Ailing student rescued from Everglades

MIAMI, Jan. 1 (UPI) -- A student trekking through the Florida Everglades with several other medical school students fell ill and has been airlifted to safety, officials say.

Rescue officials in Miami-Dade County, Fla., said the group of at least 15 Missouri students initially attempted to find a park ranger in Everglades National Park when the unidentified individual fell ill this week, The Miami Herald said Thursday.

Fire Rescue spokesman Lt. Eddy Ballester said after failing to find a ranger, the group used a satellite telephone to call for aid.

By tracking the phone's global positioning system signal, a helicopter crew was able to locate the students and take the 20-year-old male student to an area hospital.

Ballester credited the helicopter service and the student group's phone with the emergency rescue, the Herald reported.

''If they would not have had a satellite phone, contacting 911 would have been extremely difficult,'' he said. "The asset that we have in our air rescue helicopters is second to none. It afforded us to rapidly access the patient and render the treatment he needed.''