Bogley

[Iceaxe]

Quote: from Ed & Jeanie Baker

As we watched the 10 o'clock news last night and heard about the location of the ongoing search and rescue at Upper Bridal Veil Falls in Provo Canyon we feared that our son might be involved, especially when we were unable to reach him on his cell phone or at work. We left messages for Rob to call us no matter what time he picked up the message. I finally dozed off about 1am. I’m sure you can imagine our feelings when the phone finally rang just after 4am to let us know that he was ok. We got dressed and headed down to Provo to wait for dawn to rescue our dog Moguls who was left on the top of the cliff all night and to retrieve the climbing gear.

Our son Rob is fine, but blames himself for the accident since he was the lead climber. The three friends and roommates were climbing a route that Rob established over a year ago. They have climbed it several times and even have fixed ropes for two cliff sections. Apparently Jon Ostergaard prematurely clipped off the rope after ascending the cliff and was not secure in his footing. He fell about 30' bouncing off the cliff and rocks a couple times and finally landing on his face.

Utah County Search and Rescue did a superb rescue under very difficult circumstances. This morning was my first time in this extremely rugged area with no established trails. They took the time to do everything safely and by the book. It was daunting to visualize what they accomplished in the dark in a very tight canyon with icy water cascading down. They actually performed the extraction by belaying the litter directly down the waterfalls. It took over six hours to complete.

Jon is in serious condition at the University of Utah hospital right now. He filleted the skin on his left wrist, smashed his knee, and really messed up the right side of his face. All in all he looked a lot better than I expected. When we arrived he had only been admitted for about 3 hours and the nurse was cleaning him up a little. He was hooked to two IV's and they are watching him closely for any complications or internal injuries. His left wrist had been repaired and bandaged (he has sensation in his fingers) and the lacerations around his mouth and forehead had been sutured by a plastic surgeon. The ophthalmologist had been in to assess his right eye. He was still in the neck brace waiting on orthopedics and plastic surgery to assess his facial bones and knee. He probably has a fractured jaw, cheek bones, and a finger or two. He was thirsty, but was able to talk with us a little and even asked about our recent sailing trip. He has been Rob's close friend since their freshman year in High School 10 years ago.

Please remember Jon in your prayers and keep your eyes open for a fund raiser that we will be hosting to help with the medical bills.

Always remember to wear your helmet and double check your ropes and footing when climbing!

Ed & Jeanie Baker

[Iceaxe]

Dear Friends,

I want to express my appreciation for your prayers and support for Jon's climbing accident. Here is an update on his condition:

Jon was released from the University of Utah hospital for the Memorial Day weekend on Friday May 26th in stable condition to wait for the swelling to recede before surgery on Tuesday May 30th. The orthopedic surgeons determined that the puncture into his patella should heal without surgery. He was scheduled for facial reconstructive surgery at 3pm. The surgeons expected to spend 5-6 hours reconstructing the bones in his face and about 30 minutes cleaning up his left wrist. He didn't get out of surgery until nearly 2am. He has about 6 metal brackets and lots of screws holding the cheek bones and jaws back together. One fracture that separated the roof of his mouth and teeth from his upper jaw miraculously went above the roots of all his teeth. The surgeons repaired the nerves and wired his jaws shut and believe that everything will heal properly.

When they started cleaning up his left wrist they found a piece of slate embedded into the nerve bundle and the carpal tunnel was partially crushed. They spent almost 3 hours working on his hand and were able to repair all of the tendons and nerves to the fingers. The primary nerve to the thumb had nearly 2" completely crushed. The surgeon had to remove the crushed section and bend the hand as close to the wrist as possible to connect the two good ends of the main nerve. They expect that Jon may regain partial feeling in his palm and thumb, but it is going to take a long course of physical therapy to restore mobility to his hand and especially his thumb.

Yesterday afternoon Jon was moved from the Surgical Intensive Care Unit to a regular bed in the hospital. If everything continues normally he should be out of the hospital by the weekend.
Having seen where and how Jon fell, I believe that it is a miracle he is alive. If he had landed on the back or side of his head instead of taking the brunt of the impact on his face he probably wouldn't have survived. The fact that the search and rescue team had two EMT-I's to stabilize him for the six hour extraction was a real blessing. Combine that with superb surgeons at an excellent trauma center and you know the someone is watching out for him. His new nickname is "Gumby".

I've had time to review the entire episode with my son, Rob. Jon made a serious mistake by unclipping from the belay line before he was safe and secure at or above his belayer. They all made a mistake of climbing without a helmet. However, Rob did a good rapid assessment with basic first aid at the scene before going down the mountain to lead the Search and Rescue team back up. He told me that he was calm and knew what to do from our practice and medical discussions at home. You never know how much your children are learning at home especially from practice assessments for OEC (Outdoor Emergency Care) Refreshers.

Thanks again for all your support!

Ed & Jeanie Baker