TEEN IN NEWCASTLE HOSPITAL AFTER 15-METRE FALL FROM CLIFF INTO TREE
A teenager is recovering in hospital after falling 15 metres from a cliff into a tree in the Hunter region of NSW, rescuers say.
Paramedics were called to the Hunter River Reserve at Greta, north-west of Newcastle, just before 4pm on Tuesday.
NSW Ambulance said the teenager was found “tangled in a tree” with a broken leg after falling about 15 metres.
Two paramedics and a critical care paramedic roped down to stabilise the teen before he was winched out just after 7pm.
NSW Ambulance Inspector Joel De’Zuna praised the “amazing” work of paramedics who worked with police, firefighters and VRA Rescue NSW members to free the teen.
“The patient was in an extremely precarious position a number of metres from the bottom of the cliff,” he said, in a statement.
“What was already a difficult and complex vertical rescue, became even more difficult as we lost the daylight and it started to rain.”
The teenager was taken to Newcastle’s John Hunter Hospital in a stable condition.
