US Teen Plunges Off Cliff While Hallucinating Due To Altitude Sickness

A 14-year-old boy in the US is in a medically induced coma after walking off a 120-foot slope right in front of his father while hallucinating due to altitude sickness. According to the New York Post, the boy, identified as Zane, was hiking with his father, Ryan Wach, on June 10 when the incident took place. He suffered severe head trauma from the fall and remains comatose. The teen also broke an ankle, a finger and part of his pelvis. 

According to the father, the 14-year-old described seeing "snowmen and Kermit the Frog" before walking off the slope. The frightening events unfolded as the father-son duo made their way down Mount Whitney in the Sierra Nevada mountain range. The father said that initially, he had no doubts about his son's ability to handle the hike, as he had hiking experience and was an active teen who competed in distance running, swimming and triathlons. 

"The idea was that this would be kind of like his introduction to mountaineering," Mr Wach said, per the outlet. However, as the pair were on the journey up the mountain, the 14-year-old slowly started exhibiting symptoms of altitude sickness, the father said. 

He shared that he noticed his son was having issues, but they had already finished the toughest parts of the hike, so they decided to take an easier trail to ensure a safer seven-mile descent back to their car. 

But this is when things took an unexpected turn. As the duo were heading toward the trailhead, the father said that his son started to "experience some hallucinations". "He knew he was hallucinating," Mr Wach said, adding, "He said he saw things like snowmen and Kermit the Frog." 

The father said he was keeping a close eye on his son throughout the trial, and at one point, Zane also looked "considerably better". But about an hour later, the 14-year-old again started acting strangely and began doubting "reality," the father said. "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 continued. 

Moments later, the pair again stopped as Zane told his father they had "already finished the hike multiple times over." "It was completely bizarre," Mr Wach recalled. "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," he said. 

The 14-year-old's deteriorating state of mind then prompted a separate group of hikers nearby to call for a search and rescue team to get him down the mountain. But around the same time, things went from bad to worse. "He almost seemed like he was sleepwalking. He started dragging his feet and stopped in his tracks. He didn't want to go on," the father said. 

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According to Mr Wach, his son started making erratic movements toward a ledge near the trail with a steep, jagged slope, but he grabbed him before he could go over. Later, he again tried to move toward the slope but was stopped by his father. 

At this moment, the father felt overwhelmed and became emotional. "I had to wipe away tears. I was holding my hands to my eyes, and he walked off again," the father recalled. 

"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," he said. 

The 14-year-old fell an estimated 120 feet down the slope before hitting the ground. 

It took around six hours for the rescue teams to get Zane off the mountain. He was eventually airlifted to the hospital. 

Given the extent of the fall, doctors said it was "fairly miraculous" that the teen wasn't injured further, his father said. Zane is "improving" and briefly opened his eyes on Wednesday, but "still has a long way to go," he added. 

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