This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A 12-year-old boy who fell and cut his leg open hiking on a snow field near the base of Mount Timpanogos was rescued and taken by helicopter to hospital Wednesday afternoon.
The boy's mother called emergency dispatchers about 2:10 p.m., saying her son had fell near Emerald Lake and cut his lower right leg to the bone, according to a press release from the Utah County Sheriff's Office. The leg was bleeding badly, the mother told dispatchers, though she had managed to bandage the wound and contain the bleeding.
Sheriff's deputies, search and rescue volunteers, medical personnel with North Fork Fire Department and a LifeFlight rescue helicopter rushed to the scene, according to the sheriff's office.
The helicopter pilot couldn't find a safe landing spot near the injured boy, so rescuers used the helicopter to shuttle medical crews from the base of the mountain to about one mile shy of the boy's location, sheriff's office officials said.
Arriving at the scene, medical personnel decided the boy was too injured to be moved, so a second LifeFlight helicopter, equipped with a hoist, flew to the scene and was able to lift the boy from the mountain to the trailhead parking lot, according to the sheriff's office.
At about 5 p.m., Utah County sheriff's Sgt. Spencer Cannon tweeted that the boy was being taken by helicopter to Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City. His injuries were not life threatening.
Jessica Miller