A 12-year-old girl was rescued by helicopter Tuesday after being moderately to seriously injured by a horse she was riding, California Highway Patrol officials said Wednesday.
The girl’s city of residence was not immediately known.
Just before 6 p.m. Tuesday, the crew of the CHP helicopter monitored Napa County Fire dispatch a call of a female horseback rider that had fallen east of Skyline Park, and was seriously injured, CHP spokesman and chopper pilot Officer James Andrews said.
Andrews said he and two other CHP helicopter crew members — officer/paramedics Matt Gutierrez and Shaun Bouyea — “responded from the Napa County Airport, arrived overhead within five minutes and began searching the remote wooded area for the injured party.”
After eventually locating the girl, and, due to the remote, rugged canyon area terrain, the crew elected to lower Bouyea down to the patient, he said.
Then Bouyea, along with personnel from Napa County Fire and AMR ambulance, prepared the patient for hoist rescue, Andrews said.
“The patient was determined to be a female juvenile that had reportedly been kicked in the head by her horse,” he said. She was also reportedly wearing a helmet at the time of the incident, he said.
“While hovering over the wooded area in gusty, swirling winds,” Gutierrez lowered the hoist cable and hauled the girl up to the helicopter, Andrews said.
“The crew of H-32 then delivered the patient to the Napa County Airport and transferred care to a CALSTAR helicopter crew for transport to Children’s Hospital Oakland for treatment,” he said.