While hiking Sept. 5, Kentlake High seniors Brian Benshoof, Alex Posielski and Bryton Seyfert attempted to save a man’s life near Snoqualmie Valley on the Denny Creek trail.
William Peter Allen, a 21 year old University of Washington student, fell while attempting to free climb. Benshoof and his friends were among the first at the scene.
“We were searching for a geocache location and I heard a yell,” Benshoof said. “We looked up to the ridge and saw a man falling. He fell approximately 50 feet down, onto a very steep slope that had loose, sharp rocks on it, where he tumbled for about 200 feet until he came to rest.”
When the group went to the fallen man, they found him to have several head lacerations, severe bleeding, a leg gash, and a broken right leg.
Though his eyes were open, Allen was never conscious.
Benshoof, Posielski, two campers from nearby, and a hiking buddy of Allen’s then worked to turn Allen onto his back, clear his airways, and dress his wounds while Seyfert kept lookout on a nearby trail.
“My first thought was, ‘Is he alive?’and that was very quickly answered with his breathing,” Benshoof said. “You could hear the breathing. It was very loud, and you could hear blood in his lungs … It was a little hard to handle.”
The group called 911. The operator transferred them to King County Search and Rescue. A helicopter was sent to recover the man.
“We were all waiting for the helicopter with him,” Posielski said. “We all wanted to help in whatever way possible. Some people were supporting his body, others were caring for him and everybody was yelling at him to fight and not give up. It was amazing to see a group of complete strangers cooperate and work together to help a fellow hiker.”
After 45 minutes of waiting for the helicopter Allen’s breathing decreased and became shallow. Thirty minutes later, it was inaudible.
Benshoof and the two campers began rescue breaths once every 10 minutes to restart Allen’s breathing. When Allen required more than one breath per minute, CPR began.
“We did that [CPR] for an hour and helicopters arrived from King County Search and Rescue,” Benshoof said. “They lowered down two search and rescuers and they assessed the situation. They had me stop doing compressions, checked his pulse, and checked his breathing. Neither was active. We were getting a pulse during CPR only because of the compressions … They called time of death there.”
Though Benshoof, a Boy Scout, is thoroughly trained in CPR, he says that the difference between learning in a secure setting and performing in the field is immense.
“Having first aid training and CPR training, you’ve practiced CPR on a faceless dummy, that doesn’t have any injuries, that doesn’t have a name,” he said. “You don’t see the dummy’s friends standing by, crying. You don’t shout at the dummy, ‘You’re going to make it’… We kept doing CPR because that’s all we could do.”
This story originally ran in the Sept. 16 edition of The Falcon Flyer, the Kentlake High School student newspaper, and was submitted by the Flyer’s student editors to the Reporter.
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