A routine morning on a hospital construction site in Grafton turned into a high-angle rescue Friday when a construction worker suffered a medical emergency in a tower crane cab roughly 160 feet above the ground.
The worker had been helping build an expansion at Aurora Medical Center when he became ill on the crane, according to TMJ4. Fire crews climbed up, treated him where he was, then executed a coordinated technical rescue to get him safely back down to ground level, where hospital staff took over his care.
The TMJ4 report includes photos credited to the Ozaukee Central Fire Department that show firefighters clustered around the towering crane and working the rescue operation on site.
How crews reached the worker
Members of the Ozaukee Central Fire Department responded to the Aurora Medical Center project and deployed their technical-rescue resources to reach the crane cab high over the construction zone. According to the department’s Ozaukee Central Fire Department operations information, the agency trains for rope and high-angle rescues and maintains specialized equipment designed to stabilize patients in hard-to-reach spots and lower them safely to the ground.
Those skills were put to work on the crane, where emergency personnel first provided medical treatment in place. Once the worker was secured and lowered, paramedics continued care on the ground before transferring him to hospital staff.
Project context
The incident unfolded on the Aurora Medical Center campus while crews were working on a multi-floor inpatient tower and emergency department expansion, a project outlined in a development newsletter from the Village of Grafton. The Grafton facility is overseen by Advocate Aurora, and contractors have been steadily active on the site. Boldt details ongoing construction work at the campus on its project page.
What officials say
As of the time of reporting, officials had not released additional information about the worker’s condition or what triggered the medical emergency, according to TMJ4. Local agencies and the hospital had not issued further public statements through the outlets reviewed.
