NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
MORNING REPORT
Monday, April 20, 2015
INCIDENTS
Zion NP
Injured Man Rescued From Slot Canyon
Park dispatch was contacted by the fee ranger at Tunnel East around 2 p.m. on the afternoon of April 3rd and informed that there was an injured man in Pine Creek Canyon requesting assistance. Pine Creek is a technical slot canyon requiring wet suits and multiple rappels.
The reporting party was a member of the injured person's group and had ascended a rope that another group in the canyon had fixed at the first rappel. He said that a member of his party had broken his ankle at the second rappel in Pine Creek and would need SAR personnel to help him out.
A technical rescue team was organized and had a high line with a reeve system set up by 5 p.m. A high line with a reeve is a system where a rope spanning the canyon is tensioned and the rescuer and litter are attached to the high line with a pulley and pulled across using tag lines on either side of the canyon. The rescuer is positioned directly over the patient in the slot canyon and lowered using a technique called a reeve.
Ranger-Medic Ryan McDonald-O'Lear, who was lowered to the man, provided medical care and packaged him for extrication. Both were then raised to the high line and moved back across the span to the Canyon Overlook Trail. The injured man was carried off the trail by wheeled litter and transported via park ambulance to Dixie Regional Medical Center.
Fifteen SAR personnel took part in the rescue, which took approximately 5 hours to complete.
[Andrew Fitzgerald, Park Ranger]
Shenandoah NP
Visitor's Life Saved Through Prompt Medical Response
On Sunday, April 12th, park dispatch received an emergency call regarding a 59 year-old man in cardiac arrest at Rangeview Overlook along Skyline Drive.
Rangers Tyler Hudock and Don Savedge responded, arriving on scene in less than a minute. They found the man being cared for by several Good Samaritans and immediately began CPR with the use of an AED. After thorough CPR and nearly 10 shocks with the AED over a 25 minute span, care of the semi-conscious patient was turned over to an AirCare Medevac crew.
The man required three more shocks to restore a normal heart rhythm and was then flown to Winchester Medical Center's catheterization lab for advanced lifesaving treatment. He was later diagnosed with a “widow maker” (severe stenosis of the left anterior descending coronary artery) and remains in the ICU.
Rangers Hudock and Savedge and dispatcher Kim Smeltzer provided swift and efficient medical care that without question saved the man's life. Immediate access and use of an AED was instrumental in the successful outcome. This was the parks second save with an AED in the last year.
[Stuart Curtin, North District Ranger]
OTHER NEWS
The following stories are among those in today's webpage editions of InsideNPS (available to NPS employees only) and the Morning Report (available to all readers):
Office of Communications - On Monday, April 13th, Director Jarvis launched the NPS Urban Agenda at the City Parks Alliance Greater and Greener Conference in San Francisco. The agenda contains specific strategies to build relationships between urban parks and their communities.
Office of Communications - The NPS is proposing to modify the regulation governing the gathering of plants in national parks. The rule would allow members of some tribes to gather and remove plants for traditional purposes.
Office of Legislative and Congressional Affairs - This week's update on past and upcoming hearings, newly introduced bills, and the status of legislation of interest to the Service. This report covers activities in Congress for the week ending on April 17th.
US Park Police - On April 1st, Major David Mulholland retired from the United States Park Police with 27 years of service.
To see the full text of these stories, readers should go to one or the other of the following sites:
NPS employees - HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index
Non-NPS employees - HYPERLINK "http://www.nps.gov/morningreport/" http://www.nps.gov/morningreport/
The Morning Report is produced by the Office of Communications with the support of the Office of the Associate Director for Information Resources. Edited by Bill Halainen ( HYPERLINK "mailto:Bill_Halainen@contractor.nps.gov" Bill_Halainen@contractor.nps.gov).
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