Members of North Shore Rescue were called out Sunday, Jan. 31 to a medical emergency near the summit of Black Mountain in Cypress Provincial Park.
Rescuers were called after a 25-year-old man who had been snowshoeing with a group of friends started having seizures and losing consciousness near the top of the Black Mountain loop trail around 4:30 p.m.
The narrow window of daylight meant there was no time to get a helicopter, said Mike Danks, team leader of North Shore Rescue. About 25 rescuers, including a member of the team who is an advanced life support paramedic with an automated CPR unit - were whisked to the area by snowmobile from Cypress Mountain ski patrol.
When rescuers arrived around 6 p.m., the man was having multiple seizures and was deteriorating, said Danks. Several bystanders who had stopped to help at the scene were also suffering mild hypothermia.
Rescuers handed out heat vests to the bystanders while a team including the paramedic began treating the collapsed snowshoer on the scene. The man was then rushed off the mountain in a rescue toboggan to a waiting ambulance, which took him to Lions Gate Hospital.
He is reported to be recovering.
“He’s lucky he had the care he did,” said Danks.
