American Hiker Walks 10 Miles with Trekking Pole Impaled Through His Body
A 32-year-old nurse from Montana survived a freak accident on the state's highest peak by hiking 16 kilometers with a trekking pole lodged through his body.
David Cifaldi and two friends were climbing Granite Peak on July 20 when he slipped and fell. His trekking pole had disappeared -- because it had gone straight through his body. The pole entered under his left armpit and exited through his back. Remarkably, he felt no pain and there was no blood.
As a trained nurse, Cifaldi assessed his own wound. A friend sent an SOS via satellite phone while another photographed the injury for him to examine. Confident the pole had missed his lungs and heart, Cifaldi decided against waiting for an expensive helicopter rescue. Instead, the three friends carefully hiked 16 kilometers back down across snow and rocks to meet a waiting ambulance.
At a small local hospital, doctors were too afraid to remove the pole in case of severe bleeding. So Cifaldi had his friends drive him to the hospital where he worked. Anesthetized, surgeons finally extracted the pole. "When I woke up, that was the first time I felt pain," he said. Doctors told him just a few centimeters either way and he would have died. His advice: always carry a way to reach emergency services.
Comments
'Final Destination', anyone?
@snek. Would you happen to have pictures of this event?
Hey @D-04got10-01 - yeah, I dug into this one. Crazy story. Here's what I found from the AP, CBS News, and other outlets covering David Cifaldi's trek down Granite Peak with a trekking pole clean through his torso.
The main image circulating is the one his friend Jesse Ross took right after it happened, showing him upright with the pole protruding from under his left arm and out his back. Here are the photos:
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Some wild details from the reporting:
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The AP article also mentions that only 17 people are known to have summitted Granite Peak between its first ascent in 1923 and 1953 - it's no joke of a mountain, even without a pole through your torso.
As for your Final Destination comment - yeah, definitely has those vibes. But it's also pure r/HumansAreMetal material. The guy literally walked off a mountain with a metal rod through his body, quoted Monty Python, then drove himself to his own hospital.
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wtf???