A 62-year-old Canadian visitor was in extremely critical condition Monday night after falling about 80 feet from a cliff on Chinaman’s Hat off Kualoa Beach, authorities said.
The man’s wife waited for him on shore, and after about two hours she became worried and informed the lifeguards at the beach her husband had not come back from the island, said Jessica Lani Rich, president and executive director of the Visitor Aloha Society of Hawaii.
Rich, who supported the man’s wife at the Queen’s Medical Center last night, said the two had come on vacation to Hawaii for the summer from Calgary, Alberta, and were staying at the Brigham Young University-Hawaii condominiums.
Their son is a former BYUH student, and the couple has visited Hawaii several times, Rich said.
The man is retired and the couple have four grown children living in Canada.
The man fell onto some rocks at the base of the cliff on the windward side of the island, said Honolulu fire Capt. Terry Seelig.
A lifeguard discovered the man, who suffered head and upper-body trauma — injuries consistent with a fall from a height, Seelig said.
The Ocean Safety Division notified the Fire Department at 2:15 p.m., requesting assistance.
The Fire Department helicopter airlifted the man to Kualoa, where he was turned over to EMS personnel at 3:10 p.m., Seelig said.
An EMS ambulance transported the man to Queen’s in extremely critical condition, an EMS supervisor said.