Pittsburgh Tribune Review
PITTSBURGH, Pa. — An elderly North Side nursing home resident was rescued after tumbling over a steep hillside on Friday afternoon.
It took rescue workers nearly an hour to rescue the 84-year-old man, who was conscious and alert when he was brought up the hillside along Ohio River Boulevard near the Bellevue borough limit, said James Holman, the city’s Emergency Medical Services acting Rescue Division chief.
The name of the man, who is a resident of the Shady Rest Personal Care Home, was not released. He was taken to Allegheny General Hospital in stable condition, Holman said.
Peggy Cherkes, 47, a staff member at the home, became concerned when she went to the man’s room about 4 p.m. and did not find him there.
“It was very surprising. He never goes outside,” said Cherkes, who, after calling family members to make sure they didn’t take him for a visit, went outdoors to start looking for him and calling his name.
“I heard a cellphone ringing and began calling,” Cherkes said. “He said, ‘What do you want?’ ”
Cherkes climbed down the sand and gravel hillside -- “It was like walking in quicksand,” she said -- and found the man pinned against two metal rods and tangled in some vines. She couldn’t free him, so she called his family and 911 about 4:40 p.m.
“He was scared. I tried to keep him calm,” she said.
Three paramedics and a firefighter climbed down 25 to 30 feet to where the man and Cherkes were stuck, Holman said.
They treated him for relatively minor bumps and bruises and loaded him into a basket before paramedics and firefighters on top of the hill pulled him to safety.
Cherkes was able to climb back up the hillside with the assistance of a paramedic, Holman said.
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