Approximately 8.15pm on Tuesday 17 January 2017, Ambulance Tasmania received a phone call from an 18 year old New Norfolk man who had slipped and fallen while walking in the Derwent Cliffs Reserve at New Norfolk.

A Paramedic and two volunteer ambulance officers attended the scene and were able to access him down a steep slope.

He had broken his arm and had pain in his lower back. Due to the mechanism of injury, spinal precautions were taken. 

Tasmania Police Search and Rescue, in consultation with the paramedic, determined that the most efficient rescue given the man’s location was to utilise the Westpac Rescue Helicopter which attended the scene and landed. 

The crew of the Westpac Rescue Helicopter walked to the man’s location and the patient was packaged in a stretcher.

The man was then winched into the helicopter and flown to the Cenotaph and transferred to the Royal Hobart Hospital by ambulance.