District of North Vancouver firefighters say a man is fortunate to be alive after spending much of Saturday night unconscious in the rushing waters of Lynn Creek.
Firefighters helped the man out of the woods around 10 a.m. Saturday. According to witnesses rescuers interviewed at the scene, the man had been in the creek either overnight or since very early in the morning.
“He couldn’t find the pipeline bridge and decided he would climb down the cliff and cross the river, which wouldn’t have been a wise idea anyway, the way the river was running,” said acting assistant chief Dave Franco. “Halfway down the cliff, he took a fall and landed on some rocks in the river”
After several hours, the man came to and crawled out of the river and back up to the trail where hikers spotted him and called 9-1-1.
“When we got there, the guy had some significant head injuries, a broken wrist, possible cracked ribs,” said Franco. “He came out of there extremely lucky. I’m surprised he didn’t die of hypothermia to be honest.”
Firefighters then packaged him on a spinal board and carried him out to a waiting ambulance. When they followed up with Lions Gate Hospital, firefighters found the man was in “remarkably good shape,” considering his injuries.
It’s still not clear how the man ended up down there, though Franco said “alcohol was part of the problem.”
With a rainy start to summer, creeks are running very high and no one should attempt crossing them in any circumstances, Franco said.
“To think he could even cross the river at that time of the year when the river is that high, is ridiculous. It’s just not the place to be. The rocks that are around the riverbed are very, very slippery,” he said.
