(La Porte County, IN) - A man was taken by a medical helicopter after having a tree he was cutting fall on him Thursday at a La Porte County boys scout camp.

 

Kenneth Coleman, 63, was flown to Memorial Hospital in South Bend for more advanced care of his undisclosed injuries, according to La Porte County Police,

 

Police said officers about 8 a.m. were called to Camp Topenebee off U.S. 421, a few miles south of Interstate 94, to assist medics with Coleman on his back with a tree on his left leg just above the ankle.  Coleman told investigators he was cutting down a large pine tree with a chainsaw when the tree close to the area he was cutting snapped.

 

Fortunately, police said Coleman with his leg pinned between the tree and ground had a cell phone and used it to call 911.  Emergency responders dug his leg out from under the tree and placed him into the medical helicopter several minutes after it landed, police said.

 

Coolspring Township Volunteer Fire Department spokesman Warren Smith said the man had not cut very deeply into the tree when it snapped from being rotten on the inside.

 

“As he was cutting it, it broke,” he said.

 

Camp Topenebee is used by the LaSalle Council of Scouting America based in South Bend.  The council has members from La Porte and other counties in northern Indiana and southwest Michigan.