Mount Vernon Man Rescued from His Apartment
MOUNT VERNON—At 5:39pm on Thursday July 25, Mount Vernon Fire Department units were dispatched to a medical call at a residence located at the 100 block of North 7th Street.
Fire and paramedic crews arrived to discover a male patient suffering from a significant leg injury in his second story apartment. With a stairwell too narrow to carry the patient down on a stretcher, first responders would need to get creative in their extraction efforts.
“The patient’s apartment had an outdoor access to a flat roof or balcony area,” Captain Mike O’Dell said. O’Dell was one of 7 first responders on-scene. “We decided to move him out there and load him onto the (stokes) basket.”
Once the patient was secured in the basket, rope rescue equipment was used to attach the basket to the aerial ladder of the fire truck allowing personnel to lower the patient safely to the ground where he was loaded into an ambulance and taken to Skagit Valley Hospital for treatment.
“This is an example of one of the many challenges that our firefighters are faced with daily,” Fire Chief Bryan Brice said. “Thankfully their ingenuity and experience allowed for the swift and safe care of the patient, which is our highest priority.”