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52-year-old with apparent heart attack
By Jim Fairchild
Alex John
Alexander, age 52, was a member of the Basic
Mountaineering Class (BMC) conducted annually by
the San Gorgonio Chapter of the Sierra Club. The
class was starting its overnight campout weekend,
hiking up the trail toward 'The Sink', an unusual
sunken valley north of the ridge running to
Kitching Peak. Hiking along at about the 5000'
elevation there were about two groups, one
somewhat ahead of the other. Alex was in the rear
group, going slowly. He dropped unconscious.
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation was begun because
both his heart and lungs were not functioning.
The group got back together, certain member went
out for help. The Banning station of the
Riverside County Sheriff's Department was
contacted by the informant. Capt. Ray Canova
called Don Landells Aviation and the California
Division of Forestry (CDF) station at Cabazon.
(Don was returning from a Los Angeles charter and
was contacted via radio.) He landed at Cabazon
and picked up Capt. Canova, the informant, two
CDF firemen and their resuscitator. They
attempted to fly in to the downed man. The
combination of the informant not being able to
direct them there, and dense clouds prevented
this. They landed at the roadhead area, the CDF
men then hiking in, upon arrival they found that
Alex appeared to have vital signs going for him,
but was still unconscious. RMRU was contacted
when it was found that they weren't able to fly
directly to the victim.
When RMRU
arrived Don tried to fly Walt Walker and myself
in to a ridge above to "Bomb" down to
Alex's location, but clouds prevented even coming
close. We landed below the roadhead, put on
packs, mine was the RMRU oxygen system, and began
to hike. In about 35 minutes we were there. It
sure looked bad, the CDF oxygen had been
consumed. I set up the regulator and Elder valve
of our oxygen system and Walt started the oxygen.
He gave 10 inflations while CPR continued, then checked the
pupils - dilated and fixed. Walt said, "You
can stop." Alex had been gone for some time.
Everyone there who had tried so hard for so long
to sustain life was disappointed, even a bit
stunned that we quit so soon. Well, we don't
blame them, but in the event that a massive heart
failure (heart muscle or valve damage) knocks a
person down in the wilderness, unconscious for
more than a few minutes, his chances are slim.
Besides, we would have had to wait for an
ambulance crew to hike in with a portable
chest-compression machine so we could transport
in the litter and keep up CPR. Anyway, be assured
that Alex was truly dead some time before our
arrival.
Shortly the
rest of our crew arrived with the wheeled litter.
We asked everyone to pack up and then began the
sad return trip of about two miles with the body.
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