Flight nurses from North Carolina transported whole blood through the woods to an injured hiker who fell 45 feet from a mountain, officials said Sunday.
The hiker, who was not immediately identified, fell from the summit of Hawksbill Mountain in Burke County around 7:00 pm on Saturday, Burke County Search and Rescue said.
First responders reached the injured hiker and determined the victim would need a blood transfusion before exiting the woods, officials said.
While the medical staff stabilized the hiker, the rescuers set up a horizontal lift to take the patient back up the mountain. However, the strong winds at the top of the mountain made the conditions too dangerous to use a helicopter to extract the patient, and rescuers decided to carry the hiker down the mountain instead.
As crews worked to get the hiker out of the woods, flight nurses were dispatched and walked full-blooded through the woods and met rescuers on the trail, officials said.
When the blood reached the patient for a possible transfusion, officials said the nurses on the plane determined that the blood was not needed.
Rescuers set up a horizontal elevation using ropes to pull the injured hiker up the mountain.
Burke County flight nurses determined the hiker didn’t need all the blood when he was hauled off the mountain, officials said.
First responders safely transported the injured hiker out of the woods around 1:00 am.
The hiker was transported to a local trauma center. The current status of the hiker was not immediately available.
