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Haunting words 14-year-old son said as he hallucinated, walked off 120-foot cliff in front of terrified father - NewsBreak

Published 11 hours ago4 minute read

A 14-year-old boy from California remained in a medically-induced coma this week after walking off a steep cliff on Mount Whitney while experiencing hallucinations, likely from altitude sickness.

Zane Wach fell about 120 feet down a cliff after his father said he began to "doubt reality," leading to head trauma and a broken ankle, finger and part of his pelvis. “He started to experience some hallucinations,” the boy's father, Ryan Wach said. “He knew he was hallucinating. He said he saw things like snowmen and Kermit the Frog.”

He was rescued after about six hours, and was flown via helicopter to the closest hospital, where he was put into a medically-induced coma. “It’s going to be a survival story in the end, but right now we’re still in the middle of it,” his father said.

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Wach and his father set out to hike the Mountaineer's Route trail on June 10, a more challenging path than the popular Mount Whitney trail. The two had summited mountains before, and Wach regularly competed in swimming, triathlons and distance running, according to SF Gate.

When Wach began to experience symptoms of altitude sickness, his father decided they would take an easier route back down the mountain to their car, which was parked at the Whitney Portal trailhead. His father said once they reached the Trail Camp, about 6 miles from the trailhead, Wach said he felt "considerably better." An hour later, however, he began to lose touch with reality.

“He was in an altered mental state, and I don’t know what caused it. We still don’t know,” Wach's father said. “My best guess is a combination of exhaustion, sleep deprivation, probably some dehydration and lasting effects from the altitude sickness. But he essentially started to doubt reality.”

The two were forced to stop multiple times along the trail because Wach believed they had already finished the hike. “It was completely bizarre,” his father said. “He told me he couldn’t tell if he was dreaming or not, and he would shake his head in disbelief, like, ‘This is not real.’ Like he was in the movie ‘Inception’ or something.”

Another hiking group noticed Wach's condition and contacted a search and rescue team on his behalf. Wach began to make strange, erratic movements toward the edge of a cliff that dropped into a steep granite slope, his father said.

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When his father steadied him, Wach said that he was just going to the car, which was in the direction of the ledge but several thousand feet down the trail. He caught his son a second time, and Wach said he was going to get dinner.

“I was kind of losing my mind, in a way, because I was so scared and frustrated,” his father said. “I had to wipe away tears. I was holding my hands to my eyes, and he walked off again. This time, I didn’t hear it until he was about at the edge, and when I went to reach for him, he was 10 feet away from me. I couldn’t get him, and he walked off the edge.”

His father ran down the slope to where Wach landed, and a nearby hiker and EMT initiated rescue efforts. They waited for six hours with Wach until Inyo County Search & Rescue teams arrived and flew Wach to the Southern Inyo Hospital in Lone Pine. From there, he was taken to Sunrise Children's Hospital in Las Vegas.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, hallucinations are a sign of severe altitude sickness called high-altitude cerebral edema (HACE), where the brain swells within the skull due to a lack of oxygen. Less than 1% of people experience HACE when they are at an altitude of 13,000 to 18,000 feet above sea level.

A family friend of Wach started a GoFundMe shortly after his accident. It has raised about $18,000 and will go toward Wach's recovery costs.

In the description of the GoFundMe page, Wach's father wrote that his son is "improving" and opened his eyes on Wednesday. However, he "still has a long way to go."

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