Time was quickly running out for a man who became sick and passed out on a California beach as the evening tide rolled in, rescuers said.
Dramatic video shows how rescuers rushed in with a California Highway Patrol helicopter to stabilize the unconscious man on the shore and lift him up out of harm’s way, the San Francisco Fire Department said on social media on Tuesday, April 16.
The man had passed out on Marshall’s Beach just west of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, the department said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Video shared on the California Highway Patrol Golden Gate Division Air Operations’ Facebook page shows the helicopter flying over the bridge, then turning around to fly over the shore toward the man’s location.
The rescue crew flies to the man’s location and lands where paramedics had stabilized him on the beach just before 7 p.m., the video shows.
“The isolated beach is accessible via a half-mile trail that is considered ‘strenuous’ by the Golden Gate Park Conservancy,” SFGATE reported.
Rescuers had considered both a boat rescue and a rope rescue, but the patient’s illness would have made those methods too tough — plus the rescue helicopter was already about 11 minutes away, making it the best option, the outlet reported.
Rescuers lifted the man from the beach and brought him into the helicopter, then transported him to paramedics who took him to a hospital in critical condition, CHP said on Facebook.