A pre-Christmas group hike turned into a tragedy when a child was given CPR after hit by boulders. The incident occurred in a popular hiking area north of Vancouver.
Hiking tragedy
A group of around 15 people was hiking near the Lone Tree Creek area in the mountains above Lions Bay, B.C. when a 7-year old girl in the party was caught in a rockslide near a creek bed.
Martin Colwell stated that the youngster fell on Unnecessary Mountain Trail and ended up trapped under the falling rocks. The child was near the creek bed and was hit by large boulders and rocks. She was evidently buried by the debris.
The group members called 911 while family members and some nurses in the group attempted to remove as many rocks as they could to remove the pressure on her.
An air ambulance and ground teams responded to the remote trail. The first responders delivered CPR and attempted to remove her from the debris but she was declared dead by a doctor.
The mother and older sibling of the girl were also on the hike, part of a weekly outing called Monday Hikers. The father of the girl arrived as the rescue unfolded. No one else was injured.
It remains unclear how the rocks fell but rescuers suggest recent heavy rains might have loosened the sides of the creek beds and made the slope unstable.
The group was trying to take some photos when the slope gave away when the young girl was on it. Five-foot boulders surrounded the child and she drifted in and out of consciousness as the hikers tried to pull them away.
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LEARN MORE
Learn how to help by enrolling in a CPR class and for more information, check out these sources:
https://www.wikihow.com/Do-Basic-First-Aid
https://www.healthline.com/health/first-aid/cpr
https://www.webmd.com/first-aid/cardiopulmonary-resuscitation-cpr-for-children