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Video of woman's rescue

UPDATE: 10:15 a.m.

A North Okanagan woman suffering from hypothermia was rescued by emergency personnel and Vernon Search and Rescue after spending more than 14 hours trapped on an embankment off of Highway 6 east of Cherryville.

"She was there for a long time," said Leigh Pearson, VSAR search manager. "Her car from the highway was virtually invisible."

Pearson said the vehicle went off the road around 1 p.m. Monday.

When she didn't arrive home, her husband went searching and happened to see a set of vehicle tracks going off of the highway.

Pearson said his volunteers were called in around 2 a.m. Tuesday for a high angle rope rescue.

"Her car was only about 30 feet down but she had opened the door to get out and went flying down the embankment."

Pearson said the woman was about 150 feet down the slope and lying in the snow.

"It was a real team effort," Pearson said. "It involved the Lumby fire department, the RCMP, BC Ambulance and us."

Searcher Pete Wise said it was a difficult rescue.

"We had to do multiple raises...with teams on the top and people down there with the stretcher."

The woman was lifted up the embankment on a stretcher-spine board before being put in a waiting ambulance, Wise said.

The rescue ended about 3:30 a.m.


ORIGINAL STORY: 8:20 a.m.

Vernon Search and Rescue volunteers came to the aid of a woman stuck down an embankment following an early morning motor vehicle incident east of Cherryville Tuesday.

First responders flew into action at 2:30 this morning, for a high-angle rope rescue.  The vehicle was 20 metres down the embankment, with one female occupant roughly 50 metres down the bank below the vehicle.

Vernon Search and Rescue teams set up and deployed a rope system, and with help from RCMP and Lumby fire department members, hoisted the subject up the steep slope to the safety of the roadway.

The subject was then transferred to the care of waiting BC ambulance personnel, who took the patient to Vernon Jubilee Hospital, where she is currently undergoing further care.



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