Members of the Carter County Rescue Squad’s Technical Rescue Team conducted a rescue operation beginning during the evening hours on Wednesday which carryied through into the early morning hours on Thursday after a hiker passing through Carter County on the Appalachian Trail began experiencing medical problems.
Team members received the call around 8:45 p.m. on Wednesdayand responded to Roan Mountain to begin the search for the man, who was hiking with his adult son.
A HASTE Team was sent into the woods first and was followed by the remaining rescue team members. HASTE Teams are comprised of specially trained rescue workers who enter the woods with little gear and equipment and can move through the woods with more speed than a traditional rescue team. The goal of the HASTE Team is to quickly find and assess the patient and relay an exact location and patient condition to the main force of the rescue team.
Rescuers reached the patient shortly before 11 p.m. on Wednesday and stabilized him before beginning the process of carrying him out of the woods. The man was placed in a Stokes basket and carried for some distance along the trail to a cut-through point.
An ATV was then used to transport the patient to a waiting ambulance, which had been staged at Winters Road. Rescuers exited the woods with the patient and placed him in the ambulance around 2 a.m. The man was then taken to an area hospital for medical treatment.
A total of 15 rescuers participated in the operation – 12 personnel from the Carter County Rescue Squad along with three members of the Roan Mountain Volunteer Fire Department.