Me and the lady L went hiking along the Noble Knob trail on Saturday. It is a pretty easy trail and offers unbelievable views of Mt Rainier and the surrounding area. About 2 hours from the trail head The lady L became very ill. The onset was sudden, and she had problems with dizziness, nausea, blurred vision and profuse sweating. We waited an hour to see if she’d feel better but she didn’t. At that time I was contemplating heading back to return with help, but, fortunately I didn’t have to as we found the area was covered by the cell network. I called 911 and was routed to the local sheriff’s office. As our good luck continued, there happened to be a 50 kilometer run by Buck Creek on the same day, and a large (10 person) Search and Rescue crew was nearby. About 2 hours after my call they arrived at the scene, with a ground transport litter being carried by 4 of them. We were able to get the lady L into the litter, and transported her a little over a mile to the closest peak. There was some discussion of getting a helicopter to assist with her evacuation, and I was told that 2 possibilities were a Coast Guard helicopter out of Port Angeles, or a National Guard helicopter from Salem Oregon. I was also told that neither was a certainty. Shortly after we arrived at the peak, to my unmeasured relief, a National Guard helicopter landed under the approaching twilight, the lady L was placed in the helicopter and transported to McCord AFB, where she was ground transported to St Clare hospital in Lakewood and admitted to the ER. With the lady L in transit, I walked out about another 40 minutes with the rest of the S&R folks, and it was dark by the time we got back to the parking area.

I talked with the Sheriff, and a local EMT for a while at the trail head, and they checked on the lady L and told me she’d been admitted to the ER. There were a lot of cars at the trail head, and after talking with these generous and helpful folks I thanked them again for their help, and then the Sheriff, EMT and his wife drove off in a SUV while I was walking the last 100 yards to my car. About 5 minutes down the road I came across a car which had slid off the road and into a ditch. I stopped and asked if they would like assistance, but they said they’d were okay and had already called a tow truck. About 20 minutes down, in the heart of the steep, narrow, rutted, dirt and gravel covered forest service road, what did I come across but the Sheriff, EMT and his wife, whose car had not seconds before, gone off the road sideways! The slope was really steep and SUV’s roof was about 2’ below the level of the roadway. The driver’s side tires were about 3’ off the ground, and the vehicle was balanced precariously, supported only by the tree the SUV was leaning against. As I got out of my car the EMT’s wife let herself out of the passenger side, and I headed down the steep slope to help her up to the road. She wanted her husband out of the car immediately, and so after helping her to the road I headed back to the SUV and opened or rather lifted open the driver’s door, and with the SUV bobbing up and down like a float with a fish on, helped the EMT (the driver) pull himself out of the car. It was kind of unnerving to be helping the guy out of the vehicle while it was so unstable. I wondered if the tree supporting the SUV was going give or if the SUV was about to roll or slide down the slope any second. I'm sure I wasn’t the only one thinking about that. After the EMT got free of the SUV I helped him to the road and to his wife’s embrace. Meanwhile others arrived at the area and helped the sheriff get out of the rear seat of the SUV. I checked that folks were okay and then headed back to my car. I made good time the rest of the way down, but definitely not pushing the envelope towards recklessness. Near the bottom of the forest service road, I was again relieved to see the tow truck heading up the hill.

I got back to the cabin about 10 pm, and called the hospital. The ER nurse I spoke with said that the lady L had just been admitted and they hadn’t finished the assessment. I proceeded to pack up our stuff and get the car ready for the trip down. I called back at 10:30 and was able to talk with my lady. She was pretty out of it. I talked with another ER nurse, kind of a butt, who would only tell me the lady L was there for the night. At about 12:30 it occurred to that I'd been up since 5 am so I went to bed and got 5 hours of not terribly sound sleep. Got up at 5:30, and finished preparing for the drive. I left a little later and got to the hospital about 8. the lady L was still feeling ill. I spent a few hours with her, and fortunately she was mostly sleeping. So I headed out to do some projects. I got back to the hospital at about 8 on Sunday evening, and brought her home.

When bad things happen it always seems like a number of small elements usually determine if bad becomes worse. I was amazed at the fortunate timing in all of this, as well as touched by the efforts of all who helped. All of the S&R folks said they do it for fun, and I was in awe that a helicopter and crew could be pulled from over 200 miles away to give aid. And then the ability of the crew to land (we were at around 6,400 feet) in approaching darkness, was awesome.

