QUILCENE — A 20-year-old student on a school backpacking trip was treated at and then discharged from Harborview Medical Center in Seattle after suffering a concussion and back injury in a remote area of Olympic National Forest and being rescued by a Navy helicopter.
University of Puget Sound student Anne Paden was struck by a falling tree at about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday night and suffered a concussion and possible spine injury, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday.
Paden was released Wednesday, according to a Harborview spokesperson.
Paden was about 3 miles and 1,300 vertical feet from the Lena Lake trailhead, which is located on the Hamma Hamma River Road, when she was hurt, according to the Sheriff’s Office. The lake is about 30 miles south of Quilcene.
One of Paden’s student group made an emergency call with a satellite telephone to JeffCom 911 at approximately
4 a.m. Wednesday.
The delay between the injury and the emergency call was not explained, said Chief Criminal Deputy Joe Nole.
A 13-member rescue team set up base camp at a trailhead, with three members hiking to Paden, arriving at about 8:30 a.m.
“We usually send a team up to see if the victim can be moved,” Nole said.
“In this case, we decided that she needed to be flown out because of the neck injury.”
The crew put a cervical collar on Paden and placed her on a back board.
A rescue crew was dispatched from the Naval Air Station on Whidbey Island.
The crew of a MH-60S Knighthawk extricated Paden.
Lt. Cmdr. Shane Jones, the helicopter aircraft commander, brought the helicopter down to a clear zone 200 yards from the woman.
and dropped off Naval Aircrewmen Helicopter 2nd Class Timothy Hawk and Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Brent McIntyre to assist in getting her into the aircraft, said Mike Welding, Naval Air Station Whidbey Island spokesman.
The crew took her to Lena Lake, where she was loaded onto a larger Navy Search and Rescue transport helicopter at 11 a.m. and taken to Harborview Medical Center.
Other agencies participating in the rescue were Jefferson Search and Rescue, Olympic Mountain Rescue, Jefferson County Department of Emergency Management and JeffCom 911 Communications.
Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.