Man with hypothermia
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October 15, 1980 |
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By Kevin Walker
It was a cold and somewhat cloudy day when Walt Walker received a call from the Hemet Sheriff's office. Walt was told that a nature photographer had been reported overdue, and that the vehicle had been located on Soboba Road, north of the City of San Jacinto. A deputy rolled out to where the vehicle was found and followed a set of foot prints up a small canyon. The deputy located Norman Berman at the top of a 50 foot dry waterfall about a half mile up the Canyon. Norm had spent two nights with no warm clothing at that location. Needless to say he was in hypothermia. The deputy radioed back out and asked for rescue personnel. At that point the Hemet team was notified and then Walt was called. Walt went home for his gear, while I grabbed mine and then picked up the No. 1 van. Within twenty minutes we were at the base camp below North Mountain. There we met Capt. Bill Park and several deputies from the Hemet S.O. and Gary Fritzinger from the Hemet team, who was handling radio communications from the rescue operation. Gary told us that a paramedic and two of his team members had already hiked in to start giving aid to Norm. While we were deciding what gear to carry in, the paramedic radioed out that it would have to be a litter evacuation, and that a technical lower would have to be made over the waterfall. With that I radioed Riverside and had Al Andrews notified to activate RMRU.
Shortly
thereafter Walt and I and Dave Fisk from the
Hemet team were on our way in. It was a quick
walk up the gentle canyon to the base of the
water fall. But gentle was not the word for the
50 foot, near-vertical waterfall equipped with
loose rock. After assessing the fall itself, we
left the sandy creek bed and started up the steep
side of the canyon. After making our way up the
side, we traversed over and back down to where
the other rescuers were. Norm was looking a lot
better now. 
An I.V. had been started, warm
clothing had been put on him, and he was
finishing his second cup of hot soup. With the
paramedic seeing after Norm, we started setting
up for a lower over the waterfall. As we were
finishing setting up the lower line and the belay
line, RMRU members could be seen approaching from
down canyon. I volunteered to be the litter
attendant, Walt would be the safety officer. Jim
Garvey and Pete Carlson were sent up to handle
the lower and belay. Once Norm was secured into
the Stokes litter, we carried him over to the
edge, and then slowly worked our way over the
side to where I could lean out and pull the
litter away from the wall. The tough part was
getting started; once we were out on the
waterfall itself, the lower went extremely
smoothly. Once we had Norm down fellow RMRU
members Chris Smith and Rick Pohlers lent a hand
in carrying Norm away from the base of the falls.
While we secured the "wheel" to the litter, the rest of the troopies brought down the technical gear. After that it was a smooth wheel out to the road, and the waiting ambulance.
Later that evening, Walt and I visited Norm in the Hospital. He was resting comfortably, and was going to be released with doctor's instructions to get a warm meal, a hot bath, and a good nights rest.