Anchorage Daily News

WASILLA -- The National Park Service rescued a 60-year-old gold miner today from a remote wilderness camp west of Talkeetna after he suffered a possible heart attack, according to emergency responders and a family member.

Tommy Bates of Wasilla passed out early this morning while at his mine on Bird Creek in the Dutch Hills off Petersville Road, daughter Jackie Leseman said. When he came to an hour later, he called his wife for help.

A Park Service helicopter from Talkeetna was flown in because a Lifeguard helicopter from Anchorage was initially unavailable and the road leading to the mine is unsuitable for sending an ambulance, said Ken Farina, the Matanuska-Susitna Borough fire and ambulance chief for the Talkeetna and Trapper Creek area.

After Bates was picked up from the mine, he was transferred to a Lifeguard helicopter, which flew him to Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage, Farina said.

Leseman said this afternoon that her father's condition was still being evaluated but he may have to undergo heart surgery. She said he has spent about the past 10 summers working at the mine and praised his rescuers for doing an "excellent job."

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