Elderly man rescued from Battery Creek after 4 hours of shouting for help

After four hours of clinging to a fallen tree, an elderly man was rescued from the end of Battery Creek along Boundary Street.

Patrons of Applebees on Boundary Street heard someone calling for help around noon, and an employee called 911, Beaufort-Port Royal Fire Department Lt. Ross Vezin said Sunday afternoon. Firefighters arrived to find the 86-year-old man, who was about 20 feet from shore with no one else around.

The man told firefighter Brett Johnson that he wasn’t hurt, but his lips were blue and he was shivering, Johnson said. He said he had been out there for four or five hours.

Johnson said he has been with the fire department for about 9 years. This was his first water rescue.

Johnson jumped in the water and helped the man get back to shore, where firefighters used low-angle rescue equipment to bring the man up the steep, 15-foot embankment, Vezin said. The man was transported to Beaufort Memorial Hospital by Beaufort County EMS, Vezin said. The man had non-life-threatening injuries, according to a fire department news release.

Once the man was found, he was out of the water and up the embankment to receive medical treatment within 15 minutes, according to the release.

Beaufort Police Department and Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office also responded to the scene, according to the release.

This story was originally published April 30, 2017 at 6:04 PM with the headline "Elderly man rescued from Battery Creek after 4 hours of shouting for help."