Released by: Dep. Joshua Westfall, Assistant Search And Rescue Coordinator
Occurred: 01/19/2020 1:29 PM
Location: Virginia Meissner Sno Park
Rescued: Fox, Chris, Albany, OR, 58 year old male
NARRATIVE:
On January 19th at about 1:29 PM, Deschutes County dispatch received multiple 911 calls regarding a cross country skier near the Meissner Shelter of the Virginia Meissner Sno Park off Cascade Lakes Highway (Century Dr) who appeared to be having an unknown medical issue. The callers reported that the skier, later identified as Chris Fox of Albany, OR, had skied in to near the Meissner Shelter but was not able to travel any further due to his unknown medical condition.
Based on this information, one Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office Deputy and six Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue Volunteers responded to rescue Fox. The six DCSO SAR volunteers traveled as close to Fox’s location as they could via snowmobile and then transitioned to snowshoes to reach Fox due to trail conditions. Fox was then tended to by members of the DCSO SAR medical team for a potentially serious condition and transported back to the Virginia Meissner parking lot in DCSO SAR’s snow ambulance, which is a heated and enclosed snowmobile trailer designed for patient transport.
Upon reaching the parking lot Fox was transferred to the Bend Fire Department who then transported him to St. Charles in Bend via ground ambulance. A United States Forest Service Officer also assisted DCSO SAR on the incident.
The Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office is a full-service agency that oversees the adult jail, provides patrol, criminal investigations, civil process and search and rescue operations. Special units include SWAT, Marine Patrol, ATV Patrol, Forest Patrol, along with four K9 teams. Founded in 1916 and today lead by your duly elected Sheriff L. Shane Nelson, the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office serves the nearly 190,000 residents in Deschutes County. The agency has 230 authorized and funded personnel, which includes 187 sworn employees who provide services to the 3,055 square miles of Deschutes County.
