5-Year-Old Medevac'd Out Of Hopatcong With Head Injury

HOPATCONG, NJ — First responders were quick-acting and are calling it a "seamless response" on Sunday at the Hopatcong Roller Hockey Rink, when they worked together at the scene to help a five-year-old boy and get him swiftly airlifted to Morristown Medical Center, after he suffered a severe head injury from a hockey puck.

Hopatcong's Police Department reported that they first received a call a little before 1 p.m. this past Sunday about the unidentified boy’s injuries, with responding officers finding him “bleeding profusely” from a laceration to his head, as well as “extremely pale and not responding to verbal commands.”

The police department wrote in a news release that even after officers on the scene started providing first aid to the child, who was in shock - and he started to answer their verbal commands - he “still did not appear lucid.”

First responders from Hopatcong’s Ambulance Squad arrived next, police say, and asked for a medevac to airlift him to Morristown Medical Center.

Hopatcong Police Department’s dispatchers and the Hopatcong Fire Department quickly mobilized to set up a landing zone for Air One to whisk him to the hospital from Squire Field, while Hopatcong Police drove his family to Morristown.

"We all work together as one team and have a tremendous amount of dedicated resources helping those when they need it most,” Hopatcong Ambulance Squad wrote on its Facebook Page, after the boy was successfully airlifted. “Thank you to our crew, Hopatcong Police, Hopatcong Fire Department and Air One today for a quick seamless response.”

Questions or comments about this story? Have a news tip? Contact me at: jennifer.miller@patch.com.