63-year-old holidaymaker from Bavaria dies after crash on Traunstein

Hikers find a seriously injured Bavarian woman on the Traunstein mountain. Rescue efforts are underway, but no hospital will admit her. What happens next is shocking.

A 63-year-old vacationer from Bavaria has died after a mountaineering accident in Austria. As the "Krone" newspaper reports, the woman could not be treated immediately in a clinic because two hospitals were overwhelmed.

The Bavarian woman was hiking in the Austrian Alps on Wednesday when she fell from the Traunstein mountain near Altmünster. She fell dozens of meters. Two hikers discovered her lying among rocks – unconscious, with severe head injuries, barely breathing. They alerted the mountain rescue service.

The 63-year-old was rescued from the difficult terrain by helicopter. The nearest hospital in Gmunden was supposed to admit the woman, but the emergency room there was already blocked by another emergency. According to the report in the "Krone" newspaper, an alternative hospital in Vöcklabruck also had to cancel, also lacking space.

Rescuers therefore flew the seriously injured woman to a meadow at the foot of the mountain. There, emergency physicians treated the woman in the open air, secured her airway, and stabilized her as best they could. Only then could she be transported to the Wels Hospital, a distance away.