for assistance. Hasty teams rushed to treat both patients.
We discovered the unresponsive male hiker had been stung by ground hornets and was found by another group of hikers who made the 911 call. They stated the hiker had been unresponsive for approximately 15 min when they found him. By the time our team made it to their location, the male subject had recovered and was in stable condition. A WCSAR EMT made a full assessment of the subject and cleared him to walk out under his own power. Our EMT stayed with the subject and the group of Good Samaritans for the walk back to the trail head, while the remainder of our team made an expedited hike back to Cloud Splitter to assist with that subject.
The team at Cloud Splitter, including members from Wolfe, Powell County Search & Rescue and Lee County Search & Rescue, found the man who had fallen, and they determined the fall had resulted in lower leg fractures. The team applied an air splint to his lower right leg, packaged him in a Stokes Basket and transported him down the steep shortcut from Cloud Splitter, using a series of low-angle rope systems, until team members reached a waiting ambulance. He was transported to Clark Regional Medical Center for definitive care.
We thank our friends from Powell and Lee counties for a very successful coordinated effort, and the large contingent of team members who came, along with the Menifee County Ambulance Service.
