Woman seriously injured in hiking accident

A 43-year-old woman who hiked to the base of Shelter Falls in the Umkomaas Valley with her family last Saturday had to be rescued after slipping and falling. The woman was seriously injured, necessitating a technical rescue by Netcare 911 paramedics who had to hike about a kilometre down a trail with their equipment in order to reach the woman.

After the patient was stabilised and secured in a Stokes rescue stretcher, a police search and rescue team was called to help paramedics get the patient back up the steep trail to the waiting ambulance. The patient was taken to a hospital in Pietermaritzburg under the constant care of an advanced life support paramedic.