March 16, 17, 18, 2018

VIP Weekend Report

Steven Spielberg could not have orchestrated a more beautiful three days at the Park than what we experienced last Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

That was until the last three hours on Sunday afternoon.

My grandson, Everest Smith, my son, Brian, and I arrived at the Park on Friday morning as a major snowstorm was winding down. 10 inches of very wet snow had fallen the past week. We got settled in 85B, hoping that the road to the Rim would soon open, but alas the opening was moved out to Saturday morning.  It took an hour of snow shoveling to get our house opened up.

The snowfall for the season and the amount on the ground was at 67% of average. The total precipitation for the season stood at 85%.

So we spent Friday morning educating Everest, age 14, on the workings of Crater Lake National Park.  We ended the morning over at the Steel Center and watched the Park’s film, Into the Deep.

The three of us spent the afternoon snowshoeing and skiing out on the East Road where we made contact with visitors out enjoying a perfect snow day.

Saturday:  A gorgeous day!  The sun shown most of the day. Wispy clouds scudded across the sky. The trees were heavily laden with a white overcoat of fresh snow. The Rim Village road opened at nine, so at 10:00 we headed up to the Rim Café. A few flakes of snow would occasionally fall. No wind.

A steady stream of visitors streamed through the upstairs viewing room. The Park visitors that we encountered could not believe the beauty of the winter wonderland that surrounded them.  There were lots of skiers and snowshoers out and about so occasionally we would make contact with them out on the Rim.

As we drove up to Rim Village that morning I could hear Everest in the backseat practicing Crater Lake facts. He wanted to be prepared. “How deep is the Lake?  How far across?  Does the Lake ever freeze?’ and so forth. He wanted to be prepared!  Everest quickly got into the hang of meeting visitors from around the country and answering their questions.

We met people from Spain, Mexico, India, China and Lithuania. (This was a first time for me.)

Mid afternoon Brian and Everest snowshoed out to Discovery Point, contacting visitors along the way.  (After quitting time, the two snowshoed down the old horse trail into Sleepy Hollow. )

Light snow fell Saturday night, but Sunday was bright and snow covered.

We again staffed the Lake Viewing room and began greeting visitors. The large picture books were of high interest. We used them to answer questions about fishing in the lake, the history of boating at Crater Lake and answering snowplowing questions.

At 2:00, Everest and I walked down to the Lodge, making contact with visitors looking for Lake viewing access.

Then the radio came alive with the news of a 71 year-old man experiencing a medical emergency in the parking lot near the café.

We raced back to the café.  Soon the road was blocked with two ambulances and two ranger vehicles, so Everest and I went down to the lower parking lot and for the next two hours and diverted traffic and answered a myriad of questions. Nearly all of the parking spots were filled when a giant yellow bus appeared full of visitors.  It was a challenge but we managed to get him shoehorned into the very last space available.

Then the helicopter arrived, landing in the snowfield between the Café and the Caldera Rim. Fortunately the hard packed crust beneath the newer snowfall kept the copter from sinking more than about two feet into the snow.

Brian has passed EMT certification twice. Here is his account of what happened:

Everest and my dad had just gone out to walk along the Rim and to talk to park visitors. I stayed back to hold down the fort back in the Crater Lake viewing room. It was around 2:30pm. I had just talked to a few park visitors when Garrett from Xanterra downstairs (the park concessionaire) came running up to me out of breath asking me if I could make an emergency radio call. I said, “What is going on?” He replied, “There is a dead guy out in the parking lot!”  I asked, “Did you call 911?!” He said, “Yes, Someone just started CPR.” I said, “My park radio goes to the same park dispatch in Medford as all of the other agencies and 911, you did well, I am sure that they have dispatched an ambulance and law enforcement rangers. Where can I find him?” He said, “Right out front next to a tan minivan.”

