Injury Simpson Park
February 19, 2021
Simpson Park, Hemet
2021-006
Written by Vinay Rao.
Most of RMRU’s missions are in the San Jacinto Mountains. This mission happened to be in a semi-urban park – Simpson Park – in Hemet. At approximately 4:15pm RMRU was activated to assist a hiker who had fallen while hiking a trail and had possibly hurt her leg. Some of the responding team members live close by the response time was very quick.
Glenn was the first to arrive at the Park and met CSO Jeff Funkhouser. The subject’s cell phone ping indicated she was only a few hundred yards below the upper parking lot. RSO Aviation’s Star 9 flew over the location and was able to, via radio, talk Glenn to her location. Glenn confirmed that she was injured and stayed with her until Vinay, the second team member to arrive at the upper parking lot, was able to walk down to her location along with three CalFire personnel. A quick assessment by RMRU and CalFire made it clear that she had injured her right knee and was able not to walk out of the area.
Meanwhile, James, Coby and Thomas had arrived at the lower parking area with the team van and were asked to prepare the litter to carry the subject out. Vinay left the area where the subject was, went to the lower parking lot and guided the litter team to the subject’s location which was only about 3/4 mile from the road.
While this group was getting the subject in to the litter, Blake and Robert also arrived at the lower parking lot. Vinay re-traced his steps to bring them to the location. We all met up on the trail and with a smooth team effort were able to get the subject quickly and safely to a waiting AMR ambulance for transport to the hospital.
RMRU Members Involved: Tom Blanke, Coby Brown, Blake Douglas, James Eckhardt, Glenn Henderson, Rob Newton, and Vinay Rao.