Backpacker suffered heart attack
By Henry
Negrete
Our first
summer call into the San Jacinto wilderness came
at 2:00 pm Sunday, June 22.
The call was a
bit ambiguous, concerning an older hiker, a Mr.
James Deemer, 64 years old, of Long Beach.
According to the informant, Mr. Deemer had hiked
into the wilderness on Saturday with a couple of
young companions he had recently met at his local
chapter of the Sierra Club. As they reached
Saddle Junction, which is the first real pit stop
after enduring the Devil's Slide Trail, Mr.
Deemer was experiencing some discomfort, with
shortness of breath and dizziness. After a short
rest Mr. Deemer was feeling up to continuing and
the three hikers set out for their campsite
destination which was Reeds Meadow, approximately
one mile further at an elevation of around 8,000
feet.
After having
their supper the younger couple noticed Mr.
Deemer wheezing, and coughing a bit but not
enough to raise anyones concern. They all
settled down for the night at about 9:00 pm.
In the morning
at about 9:00 am the younger man was gathering
some gear for another hike and noticed that Mr.
Deemer was not up and about yet, but figured Mr.
Deemer had burned himself out the day before and
was just sleeping in. After returning from a
morning hike, at 11:00 am, the young companions
noticed that Mr. Deemer was still not up, and
they became alarmed. They checked for some signs
of life and after finding none they got spooked,
grabbed their gear and headed down the trail to
get assistance. They reached some forestry
personnel who contacted the Riverside Sheriff's
Office.
The
investigating deputy was concerned about the
certainty of Mr. Deemer's death, because at the
young campers own admittance they had no
practical training in emergency medical care.
The deputy
wasted no time in calling out the RMRU and even
went to the extent of personally calling Dr. Bill
Blaschko, M.D., an RMRU team member living in
Idyllwild, in the hopes of supplying the best
medical care possible in the field, or officially
confirming Mr. Deemer's death.
Dr. Blaschko
was available to respond and was joined by other
RMRU team members. Mary Bowman and I made a quick
response to Humber Park, being residents of
Idyllwild.
In the short
time it took us to make our way up to Humber Park
the deputy had made arrangements to utilize the
helicopter contracted to the forestry and was
ready to roll us, Code 3, to the heliport at
Keenwild Ranger Station.
On our way to
the heliport I thought about how timely it was
that the RMRU Board of Directors had just
recently decided to place a team radio at
Idyllwild to enable the team members on the hill
to be an effective first response team.
After a mildly
hairy ride through town we arrived at the
heliport and within minutes were in the air and
quickly flew to Reeds Meadow.
We scrambled
towards the campsite led by the informant and
found Mr. Deemer still in his sleeping bag, just
as last seen by the informant.
Dr. Blaschko
was quick to begin his assessment for any signs
of life, but unfortunately there were none to be
found.
Dr. Blaschko
and the informant flew back to report his
findings. I stayed behind to preserve the scene
for the coroner.
Fortunately,
for me it was not a long wait until they flew
back in with the deputy coroner, and Dr. Ray
Hussey, M.D., another outstanding team member.
After escorting Mr. Deemer's body back to the
helicopter, we hiked out of the wilderness. We
later learned that Mr. Deemer had died in his
sleep from a heart attack.
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