Behunin Accident

My friend and I were actually the guys from Nellis who went out to help out with this rescue. Our background in the AF is combat search and rescue (pararescue) however we assist with local SAR if there is a need. When we arrived we found that the altitude of the canyon was 1k feet higher than expected so we left two of our team members at the ranger stattion. A team of rangers had made the trek up to stabilize the patient while we attempted to bring our helo into the canyon. The up draft along with the fact that the helo had to hover into the canyon with roughly 30 feet of clearance on either side of the rotor disc made it extremely dangerous. The pilots were having problems using their night vision goggles due to the lightening from the storm that was closing in. They had to use a device on the helo that allows them to fly without looking through the wind shield. I sent my teammate down with a stokes backet to meet up with the park ranger. He administered some pain medication and stabilized the patient. He prepared him for a hoist as the helo came back into the zone. I descended on the hoist and prepped his wife for exfil as well. Once I hit the ground it took roughly 4 minutes to get the patient and his wife up into the helo. We had to fly to St George due to the storm and determined that he needed surgery immediately so we flew around and through the storm back to Las Vegas. We got the opportunity to go see the patient and his entire family in the hospital and it was extremely rewarding to see the benefits of our mission. Typically overseas we do not get this opportunity and it was definitely a blessing. After halloween last year we received a picture of him dressed as a canyoneer with his cane, his wife dressed as a park ranger, and their son dressed as a pararescueman. It sounds like he is doing very well and hopefully we get to see him on the mountains again.