Medical ambulance teams and members of Newton County Search and Rescue were kept busy Easter weekend by multiple rescue situations.
Glenn Wheeler, a deputy with the Newton County sheriff’s office and coordinator for Newton County Search and Rescue, said dispatchers received a call about 1:30 p.m. Saturday about a fallen climber near the Hawksbill Crag area. Scott Henrie, 29, of Rogers, had fallen between 15 feet and 50 feet, varying between witness accounts, while free climbing a bluff face in the area.
Wheeler said Henrie landed between two large boulders and was trapped.
“There were just two large boulders, with a human-sized crack between them, and he was stuck there,” Wheeler said.
Wheeler said more than 50 rescuers were involved in extracting Henrie, who suffered a fractured femur, a broken arm and a basal skull fracture.
After immobilizing Henrie and putting him in a Stokes basket, Henrie and a search-and-rescue volunteer were raised to the top of the bluff. Henrie then was wheeled about a quarter mile to a waiting helicopter, which flew him to Washington Regional Medical Center in Fayetteville, where Wheeler said Henrie was in stable condition.
While Henrie was being rescued, the sheriff’s office received a report at 5:18 p.m. that another climber had fallen at Horseshoe Canyon Ranch, approximately 5 miles west of Jasper. Wheeler said a 36-year-old Ozone man had fallen approximately 30 feet and was seriously injured. Wheeler said the man was reachable by ambulance crews, and he was not asked to activate members of the search-and-rescue team.
The man was taken by helicopter to the Washington Regional Medical Center. Wheeler said Monday that he did not know the man’s condition.
About 2 a.m. Sunday, also at Horseshoe Canyon Ranch, an Austin woman in her late 20s or early 30s fell approximately 10 feet off a bluff. Wheeler said the woman, who suffered “moderate” injuries, was transported by ambulance to North Arkansas Regional Medical Center in Harrison.
Because the victim was accessible by ambulance crews on foot, search-and-rescue volunteers were not activated, Wheeler said.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 04/22/2014