A beloved teen and competitive swimmer at Hart High School in Santa Clarita was surrounded by messages of love and support on the wall of his Las Vegas hospital room Sunday.
“It’s touched our hearts so much. I can’t wait to be able to tell Zane all these things,” said Ryan Wach.
There will be a lot for Ryan Wach to tell his son, Zane, about their trek to Mount Whitney
“I’ve been mountaineering for the last six or seven years. And this was really our first trip together that I was going to introduce him kind of the next level of an actual mountaineering peak,” said Ryan.
Together, the father-son duo reached the highest peak in the contiguous United States, no problem.
“He actually did phenomenal,” said Wach.
However, in hour 19 during their descent, Zane began behaving erratically.
“He said, ‘You know, dad, I’m hallucinating you see all those little snow things, spots down there, snow fields? They look like snowmen. Or the green lakes over there? It kind of looks like Kermit the Frog and his friends,” said Wach, who was uncertain about what to do next as his son was hallucinating.
The two were at 9,000 feet, and Zane’s condition was going from bad to worse.
Dr. Shyam Rao at St.Mary’s Medical Center in Long Beach says Zane most likely developed altitude sickness.
“It’s very common initially when patients, especially for people who cross 8000 feet, they’re going to start to develop sometimes headaches, dizziness. And for some people, it can progress into confusion,” said Rao.
“I was starting to cry out of just desperation and fear and not knowing what was gonna happen or whatever, he just seemed so unstable and unpredictable,” said Wach. “I went to wipe the tears from my eyes. Take a second, I think, I don’t know what to do. And he just walked over the edge like he was walking to the car and I just screamed. I was certain he had died. I didn’t know how he could survive that.”
Inyo County Search and Rescue and the CHP Apple Valley air unit launched to Mount Whitney to find the critically injured teenager, who fell 120 feet onto solid granite.
“My job was to hold him and keep him warm,” said Wach.
There, on the ground, a father held his son as the hours ticked by.
“It got dark, and then it got pitch black, and then it got cold. We were there for about six hours before search and rescue came,” said Wach.
The helicopter airlifted Zane to the closest pediatric trauma center. That was on June 10, and Zane’s been there ever since, surrounded by well wishes and the echoes from 300 miles away.
“I miss him a lot and we all love you so much, Zane,” said Abby, a friend of Zane.