SPARTA – A missing South Carolina woman found alive yesterday evening in rugged terrain about a mile off the Blue Ridge Parkway in Stone Mountain State Park was airlifted to Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center this morning, authorities said.
Crystal Lynn Ham, 25, of Elgin, S.C., was hoisted out of a ravine at 8:30 a.m. by an N.C. National Guard helicopter. Thirteen searchers and rescuers had spent the night with Ham, keeping her warm and monitoring her condition. A paramedic who had been treating her was hoisted out along with her.
Ham had been the subject of a full-scale search since rangers checked the registration Saturday on her vehicle parked at the Bullhead Mountain Overlook near Milepost 234 in Alleghany County. They found out she had been reported missing, and had last been seen last Tuesday by her father.
She had left his office in South Carolina on the way to an appointment. She later called to tell him she had been to the appointment, but did not actually go, authorities said.
After an extensive three-day search, rescuers found her at 6:11 p.m. yesterday. She was suffering from hypothermia, dehydration and exposure, but able to confirm her identity to searchers, said Lena Koschmann, assistant chief ranger for the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Koschmann said that the rescuers immediately began to warm Ham, and her condition improved.
A paramedic hiked in, reaching her at 9:45 p.m., and determined that she was stable enough to stay for the night.
The search team decided it would be safer to wait for daylight for the helicopter rescue in the steep terrain. The National Guard helicopter took her to a landing zone near Bluffs Lodge on the Blue Ridge Parkway where she was transferred to a medical helicopter.
Her condition was still being evaluated in the emergency room at Wake Forest Baptist this morning.
Koschmann credited teamwork among federal, state and local agencies for finding Ham and getting her safely off the mountain.
"It is certainly due to the outstanding inter-agency cooperation and pre-planning, and the hard work of searchers and volunteers on the ground, that this search and rescue effort was a success," she said.
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