A 63-year-old man with dementia has been found at the bottom of a waterfall after going missing in North Sydney two days ago.
Donald Earle was reported missing at 3pm on Saturday afternoon from a nursing home in St Ives after staff couldn’t locate him.
Police began searching the Ku-ring-gai area on Saturday afternoon and had mounting concerns for his wellbeing due to his health condition.
Today he was found on the Mueller Track in St Ives’ Wildflower Garden two days after he was reported missing.
Earle was winched out of the bushland and taken to St Ives Oval where an ambulance was waiting.
“I actually always felt that we would find him but the way that police have handled this from the moment he was reported missing has been unbelievable,” his wife Claire Earle said.
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“It’s just one of those situations that you think is not going to happen to you but it does.”
New South Wales ambulance Special Operations Paramedics were involved in his rescue and are treating him for dehydration.
”When we hear of someone who’s been missing for almost 48 hours, we always prepare for the worst but hope for the best,” NSW Ambulance Inspector Christian Holmes said.
“Considering the very warm weather over the past few days, his physical condition was better than we expected.
“He was suffering from dehydration and had some cuts and grazes,” Holmes added.
