A hiker on a trail near Lake Poway was described as "incoherent" and feverishly hot when she was rescued Sunday.
Nick Gadler, M.D. was fishing with his children heard a man scream for help around 4 p.m..
He rushed to the area and found a woman laying head-first at a 45-degree angle in a ravine off of Lake Poway Trail.
It appeared the woman fell near a rock or may have tripped over it, Gadler told NBC 7.
She was bleeding from the mouth and had obvious wounds to her legs, arms and head, he said.
"Her core temperature was probably 104/108. Very hot," Gadler said. "I've worked in the ERs and I'd never felt anybody that hot before."
The woman was not coherent and had likely been in the sun for approximately an hour or two according to the doctor's estimates.
"I think she was there too long before anybody noticed her," Gadler said.
Local
San Diego Fire-Rescue crews attempted to move the woman by aircraft but when that couldn't be done successfully they drove a vehicle onto the trail. She was transported to a nearby hospital.
The woman, identified as Gladis Lizarraga, was hiking with family members to Potato Chip Rock and was on the way back down when the group split up, officials said.
The 57-year-old Chula Vista woman died of her injuries according to the San Diego County Medical Examiner's office. A cause of death was not released.
NBC 7's Meteorologist Jodi Kodesh said the temperature just before the rescue was close to the daytime high - in the low 80s, with a 10 mph breeze.
