Troy A. Miller Commissioner at U.S Customs and Border Protection | Official website
An Air and Marine Operations (AMO) AS350 helicopter crew, along with U.S. Border Patrol Search Trauma and Rescue (BORSTAR) agents, successfully rescued a hiker in the Guadalupe Mountains of West Texas on Sunday following a 911 call.
On January 12, the AMO AS350 helicopter crew from Alpine, Texas, collaborated with a BORSTAR team from El Paso to search for a lost hiker in the Guadalupe Mountains National Park. The helicopter crew located the hiker at around 9:30 a.m., with support from a Texas Department of Public Safety helicopter and U.S. Park Rangers.
Extreme winter weather conditions required the AS350 crew to drop off an AMO agent below the hiker's location for an initial assessment. BORSTAR agents then hiked two hours to reach the site, providing advanced medical care for hypothermia symptoms by changing wet clothes for dry ones, offering food and water, and starting a fire to warm him until he could be transported down the mountain by helicopter. Poor weather delayed initial evacuation efforts. The patient was eventually taken by EMS to a local hospital for further evaluation and treatment.
"The conditions were extremely cold with temperatures in upper 20’s Fahrenheit," stated Ricardo Cardiel, Acting Special Operations Supervisor, Special Operations Detachment, El Paso Sector. "BORSTAR agents are trained to conduct field trauma medicine in extreme conditions."
U.S. Border Patrol Agents on the ground work closely with Air and Marine Operations crews daily as part of their border security and humanitarian rescue missions.
"I am very proud of our AMO crew and the U.S. Border Patrol BORSTAR team for their efforts in this rescue during very challenging winter conditions," said Efren Gonzalez, El Paso AMO Air Branch Director.
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U.S. Customs and Border Protection is America's frontline agency responsible for law enforcement at borders nationwide.
