The Guardia Civil mountain rescue service was called in to rescue a woman at the Junta de los Ríos above Otívar.

It was around 15.40h on Tuesday that the emergency number 112 received a distress call from a woman who had injured her leg whilst ascending the waterfalls. She had tried to step up onto a large bolder and felt something give in her leg, which resulted in her being unable to walk.

So, off set a helicopter from its base in Granada with a 2-man mountain rescue team. Then around 17.00h the helicopter pilot located the woman sitting on a path awaiting rescue.

Resting one runner on the steep hillside the two rescuers disembarked to physically pick her up and load her onto the helicopter. She was then flown to Hospital San Cecilio, in the Parque Tecnológico de la Salud in Granada.

This latest operation is the fourth within one week: the first was on the 7th when they had to rescue an excursionist exhibiting all the symptoms of a heart attack. This rescue operation was made very difficult because of the gusting winds. The victim’s condition turned out to be a false alarm as far as a heart attack went and was due to fatigue and the lack of the victim’s physical preparation for such an activity.

The second call out was on the 10th, again on the Sierra Nevada (Lavaderos de la Reina) with two men needing to be rescued who had become lost after separating from the main climbing group.

The third one was the very next day in the Barranco del río Trevélez when they had to rescue a woman who had suffered an accident whilst abseiling.

Editorial note: Perhaps it’s about time that these people start getting handed a bill, or at the very least, send a bill showing what it would have cost them if they had had to pay for it, which is a practice used by the Southern Health Board concerning surgical interventions.

Another point is that more than half of these excursionists that need rescuing are foreigners.

(News: Otivar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)