I bolted out the door and found the guy laying in the parking lot on top of a layer of snow. His daughter is a nurse and was doing CPR on her dad along with a bystander who was an EMT. The ladies had CPR under control. I could hear sirens racing up the Rim Road and knew that law enforcement was en route. I flagged down the LE ranger who jumped out and told me to grab his medical bags out of the back seat driver’s side and get them opened up for him. I grabbed them along with a better AED. The daughter was using the Xanterra AED but the LE ranger had a more sophisticated one. I got everything opened up and he joined in. A couple of minutes later the park ambulance with Ranger Heidi came screaming up and she joined in. I went to his wife and tried to calm her down. I asked where they are from- California. Finally we put her back in the van.

I then became the IV guy. I administered two IV’s over a 2-hour period using a pump compression bag and holding it up. My arms were getting tired, but not as much as the CPR rotation. Other bystanders began stepping in to also do compressions as everyone started to tire. In addition they were shooting epinephrine and several other meds into his IV lines.

The park rangers called in a medivac helicopter out of Ashland and another ambulance from Chiloquin. It took 30 minutes for the helicopter to arrive. They arrived about the time the second ambulance arrived.

There was no shockable rhythm that the AED could pick up, but they began to pick up a pulse again. They had his armpits and groin packed with snow and commented how the cold was keeping him alive.

Our bird was looking for a place to land while the ranger was directly talking to the pilot over his park radio. Everest and my dad were directing traffic as the parking lot was choked off in the middle. The hundreds of people and cars up at the lodge end were trapped. Everest was intently monitoring the radio and told me later it was the most exciting day of his life.

Several guys broke off all of the snow poles at the edge of the parking lot trying to get a 100-foot diameter spot for our bird to land. The pilot didn’t like it and asked how deep the new snow was in front of the cafeteria. A ski patroller ran up and walked around. About 1 foot of fresh knee-deep on top of 8 feet of old snow. The pilot decided to give it a shot and landed, sinking his skids down about 1-2 feet into the snow. Good enough. He sat there with rotors spinning for over an hour while we kept working on our guy.

Finally we decided to move him to the bird several hundred feet away in deep snow. We were able to get a sling under him.

During that hour the flight nurse, and two flight paramedics jumped off of the bird and joined in with the CPR effort. The flight nurse inserted an advanced airway and took charge. He finally made the call to begin the carry. We had 4 on each side of the sling, plus one for compressions, and Heidi working the bag, and several to carry gear. I carried with one hand while using the other hand to keep the IV elevated, pumped and going. It was exhausting pushing knee deep into the snow with a load and a lot going on in sync.

I had his feet and the IV so we spun him and I headed for the helicopter first. Since the blades were at full spin and the skids were sunk in 1-2 feet, I had to really duck low to keep my head on my shoulders. The blades were not spinning very high off of the snow. Even harder to carry a guy, with an IV, while crouched down low. Even harder for Heidi bagging at the head end.

We got him onto the helicopter gurney and strapped him down, then swung him inside the bird. It looked like a go. Off to RRMC in Medford. I was sent back and told to guard the park’s AED and chase out visitors as the helicopter was taking off in our direction to the north.

I asked, herded and begged everyone to get off of the snow and go back to the road. It was like herding turkeys…

Then they came back and asked me to return to the helo. They had lost his pulse again and could not continue CPR inside the bird while it is in flight. Not a lot of room in there. I ran back to the bird. He was back on the snow again while they continued CPR. The pilot was losing his weather window. Snow was falling and clouds were socking in the mountain again. He needed to bail. Two flight paramedics jumped back onto the bird and off it went (after we had the patient safely into the ambulance). The flight nurse stayed with the ambulance for the ride down by road.

We were able to get him onto a sled. We pulled him across the snow while CPR was still in progress and were able to load him into the Chiloquin ambulance where they could continue CPR. The daughter/nurse jumped in with him, a park ranger and the flight nurse and off they went.

This was the most valiant effort to save a life that I have ever personally experienced. Even 30 years ago they would have just called it after 5 minutes in a remote location like Crater Lake.

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We did not make it down to the Steel Visitor Center by closing time, so after dinner and the cleaning the quarters we left our VIP coats and the backpack on the bed and Grimes picked them up the next morning.  We arrived back in Jacksonville at 8:30.

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