False Alarms and The Real Thing

Just after midnight Friday night, the phone rings and it is the chief of our

cave cliff search team. She says, "We have a search" for a missing twelve-year-

old girl from a neighborhood in Lookout Mountain, GA." We are to meet the

police officer in charge and use our dog "Search" to look for the kid. We get

up out of bed and quickly begin to put on our search uniforms. The dog looks

out from under our bed where she sleeps, realizes what is happening and

immediately stands by the back door. We load our gear in the truck along with the dog and head out.

We notify 911 that we are en-route. As is our procedure we stop at a convenience store a few miles from the house to get coffee, diet coke and something to eat. As we walk out of the store, the dispatcher announces the missing child has been found and we can cancel. Well, we head home glad that the child is safe. However "Search" thinks we are somewhat odd in making late night emergency runs to the store. This has happened several times already this year without our actually getting to conduct a search.

After we finally get back to sleep, the phone rings again just before

daylight. It is the chief of the cave cliff search team again. "We have a

cave rescue." 911 had received a cell phone call from a caver outside

Pettyjohns Cave saying a 16 year old fellow had collapsed way back in the

cave. I jump up, put on my DNR uniform; Karen gets up and puts on her cave

team uniform. The dog looks out from under the bed and says 'Just bring me

something this time' and she goes back to sleep. I head to the cave parking lot

to interview the reporting party. Karen stops at the Golden Gallon store

along with the head chief of the department, and four other members of the

cave team in uniform. The cave team truck goes by, lights flashing and siren

going. The clerk asks "Has someone gotten stuck in one of them caves?" Well

duh.

A church youth group on a two week adventure tour which has reached all

the way to New Hampshire has their charter bus in the parking lot of the

cave. To really "challenge" the kids they had entered the cave at midnight

and it was now 6:30 AM. The leader told me they had encountered wet

conditions in the cave and one of the youths had collapsed of hypothermia in

a passage near the bridge room. There were two adults with the group now and

13 teenagers. When he left the scene, the boy was occasionally

violently shaking and was not responsive to any verbal stimulus. To try and

prevent any further heat loss they removed his cotton blue jeans and cotton

T-shirt and clothed him in poly long johns. They placed him in a big trash

bag with a candle making a crude warming tent. The boy was 17 years old 5'10"

tall and weighed 150 pounds, a bean pole skinny kid.

As we were getting our gear ready and team members assembled, one of the adults and four kids exited the cave. They related that the boys condition was stable but there were still nine kids who were getting worse as they sat with the patient. The initial call from 911 had also dispatched an ambulance to the scene

and they pulled up about when I did. After a quick talk with the reporting

party, I walked over and told them that if the patient would respond to what

we call "feed em, and beat em" treatment and walk out under his own power

they would have a patient in about 4 hours. If we had to carry him they were

looking at 12+. Their eyes got big and I explained that their patient was way

back in the cave; only the reporting party was at the entrance.

When our rescue teams reached the patient, they found one cold boy. They

had a level of consciousness just enough to pour some hot tea into him and

cram some peanut butter into his mouth. The put a wool sweater on him along

with a pair of fuzzy bib overalls and a heavy jacket. A thick wool hat and a pair of mittens were also placed on him. He began to improve. The other kids were cold but could move and were slowly led towards the entrance by our team

folks.

After being fed and once the patient began to respond to verbal

stimulation, the team members had a motivational moment. Remember the beating

part? They explained he could now get up and begin walking towards the

entrance however slow or wait for a stretcher crew and continue to be cold

for another 10 hours. The team reported over the low frequency cave radio

that they were beginning to move towards the entrance. A cheer went up from

the rescuers as we realized the situation had just gotten a lot easier. The kid

continued his steady but slow movement towards the entrance. The best

producer of body warmth is muscular activity. Our first aid can stop heat

loss but generating it is tough. We do have some equipment that can do this

but it is not that effective. He worked hard and steadily so when he exited

the cave 23 hours after he had entered he was a happy boy. He was totally

exhausted but when the ambulance crew checked him he was actually hot enough

to be sweating under all those clothes.

Well they challenged the group, put one very close to death and caused

the others great suffering. The hospital contacted the parents not the

leader, and I called the sponsoring church pastor many hours later and informed

him. The trip leaders had not done so. As far as I know the kid was fine with

no lasting effects. He just feels as weak as a heart patient after surgery.

The effect profound cold has on body systems is long and hard luckily this

kid was young and strong with great will. If he had given up he would have

died.

After lunch and a few hours washing the mud from our rescue gear, we

returned home to a welcome from Search. She spent the rest of the evening

wondering if we were going to rush off to the store again. Thankfully not.