Fall on Rock, Utah, Diamond Fork

Publication Year: 1998.

FALL ON ROCK

Utah, Diamond Fork

On May 8, we were paged out at 1730 for a fall victim, still hanging from his rope, in Diamond Fork Canyon.

When I arrived on scene the boy (victim) was sitting in a car. Dick asked me to check him out, but the boy did not want any medical attention. He had been up walking around prior to deputies arriving on the scene.

The boy's father requested that he be transported by ambulance to the hospital to be evaluated. Dick asked me to check his injuries. I put a cervical collar on him. He had a laceration to the top of his head, but no other obvious injuries. He was aware oftime and place, and I had difficulty in convincing him to stop moving his neck and back. He just kept moving his neck, twisting and reaching over to the other side of the car, after I told him numerous times to stop moving his head and back.

His companions, a guy and two girls, were quite concerned about his well being and one of the girls was quite emotional. She had run down the road to Little Diamond when she was unable to start the injured boy's car.

I talked to the boy who was teaching them to rappel. He said that he was on belay as well as on the rappelling line. That was fortunate. The injured boy had not yet started rappelling when he lost his balance and tumbled over the edge. Since he was on belay, he did not fall very far, but he pendulumed and struck his head. His companions said he lost consciousness and was hanging limp in his seat harness. They said he even had some seizure activity. The one girl ran for help while the others lowered the injured boy to the ground. He regained consciousness and was able to walk down to the road and their car.

Spanish Fork Ambulance transported him to Mountain View Hospital. (Source: Chris Reed, SAR Team)