Again, my hat is off to S&R, the local volunteer fire department, Air National Guard, the local Sheriff, the local grocery store owner who volunteers for S&R as an EMT, the staff at the hospital. It is perhaps one of the best reflections of our culture that many of these folks are willing to give their time in times of need. It is also no small contribution that the tools we have adopted are of immeasurable assistance in these same times.

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...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

Tracy, that's a remarkable, remarkable story. I'm glad Lady L is home. She has a great Knight.

B

Glad everything worked out for y'all, having the search and rescue folks nearby and cell service too boot. All of the dedicated back country search and rescue folks I know do it for fun as well, it takes a special mindset to work under some of the conditions those folks have to.

And, while I'm not a big believer in karma, sounds to me like karma had a hand in your case, perhaps being paid forward?

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Mike Tangas
'73 280SEL 4.5 (9/72)- RIP
Only 8,173 units built from 5/71 thru 11/72

'02 CLK320 Cabriolet - wifey's mid-life crisis

2012 VW Jetta Sportwagon TDI...at least its a diesel

Non illegitemae carborundum.

Howdy Tracy,
Glad to hear things turned out ok. Sounds like a severe case of altitude sickness.

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Frank X. Morris
17 Kia Niro
08 Jeep Wrangler 4 door unlimited

Tracy, that's quite a story, even without the SUV heading over the side.

Talk about fate........

Glad she's OK.

I hope the Lady is OK. SAR rocks, and you're right, they get paid nothing.

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You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Robert A. Zimmerman

Great to hear the resources were available to provide assistance as needed. Hope the wife is doing fine. My Lady Z and little Missy Z (5yrs) were up on Mt. Rainier camping/hiking this last weekend as well.

Thanks for the kind comments! The doc who did the follow up thinks the core probelm an inner ear infection but wants to see the CT scan. The 2 ER docs said the scan showed no sign of stroke or related. The inner ear includes 3 separate fluid filled canals that are used as part of the systems we employ to keep our balance. The other 2 are the eyes, and pressure sensors in the feet. The components work together. The doc thinks that a crystal formed in part of her inner ear. The doc said the crystal is often sodium, and when it formed or dislodged it disrupted the fluid flow. In turn this causes alarms to be sent to the brain, telling the brain something’s out of whack. Following that, the eyes will automatically try to compensate, and that’s where the inability of the eyes to focus, along with the eye’s tendency to rapidly scan up and down comes from. In turn this creates nausea, and from that a whole host of other stress/shock related issues kick in. The doc was able to induce the primary response (dizziness) by laying the lady L back and tipping her head to one side. The doc provided some exercises that will hopefully cause the crystal to re-dissolve.

Not sure what role karma adds to this kind of thing, but it probably does. The lady L has some of the most unbelievable good fortune of anyone I've known. Here’s one of many examples: I've known her for 15 years, and in all that time, she has almost never failed to get less than first row parking where ever she goes. She’s also a nurse and goes well beyond duty to help folks every day. While I can’t say with certainty that there is something about helping others that brings good fortune in return, the evidence suggests it’s true.

And along those lines I'm going to make a contribution to S&R as well as the local FD. I've always believed in helping motivated folks, and have never seen a better example than what these folks do.

Z, when yer gonna be in the hood again give a holler

Here’s a few hi rez pix from the day. Sorry for the slow server…

http://209.20.249.66/nobleknob1.jpg
http://209.20.249.66/nobleknob2.jpg
http://209.20.249.66/nobleknob3.jpg

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...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

I'm glad to hear it's probably nothing serious. I check my resting heartrate every morning. A little high might mean I'm battling some kind of infection. Thanks BTW on the Acumen tip, they're awesome, better than my Timex in some respects.

As a former SAR (rhymes with Tsar) guy I can tell you gear goes over real well with them. They get paid only when there's a call. High country SAR got paid 1.5x and life was so boring out there that we had something like 2 calls a month, mostly for missing hikers. The one time we had to do an extraction off a technical route 11,000 ft up there was a PITA. Getting there was tough, plucking the guy off the peak was even tougher. We let the experienced guys do that.

Cool pics man

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You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Robert A. Zimmerman