A frightening medical emergency that unfolded deep in the woods in Habersham County turned into an uplifting show of human compassion.
Alejandro Guzman and his family were hiking Panther Creek Trail Saturday afternoon when they and another couple came upon a 71-year-old woman with her daughter and granddaughter. The older woman had fallen ill and was resting on a rock. Guzman says she “was very weak and had difficulty breathing.” They were about a mile-and-a-half past the trailhead off Historic U.S. 441, and it was clear that the woman was not going to be able to make it out on her own.
The couple called 911. Habersham Dispatch informed them that, due to their location, it would be at least an hour before first responders could reach them. At that point, Guzman says, “more and more hikers kept showing up and everyone was open to helping her, so, we all came together and moved her to a flatter part of the trail.” Using a makeshift stretcher of hammocks and sticks, eight hikers, most of them strangers, worked together to move the woman they all came to know as “Jacky.” Guzman says they worked together “as if we had been training for this.” He adds, there was “so much communication and so much love and prayer, too.”
As they waited for first responders, the small army of Good Samaritans did what they could to make the ailing woman more comfortable. They offered her Gatorade and water to hydrate her and keep her cool. And they stayed – every one of them – until help finally arrived.
Crews from Habersham County Emergency Services (HCES), Lee Arrendale and Tallulah Falls Fire and Rescue, Habersham Search and Rescue (HabSAR), and the U.S. Forestry Service responded to the call. When they reached “Jacky,” they encouraged the other hikers to move on so they could get off the trail before dark.
Paramedics began treating the woman on the scene. They carried her off the trail to a waiting Air Life helicopter that flew her to Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville.
The entire rescue operation took nearly five hours, according to HCES Director Chad Black. It’s the fourth rescue on Panther Creek Trail since March. For Guzman, though, it was more than a rescue. “It was a beautiful thing,” he says. “Many of the hikers came together to help this woman who we never met, with everything we had.”
