Injured Hiker Rescued In Strenuous Carryout

Midwest Region’s Ozark Communications Center received a report of a young man with a broken ankle at the base of a bluff about a mile from the Schermerhorn trailhead in the Upper District on the afternoon of Sunday, January 11th. The hiker, a 16-year-old foreign exchange student from Slovakia, had lost his footing and tumbled about six feet, breaking the tibia and fibula in his right leg. He was located by Compton Volunteer Fire Department responders, who directed rangers and ambulance crewmembers to the accident scene. Although the boy was located at the base of a 30-foot bluff and a high-angle raising system was accordingly considered, a faster but strenuous alternative route was used that required no technical equipment. The boy was treated by the ambulance crew, packaged, then carried out via a wheeled stokes litter through very rugged terrain. A shortcut was used by accessing adjacent private land after gaining permission by the owner, dramatically reducing the carry-out time. The boy arrived at the ambulance just before nightfall, as temperatures began to drop significantly, and was transported to the regional hospital in Harrison, Arkansas.