A 5-year-old girl struck and injured Thursday by a sneaker wave carrying a large log has been discharged from a Springfield hospital in “good condition.”
Joe Waltasti, a spokesperson for PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend in Springfield, confirmed the girl’s release. She has not been identified.
Bystanders told fire officials that the child was standing on South Jetty Beach in Florence when the log hit her in the back of the head and pinned her face down in the sand, according to Western Lane Fire and EMS Authority spokesperson Matt House.
The girl’s mother and others on the beach rescued the girl from the log, and she was flown by helicopter to PeaceHealth.
A National Weather Service advisory was in effect along the coast of southwest Washington and Oregon warning of powerful and unpredictable waves. Sneaker waves can knock people off their feet and quickly pull them into cold ocean waters, according to the weather service.
