21-year-old suffers fatal medical emergency while hiking in New Hampshire’s White Mountains

A young Pennsylvania man died after suffering an unknown medical emergency in New Hampshire’s White Mountains on Friday evening.

Jason Apreku, 21, of Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, “experienced an unknown medical emergency [and] collapsed” while hiking with friends up the Osgood Trail to Mount Madison around 4:30 p.m., according to New Hampshire Fish and Game.

Apreku’s friend called 911 and performed CPR, authorities said. Passing hikers and Appalachian Mountain Club personnel also tried to help. Efforts to help the man have any chance of survival continued for hours, the agency added.

Fish and Game officials said they contacted the New Hampshire Army National Guard, which dispatched a helicopter from Concord to Mt. Madison with a flight time of 35 minutes.

Androscoggin Valley Search and Rescue team members also hiked up from Appalachia Parking Lot in Randolph just in case the helicopter could not access the mountain ridge.

Officials reported that Mt. Washington, which is only a few peaks away, had wind gusts up to 90 mph with a chill of 29 degrees Fahrenheit. Despite this wind concern, the commanding officer of the National Guard directed the helicopter crew to continue so that all efforts could be made to rescue Apreku.

Authorities also tried to fly two conservation officers up to the mountain ridge, but despite all these efforts, the National Guard helicopter crew and conversation officers were unable to reach the hiker due to cloud cover and severe winds.

After multiple hours and various efforts to save him, Apreku died due to the unknown medical issue, authorities said.

Throughout the night and into Saturday morning, rescue crews continued to hike to Apreku’s location, battling extreme wind and below freezing temperatures, to remove the body from the trail and get him to Madison Spring Hut where a helicopter crew later lifted him off the mountain.

Authorities then took Apreku’s body to a funeral home in Berlin.