Members of the Grupo de Montaña de la Guardia Civil de Granada were sent out to rescue a man in his early 20s with a back injury  whilst descending the Río Verde waterfalls.

The 22-year-old man was hiking in the canyon, which has footpaths along its course when he decided to emulate those equipped to descend waterfalls by abseiling down them… but in his case, without the ropes.

He jumped off the rocks into the pool below without knowing what lies just below the surface and consequently injured his back. 

This happened a little before 15.50h yesterday, which was when 112 received an emergency alert. The call centre activated a Guardia-Civil, mountain-rescue team. His companions, who made the call, explained that he had severe back pains and was having trouble breathing. 

The team arrived by rescue helicopter a short distance from where the injured man was, as there was nowhere to land, so the two-man team went in on foot.

To their surprise, when they reached him, they saw that the victim’s companions had sat him on a collapsable beach chair and that he had a deformity in the abdominal region. The slightest movement caused him great pain.

This, of course, made getting him out of the canyon and onto the waiting helicopter all the more difficult. All movement had to be carried out with great care because of the damage to his spine could be increased.

They carefully got him onto a stretcher, called in the helicopter to hover of them and winched the man up. He was flown to Granada and taken to the Hospital de Traumatología in Granada.

Because of the circumstance of this rescue, the Guardia Civil  would like it known that if you do not know the extent of somebody’s injuries, don’t move them, unless their life is in danger lying there. In the case of back injuries; a fractured vertebrae if moved around can damage the spinal cord, irreversibly

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