More than two dozen emergency workers participated in the rescue of an injured man found near the bottom a 40-foot embankment along the Thames River Saturday (DALE CARRUTHERS, The London Free Press)
Emergency workers had to cut down bushes and use a hauling system to pull an injured man from the bottom of the riverbank in east London Saturday.
Firefighters were called to assist paramedics in retrieving a man found at the bottom of 40-foot embankment near the Thames River just west of Highbury Ave. shortly before noon.
“EMS had gone down to the shoreline, found the victim, stabilized him, put a collar on him. They just needed assistance getting him up the slope — it’s quite rocky,” said district fire chief Daryl Stephenson.
Curious onlookers gathered to watch as more than two dozen firefighters, police officers and paramedics participated in the rescue.
Around 10 firefighters operated the hauling system to retrieve the man from the riverbank.
After the man was pulled to the top of the embankment he was loaded in an ambulance and taken to London Health Sciences Centre’s Victoria Hospital.
“We’re not really sure how he got down there,” said paramedic Terry Irwin.
The man’s injuries weren’t immediately known, but he was in stable condition, Irwin said.
Stephenson credits training for the smooth rescue.
“We don’t get a lot of calls like this. It’s not like you’re doing a tech rescue call every week” he said. “When you are expected to respond everybody’s got to do their job.”
via The London Free Press.
