PARAMEDIC Michael Wilson of Gymea Bay died trying to save an injured canyoner after a serious communications breakdown between rescue agencies, a NSW coroner said.
On Tuesday at the Coroner's Court in Glebe, Deputy State Coroner Carmel Forbes delivered her findings about Mr Wilson's death in national parkland west of Wollongong on Christmas Eve, 2011,
Ms Forbes said Mr Wilson (pictured) went over a ledge while attending to his patient and swung 30 metres "like a pendulum" before coming to rest, fatally injured.
"The breakdown of effective communications on the night and the lack of effective co-ordination and mission command or control were not limited to an interagency problem," Ms Forbes said.
"Despite everyone's best and in some cases heroic efforts, such as those of [fellow paramedics Tim] Thistleton and [David] Zids, who abseiled down the waterfall in the dark, Mr Wilson died [at the scene] as a consequence of extensive blunt trauma injuries."