Argentinian rock climber suffers serious injuries on Mount Stuart
The rock climber winched off Mount Stuart has suffered serious injuries, leaving him with the prospect of a massive medical bill.
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The rock climber winched off Mount Stuart has suffered serious injuries, leaving him with the prospect of a massive medical bill.
Lautaro Arellano suffered serious injuries after he was struck by a rock on Tuesday morning, his brother Francisco said.
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“While he was securing a fellow rock climber, another friend, was rappelling down the same face of the mountain,” he said.
“Unfortunately while his friend was rappelling down, a rock of the size of a football got loose and fall (sic) down striking my brother on one side of his body (left side).
“He had an elbow injury, some broken ribs and his spleen exploded.”
Emergency services responded to the incident off Mount Stuart Rd just after 11am after reports Lautaro was struck in the chest by a rock.
Lautaro was stranded on the rock face about 40m below the top of the cliff.
The Townsville QGAir helicopter was sent to the scene and a medical specialist was winched down to treat Lautaro.
He was flown to Townsville University Hospital in a stable condition.
Francisco, who is living in Australian on a working holiday visa, said Lautaro’s travel insurance would not cover the medical costs because rock climbing was considered a high risk sport.
He created a GoFundMe page in the hope of raising $70,000.
“Now he is out of danger but must remain in E.R for a couple of days,” Francisco said on the GoFundMe page.
“At the moment he is safe and sound but as you may imagine with a huge bill to pay, something that in this present time is harder to tackle (he was unemployed and looking for job).”
The GoFundMe page has raised more than $9000 at the time publishing.
Originally published as Argentinian rock climber suffers serious injuries on Mount Stuart