Falling goose knocks Shore hunter unconscious

The Daily Times

An Eastern Shore hunter was knocked unconscious Thursday by a goose that fell from the sky. The hunter had to be flown to shock trauma, according to Maryland Natural Resources Police.

Snow geese wing over the Sloughs Wildlife Management Area recently, trying to find food and avoid becoming food.

NRP spokeswoman Candy Thomson said a hunting party in Easton was in a blind shooting at a flock of geese. One of the dead geese fell out of the sky and struck 51-year-old Robert Meilhammer of Dorchester County in the head, knocking him unconscious.

Natural resources officers, along with members of the Talbot County Sheriff's Office and local EMS, responded to the 25000 block of Voit Road where the hunters were located shortly before 5 p.m.

When they arrived on the scene and Meilhammer came to, Thomson said he knew his name but was hazy on other details.

As a precaution, he was taken by ambulance to the Easton Airport and then flown to the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore to be treated for injuries to his head and face.

Friday afternoon, NRP tweeted out that Meilhammer was in stable condition and awaiting additional tests.

Thomson said the incident wasn't something she and the lieutenant who responded to the scene had ever seen before in their experience as hunters and with NRP.

"This is highly unusual," she said.