Rescue Goes Wrong as Doctor Falls During Helicopter Operation in Italy’s Dolomites

Shocking video footage has emerged from a rescue operation gone wrong in Cortina d’Ampezzo in the Italian Dolomites. An emergency doctor lost her footing during a complex helicopter rescue operation of a 25-year-old hiker at the Falzarego Towers on Saturday, August 22. 2026.

The SUEM emergency medical team was called to the scene of a fall of a woman from Venice, Italy. In the video, two rescue workers can be seen guiding the injured woman onto the stretcher when the metal stretcher slips, causing the doctor to lose her footing and tumble down the mountain along with the stretcher. The female doctor bounces down the rock face for several meters before finally coming to a rest. Both the injured hiker as well as the doctor were immediately treated at the scene, and neither was considered to be in life-threatening condition.

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The injured SUEM doctor was taken to Belluno Hospital for diagnostic testing following the incident. An afternoon update from Ulss 1 Dolomiti hospital said that the doctor’s condition was not a cause for concern. The medical worker was expected to be discharged from the emergency department shortly.

The climber who initially prompted the rescue was taken to a hospital in Treviso. The patient was described as having sustained injuries of medium severity during her fall on the rock face.

Authorities have not released details about the nature or extent of either person’s injuries.

 

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The exact circumstances surrounding the incident remain under investigation. Michele Titton, provincial delegate of the Italian National Alpine and Speleological Rescue Corps (CNSAS), said technical investigations had been launched to reconstruct what happened during the rescue operation. “The technical investigations are planned to accurately reconstruct the dynamics of what happened and verify every element useful to the understanding of the facts,” Titton said.

Titton emphasized that Alpine rescue operations routinely take place in difficult and hazardous environments, where rescuers themselves can be exposed to significant risks. “Precisely for this reason, every anomalous event is analyzed with the utmost rigor, with a view to the continuous improvement of the safety of operations,” Titton said.

The Alpine Rescue specifically urged against speculation or assigning responsibility before the investigation has established what occurred.

Just days before the incident, CNSAS Veneto had reported that August had seen a very high amount of rescue calls, stating that the Operations Centers of the Emergency and Medical Emergency Services were overwhelmed by calls. The organization said that its helicopters were flying uninterruptedly. Many of these rescue calls were entirely avoidable and came from people who were ill-equipped, uninformed, and inexperienced.

Rescue professionals put themselves in danger every day to rescue others and sometimes will get injured and require rescue themselves. The footage from the Falzarego Towers is a reminder of just how quickly things can go wrong in the mountains — even for professionals.