Paramedic feels the heat after 300-yard trek to treat casualty
Both were rushed by Devon Air Ambulance to Torbay Hospital after being flown from Landcombe Cove, near Blackpool Sands outside Stoke Fleming.
The youngster, aged 16 and from Stoke Fleming, had collapsed after suffering an epileptic fit on the beach following a night out camping with pals.
The paramedic, from Dartmouth, and ambulance colleagues arrived at the remote site with help from eight members of the Dartmouth Cliff Rescue Team who used lines to make the descent to the beach.
But both ended up in the aircraft after she felt the effects of the heat immediately after the 300 yard drop through a field to get to the patient.
An ambulance service spokesman said: "I think the fact she had walked a considerable distance with a lot of kit in a reflective jacket may have caused her not to feel too great, so she hitched a ride in the helicopter."
He added: "She was fine after a bit of re-hydration."
He confirmed the teenager was not seriously threatened by the attack.
Cliff rescue manager Andrew Pound, who attended the incident, said: "We escorted the paramedics on to the beach. The site is very steep and lines were needed. The lad had been unconscious for a long time and had been sick. He was conscious by the time he was put in the air ambulance, although he was still being sick.
"The paramedic just felt the heat a bit. It was airless and very hot. The temperature must have been in the high 20s."
The alarm was raised just before 9am with the cliff rescue deciding the air ambulance would be the best way of evacuating the youngster.
"While this was being done the paramedic was overcome by the heat. It was like a furnace on the beach — quite unbelievable," said Andrew.
He said it was the youngster's second epileptic fit, having been told after the first that he would not suffer another one. Last year, a 16-year-old boy from Strete was rescued from the same spot after a two hundredweight boulder fell on top of him during a cave party.
Comment on this story