A 17-year-old girl died early Wednesday at University Hospital after she fell about 40 feet in Farmington Canyon Tuesday afternoon.
Cassidy Austin died at 5:04 a.m. Wednesday of major internal and external injuries to the head and chest that she sustained from the fall.
Austin was climbing with a friend in the Sunset Campground Waterfall. At 4:30 p.m. she fell from the steep, rocky ledge at the top of the waterfall and landed in a stream below, Davis County Sheriff's Lt. Kelly Sparks said.
Austin's companion apparently pulled her from the water, then "ran down (the mountain) barefoot, two miles to call us," Sparks said.
Austin had sustained major internal and external injuries to the head and chest from the fall, Sparks said.
Davis County paramedics and Search and Rescue Crews tried to stabilize Austin for a medical helicopter ride to University Hospital.
But when the helicopter arrived, medical personnel determined Austin, who was unconscious, needed to leave the area faster than they could carry her out, Sparks said.
So, a medical helicopter, equipped with a hoist, was called. With the hoist, Austin was rescued, Sparks said. The incident marks the first time LDS Hospital's hoist has been used because the rescue team received certification for hoist rescues.
The whole incident took about two hours but would have taken much longer without the hoist, Sparks said.
"It would have taken a couple of hours of hiking time to carry her out," Sparks said.
The helicopter's pilot for the rescue, Bill Winn, said the rescue went very smoothly and that there were no delays.
"(The rescue) went the way it has in all of our training scenarios," he said. "Unfortunately her injuries were so bad there wasn't much that could be done."
Winn said the helicopter had to carry Austin and the paramedic about two miles on the hoist before landing to load them into the helicopter. The purpose of the hoist is to allow medical teams to airlift patients who are injured in areas that are not safe to land in. Winn said Austin's rescue was somewhat difficult because she was close to trees.
"We can't pull (the hoist) up through the branches," he said.
IHC Life Flight operations director Bill Butts said other factors that might affect the hoist's effectiveness are terrain problems and weather conditions such as high winds.
"(This first rescue) has been a long time coming," Butts said. "We're fairly confident and sure this service is pretty valuable. I know there are going to be more (rescues) out there."
Contributing: Leah Culler.
E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com