Search and Rescue

Stranded hiker thanks parachute rescuers
Concussion left man unable to move near Moosehead Lake

By: Carol Sanders
Posted: 12/11/2018

On a remote trail, a hiker in his 50s suffers a head injury, can’t walk and discovers the satellite beacon rented just for such an emergency won’t work. But if you ask Louie Odorico about it today, he’ll tell you how lucky is.

Two Canadian Forces Search and Rescue technicians parachuted from a C-130 Hercules in the middle of a windy September night onto Moosehead Lake on the Mantario Trail, swam ashore and took care of Odorico until a crew from Ontario was able to clear a landing spot for a STARS air ambulance helicopter from Winnipeg that arrived in the morning.

"I’m very thankful for all of you," Odorico told his rescuers Tuesday night, meeting them for the first time since his ordeal on Sept. 9.

Odorico, his four fellow hikers and their family members gathered at a Canadian Forces hangar in Winnipeg to thank the military members and emergency air ambulance crews who appeared out of the sky in the middle of nowhere to help their friend.

For SAR tech Master Cpl. Louis Labrecque and Hercules pilot Capt. Charles Lindell with 435 Transport and Rescue Squadron in Winnipeg, the thanks were unnecessary but appreciated.

"We never get to see our patients afterward," Labrecque said.

The night that he and Master Cpl. Donovan Ball jumped from the Hercules to help Odorico, the wind was so strong they had to leave the aircraft more than a mile from the landing target so their parachutes would get blown to the right location.

All they knew was that there was a hiker in his 50s who’d suffered a head injury or stroke, couldn’t walk and was on the trail next to Moosehead Lake. Odorico was with four buddies, who put him in the recovery position and started a fire next to him to keep him warm and another bigger fire close to the shore for the rescuers to see.

"It was very scary," said fellow hiker Ian Smith. He said they’d just hiked all day and decided to stop for the night.

They went for a swim and around 10 p.m., Odorico fell backwards and lost consciousness. He came to and they tried to help him up but Odorico couldn’t walk. They feared he’d suffered a severe head trauma.

"We were all quite worried," Smith said. They tried activating the satellite beacon they’d rented to get help but it wasn’t working. They were 32 kilometres into the Mantario Trail where cellphone coverage is notoriously unreliable. Smith said he pulled out his mobile phone and, to his amazement and relief, he got a signal. He texted his wife, Frankie Magill, to call 911.

"The 911 operator told me to stay on the line — that an ambulance was on the way," Magill recalled with a smile. She had to explain the hikers were nowhere near a road. A STARS (Shock, Trauma Air Rescue Society) helicopter from Winnipeg was dispatched but unable to land in the area, so the STARS physician requested a military SAR Tech deployment to provide medical care for Odorico.

An Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources crew arrived and cleared an area so a STARS helicopter could land by mid-morning. Nurse Corine Oxer and pilot Andrew Davidson took over from the military SAR technicians and got Odorico to Winnipeg within half an hour.

STARS rescues people from the Mantario Trail two or three times a year, Davidson said — usually because a hiker has broken a bone and can’t walk out.

Odorico said he suffered a serious concussion and is still feeling some of the effects of it but won’t quit hiking because of what happened in September.

"Next summer, we’re going on a trail in Riding Mountain."

He said he’s thinking of buying his own satellite beacon for the trip.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/stranded-hiker-thanks-parachute-rescuers-502536111.html