Girl, 16, Injured in Backcountry Fall

A Ventura County Search and Rescue team was sent into the backcountry near the “Narrows” in Santa Paula Canyon late Saturday to carry out a 16-year-old Camarillo girl, who slipped and fell into a narrow gorge, injuring her head and leg, a Ventura County Fire Department spokeswoman said.

Katie Doud was listed in fair condition at Santa Paula Memorial Hospital after suffering head injuries, a twisted ankle and cuts from the fall, hospital spokeswoman said. Two of the teen-ager’s companions stayed by her side while another friend hiked the hourlong route back to St. Thomas Aquinas College, where he called rescue personnel who arrived just before 5 p.m., said Capt. Norman Plott of the Ventura County Fire Department’s Summit Station.

A helicopter rescue unit and Sheriff’s Department Search and Rescue team from Ojai responded, Plott said. The helicopter was not able to land in the steep gorge, he said.

The team had to carry the teen-ager out in a stretcher down Santa Paula Creek for nearly a mile until members reached level ground where the helicopter could land, Plott said. It took the rescue personnel nearly an hour before reaching the helicopter landing area. The girl was taken to Santa Paula Memorial Hospital at about 7 p.m.