PRESCOTT, AZ — A Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office deputy is credited with helping save a hiker’s life in the Prescott area last week.
On June 7, dispatchers were alerted about a woman screaming for help along the Granite Dells Flume Trail near Watson Lake. They had received a call shortly before from the woman herself, but the call dropped.
Fortunately, dispatchers were able to trace the calls and a deputy familiar with the area began hiking toward the woman's location.
The hiker, a 37-year-old woman from Phoenix, told officials she had fallen several feet while hiking, broke her leg, and was heavily bleeding.
The responding deputy crossed Granite Creek and found the victim “below a large boulder and partially in the creek,” according to YCSO.
The deputy applied a tourniquet to help stop the bleeding, continued talking with the woman to keep her alert, and even went into the water to apply pressure to her leg to alleviate some of the discomfort. He then hiked to higher ground to get cell phone service and YCSO says the deputy guided additional emergency crews to their location, who then evacuated the hiker from the area.
She was airlifted to a Valley hospital for treatment.
YCSO says the ordeal was an hours-long "rescue mission that could have been much worse."
