A hiking trip to Montana’s highest mountain turned into a remarkable survival story after a nurse accidentally impaled himself on a trekking pole but still managed to hike nearly 10 miles to safety instead of waiting for a helicopter rescue.According to AP, David Cifaldi, a 32-year-old wound care nurse from Billings, was climbing Granite Peak with two friends when he slipped while crossing the notoriously dangerous Froze-to-Death Plateau. During the fall, the 44-inch steel-tipped trekking pole pierced the flesh beneath his left arm, passed through his body, and protruded from his back.Despite the horrifying injury, the pole missed all vital organs.
‘We’ve got to get off this mountain’
After checking his condition, Cifaldi remained surprisingly calm.“I was like, ‘We’ve got to get off this mountain.’ And they’re both like, ‘I don’t know about that,'” Cifaldi recalled. “I’m pretty confident this is outside my chest wall. ‘Tis but a flesh wound.”Working in wound care at a hospital, Cifaldi relied on his medical training to assess the injury. He found that he was fully alert, bleeding very little, experiencing minimal pain, and that the pole was stable rather than moving around inside the wound.The group used a Garmin inReach satellite communicator to contact local authorities, informing them of both the accident and their decision to hike out on their own unless the situation worsened.
Six-hour trek with a pole still lodged in his body
The three hikers then carefully descended the mountain using an unmarked route, navigating boulder fields, snow patches and thick vegetation before reaching a proper trail.Over the next six hours, they covered nearly 10 miles (16 kilometres) while descending about 5,000 feet (1,500 metres).Friend Jesse Ross, who accompanied Cifaldi throughout the journey, said the nurse’s confidence made all the difference.“The only reason it was possible at all was his confidence,” Ross said. “Who are we to say anything? He’s the medical person. Our job is just to support at that point.”
Rescue team monitored the situation
Stillwater County Search and Rescue commander Ty Williams said authorities received the first call shortly after the accident on July 20.Dispatchers stayed in contact with the hikers throughout their descent as they monitored the group’s progress. Since Cifaldi was alert, communicating clearly and repeatedly declined assistance, rescue officials respected his decision.“There was no danger to anybody else. He didn’t want our help and so we’re not going to essentially violate his rights or go against his wishes by forcing our help on him,” Williams said.By around 3:30 p.m., the group had reached the trailhead and began driving to the nearest medical facility.
Doctors removed the pole and he returned to work
Doctors at a local clinic later referred Cifaldi to St. Vincent Regional Hospital in Billings, where he works.There, surgeons safely removed the trekking pole and treated the wound. Just days later, Cifaldi had already returned to work.Looking back, he said he would likely make the same decision again.“I think 99 times out of a hundred I would make the same decision,” Cifaldi said.While he acknowledged that helicopter transport costs influenced his thinking, he said the biggest reason he chose to self-rescue was that he trusted both his own medical judgment and the experience of the two friends hiking alongside him.“I had two experienced great friends with me and we had the ability to contact search and rescue if something went wrong. That made it a lot more of an easy decision,” he said.
