Lucy Devine
The father of a teenager who walked off a 120-foot slope has spoken about the terrifying words he uttered shortly before the fall.
Ryan Wach was hiking with his 14-year-old son, Zane, in Mount Whitney in the Sierra Nevada mountains earlier this month - when Zane began experiencing altitude sickness.
Altitude sickness can occur if you're at a high altitude, and is more likely to occur if you climb to a high altitude quickly.
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The main symptoms of altitude sickness include a headache, loss of appetite, feeling or being sick, feeling tired, dizziness and difficulty sleeping.
However, altitude sickness can also cause hallucinations, with people reporting seeing or hearing things that aren't real.
Speaking to SFGATE, Ryan explained that Zane had been suffering from hallucinations when he fell from the edge of the mountain.
“He’s in better shape than I am,” he said.
“The idea was that this would be kind of like his introduction to mountaineering."
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After noticing that Zane was suffering from altitude sickness, the pair started to make their way back and were only several miles from where the car was parked when Zane said he was seeing things that weren't there.
“He started to experience some hallucinations,” Ryan explained.
“He knew he was hallucinating. He said he saw things like snowmen and Kermit the Frog.”
Around an hour later, the situation escalated, with Ryan describing his behaviour as 'bizarre'.
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“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," he said.
“It was completely bizarre.
“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.”
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Another group of hikers called for a rescue team to help Zane get down from the mountain as soon as possible, but the 14-year-old began trying to walk off to 'go to the car' or 'get dinner'.
While Ryan tried to stop his son multiple times, Zane ended up walking towards a steep drop before he fell 120 feet.
“I was holding my hands to my eyes, and he walked off again," said Ryan.
"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.”
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A search and rescue operation was immediately co-ordinated and Zane was rushed to hospital via helicopter.
Zane suffered from severe head trauma, a broken ankle, finger and pelvis. He remains in a coma at Sunrise Children’s Hospital in Las Vegas.
A GoFundMe has been set up to help with the financial costs associated with Zane's recovery.
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