WHITMAN — Police Chief Timothy Hanlon and Fire Chief Timothy Grenno report that the Whitman Police and Fire Departments, with assistance from the Plymouth County Sheriff’s Department K-9 unit, located an elderly woman who was face down in a briar patch in a wooded area near her home Tuesday night.
At approximately 6:10 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 11, Whitman Police received a call from a resident reporting that her 71-year-old mother was missing from her home. The woman was last seen at 8:30 a.m.
Officers responded to the home on Temple Street and quickly determined that the woman had likely left on foot with her cell phone. The woman did not bring her jacket with her and temperatures were in the low 40s Tuesday with light to heavy rain throughout the day.
The Plymouth County Sheriff’s Department K-9 unit was called to respond and the woman’s cellular provider was contacted to ping her cell phone’s location.
At approximately 7:30 p.m., the woman’s cell phone was pinged in the area of nearby Westwood Drive. Minutes later, a sheriff’s deputy, with his K-9, reported that they had located the woman in a wooded area about 250 yards from her home.
The woman was unresponsive and was face down in a briar patch with her legs tangled in roots. Her clothes were muddy and wet and her skin was cold to the touch. Medical assistance was immediately called for and officers draped their coats on the woman and put a knit hat on her head until medics from the Whitman Fire Department arrived.
The woman was taken out of the woods and was transported to South Shore Hospital by a Whitman Fire Department ambulance. As of Thursday morning, her condition was stable.
“This was great work by our responding officers and the Plymouth County Sheriff’s K-9,” Chief Hanlon said. “We don’t know how long she had been outside for but it was cold and rainy all day. Thankfully we found her when we did and hopefully she is going to be okay.”
“Thanks to the quick response and thorough search by the Whitman Police Department and Plymouth County Sheriff’s Department, we were able to arrive on the scene and administer care to the woman,” said Chief Grenno. “Our medics were able to rewarm the patient, whose body temperature had dropped drastically low, and provide further care while transporting her to the hospital where additional care would be administered.”
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