Anchorage Daily News

The National Park Service rescued a 60-year-old gold miner Wednesday 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 Wednesday morning while at his gold 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 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 Wednesday afternoon that her father's condition was still being evaluated but that he may have to undergo heart surgery. She said he has spent the past 10 summers or so working at the mine and praised his rescuers for doing an "excellent job."

Find Stephanie Komarnitsky online at adn.com/contact/sjkomarnitsky.

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