Boy Hit by Boat’s Boom Airlifted to Hospital

A 12-year-old boy who was injured Saturday morning by a sailboat boom in choppy waters off the coast here was airlifted for hospital treatment, the Sheriff’s Harbor Patrol reported.

Clint Walker was in stable condition at Hoag Hospital on Saturday after sustaining a head injury in the 10:30 a.m. accident. His hometown and parents’ names were not immediately available.

The boom struck Clint while he was a passenger with family members on a 30-foot sailboat, about five miles offshore, said Sgt. Thomas Wallstrom. Waves were reaching six feet or higher at the time of the accident.

Wallstrom said the Sheriff’s Harbor Patrol dispatched one of its boats, with Newport Beach Fire Department paramedics aboard, to the sailboat. Paramedics Jim Edgar and Doyle King boarded the sailboat, gave aid to the stricken youth and lifted him to the Harbor Patrol boat.

“The boy had been knocked unconscious by the boom, and when he recovered consciousness he was vomiting and showing signs of serious head injury and possible concussion,” Edgar said.

“We had to transfer him to the Harbor Patrol boat because the Coast Guard helicopter couldn’t airlift from the sailboat because of its masts,” Edgar added. “It was a difficult job getting the boy transferred to the other boat because of the waves.”

The Coast Guard helicopter took the boy to Hoag Hospital, where he was in stable condition after treatment, a hospital spokeswoman said Saturday afternoon.