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Cycling accident leads to daring rescue
Workers extract injured rider after three-hour ordeal
By KEVIN FAYLE
Emergency personnel executed a daring rescue of a man who had fallen into a deep ravine in the Fremont Older Open Space Reserve in Stevens Canyon on Thursday night, Sept. 21. It took rescuers three hours to extricate the man trapped in the crevice, who had injured his hip after losing control of his bike.
Santa Clara County Fire Engine No. 2 was dispatched at 9:15 p.m. to the ravine, where the man had fallen roughly 45 feet into very steep, brushy terrain said Roger Boone Firefighter engineer. The cyclist, who rescuers would not identify, slipped off the trail and fell into the ravine, colliding with the rock wall before finally hitting the ground.
"He was a big guy, and he went down a long way before he hit anything," Boone said.
Using ropes, firefighters lowered themselves to the cyclist, then attempted to treat him for a possible dislocated or fractured hip before lifting him from the precarious position.
According to Boone, "it was pretty hairy for a while because he was supporting himself with his one good leg while we worked on him and tried to start lines and get him stabilized."
Firefighters feared that the cyclist's pelvic injuries could present a possible life-threatening situation. Boone said due to the high concentration of blood vessels in his pelvic area, it was possible he was bleeding internally. The terrain in the area prevented a traditional ambulance from providing a quick exit for the injured man, so emergency workers radioed for a Calstar helicopter.
Meanwhile, the paramedics used a winch attached to a park ranger's truck to haul the wounded cyclist, lying on a board, to the level of the trail. Emergency personnel lacked much of the proper equipment normally used in a rope rescue, and Boone said they were greatly helped by their access to a winch. He added, however, that if the winch weren't present, "we would have been able to do it, though it would have been much more labor intensive."
After raising the cyclist, paramedics carried him to a waiting ambulance that shuttled him to the landing site of the rescue helicopter. The Calstar helicopter landed in a space with a brush cover in order to avoid creating a thick cloud of dust that would blind rescuers and impede the rescue process.
The rescuers then had to make it through dense brush while carrying the cyclist. Fortunately, the team reached the helicopter with only minor problems, and the helicopter carried the cyclist to the Valley Medical Center trauma unit.
Rescuers say the injured cyclist handled the situation extremely well, and he was able to tell them during the extrication that he had an allergy to poison oak and a fear of needles. He came into repeated contact with both during the episode. The rescue took almost three hours, but the man withstood the pain and even assisted paramedics when he could.
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