In the late morning (11.44 hrs, June 19, 2014), the employee of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, who had been injured by an accident in the Riesending Cave in the Berchtesgaden Alps last Sunday, was brought out of the cave by rescue teams. With this, the very difficult rescue was completed successfully after twelve days. “We are highly relieved and happy about the successful rescue of our employee and colleague. In the name of all staff members of KIT, we hope that he will recover soon,” said Professor Holger Hanselka, President of KIT.
“Our thanks go to the Bergwacht Bayern (Bavarian Mountain Rescue Service) and the many local helpers, who successfully completed the difficult rescue with great care and high personal commitment. We followed the rescue work and always felt with the relatives,” said Dr. Elke Luise Barnstedt, Vice President of KIT for Human Resources and Law.
At KIT, Johann Westhauser is member of the technical staff of the Institute of Applied Physics. Speleology is the hobby of Westhauser, who has joined the Association for Speleology of Bad Cannstatt.
“We all at the institute are very relieved about the good news. We wish Johann Westhauser a complete recovery and hope that he will soon return to his working team,” said Professor Martin Wegener of the Institute of Applied Physics.
After his rescue at 11.44 hrs, Westhauser is now in emergency medical care.
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