Coupeville pastor hospitalized after fall

A longtime Coupeville pastor was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle today for injuries he sustained in a fall down an embankment in Ledgewood.

A hospital official confirmed late Friday afternoon that Garrett Arnold, the senior pastor at Living Hope Foursquare Church, was in the process of being treated in Harborview’s emergency room.

Because of his ongoing treatment, she could not provide an immediate update of his status.

According to Ed Hartin, chief of Central Whidbey Fire and Rescue, emergency personnel responded to a report of a man having fallen off an embankment near Driftwood Way at 1:21 p.m.

“It appeared they were trimming some grass near the edge and fell off,” Hartin said.

They arrived to find the man upside down on a ledge about 25 feet down the approximately 35-foot embankment. Hartin said he was conscious but his arms and legs were stuck and that he had been there since about 10:30 a.m.

Hartin said the man was found by a young woman walking on the beach.

Fire department officials used the district’s Gator ATV and drove onto the beach where they were able to reach the stricken man. He was lifted onto a stretcher and transported by a Whidbey General Hospital ambulance to Greenbank Farm, where he was then met by an Airlift Northwest medical helicopter.

Hartin could not go into details about the extent of the man’s injuries but said they were “serious.”

“That’s why he was airlifted to Harborview,” he said.

Hartin said South Whidbey Fire/EMS also assisted in the rescue that he was happy with the team effort put forward by all four of the agencies involved.

Contact Whidbey News Times Staff reporter Justin Burnett at jburnett@whidbeynewsgroup.com or 360-675-6611 ext. 5054.

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