PORT ANGELES — An unidentified man was badly hurt last week when he fell from a cliff at 183 Twilight Beach Road after his dog fell from the cliff.
The man, who is 22, was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, according to a press release from Clallam County Fire District 3.
Paramedics are constrained from releasing names of patients they help because of federal privacy regulations; hospitals will not release information about patients’ conditions without names.
Firefighters were dispatched to the area at 11:30 p.m. Thursday after the man phoned dispatchers to say he believed he had broken his back and could not move his legs.
He had gone over the cliff when he tried to check on his dog, who was later found to have died in the fall.
The personnel who arrived first met with the patient’s friends and the property owner, who knew of an access trail to the beach, said Dan Orr, assistant chief.
Several members of the department made their way down this trail to the patient, Orr said, and determined that it was likely that the patient had a broken back.
Paramedics administered pain medication and began packaging the patient for transport, Orr said.
Assistance was requested from the Coast Guard, which sent a helicopter. A Coast Guard swimmer was lowered to the beach to begin patient extrication.
The patient, one paramedic and the Coast Guard swimmer were hoisted-up to the helicopter; they then rendezvoused with Life Flight crews at Olympic Medical Center to transport the patient to Harborview Medical Center.
First responders extricated the dog as they cleared the scene.
