A rescuer helping an injured hiker on New York’s Panther Mountain on Saturday died after suffering a medical emergency during the rescue.
According to New York Department of Environmental Conservation officials, Ulster County 911 received an SOS message at 5:44 p.m. on Saturday, December 13 from a subject with an unstable lower leg injury on Panther Mountain in Shandaken, New York.
Two forest rangers responded to the scene shortly after members of the Phoenicia Volunteer Fire Department. The firefighters had already packaged the 20-year-old from New Jersey and began walking down the trail.
Moments before rangers arrived, one of the rescuers, the Fire Commissioner Michael Ryan, had a medical emergency and went into cardiac arrest. Rangers immediately began CPR.
Due to the steep and technical terrain, rangers, firefighters, and Shandaken Police quickly extracted the commissioner down the trail to meet Shandaken paramedics, while a ranger remained with the hiker.
Paramedics used an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) to try to revive Ryan, and continued using the AED while rescuers carried him to an ambulance. Ryan passed away at Margaretville Hospital.
The forest ranger who remained with the original subject splinted the hiker’s ankle and created a hypo wrap while waiting for other rangers.
Rangers and firefighters belayed the subject down a steep section of the trail and transferred the hiker to an ambulance. Resources were clear of the scene at 8:30 p.m.
