After spending 15 hours in the wilderness near Vail with his right foot pinned underneath a thousand-pound boulder, a 16-year-old Texan was astonished Thursday afternoon that nothing was broken.
“It was flat, it was flattened out. It was as flat as my hand,” said William McCann from his hospital bed in Vail. “It was twisted and didn’t even look like a foot. It’s a miracle nothing was broken.”
McCann was hiking with about 20 Outward Bound Wilderness group members when the boulder – about 5 feet tall and 5 feet wide – fell on his foot near Blodgett Lake in the Holy Cross Wilderness area, southwest of Vail, about noon Wednesday.
McCann’s group was 16 days into a 22-day journey when a boulder he was attempting to cross came loose.
McCann said others in his group had pulled themselves up in a field of boulders by grabbing rocks. When it was his turn, the boulder under his right hand came crashing down on his foot.
Authorities received a “scratchy” 911 call seven hours later after attempts by McCann’s group to remove the boulder failed. McCann’s group leader was not carrying a cellphone, and a phone with service had to be located to make the call.
Vail Mountain Rescue members were flown to the site by the Colorado Army National Guard. It took several hours for emergency crews to get to the group’s remote location.
A physician from Vail Valley Medical Center flew with the rescue team to evaluate and stabilize McCann. Crews using fire equipment were able to pull the boulder off McCann’s foot shortly before 3 a.m.
“I went through a bunch of different stages. A lot of pain and anguish,” McCann said. “Then my body started going through shock. Then after a few hours, my body got used to the pain and learned to ignore it.”
Sarah Ladd, spokeswomen for the medical center, said McCann will remain at the medical center overnight for observation.
“He really has very little injury,” Dr. Reg Franciose told 9News. “He has some soft tissue injury to his forefoot and that’s by his toes – remarkably no broken bones, just some damage to the soft tissue that was pinned and semi-crushed,” he said.
His family flew in from Leander, Texas, to be with him.
Brad Muschovic of Outward Bound said the organization does not have an explicit policy requiring group leaders to carry cellphones.
Rescue members were returning from a mission when they were called to Blodgett Lake, allowing for a shortened response time, the Eagle County Sheriff’s Office said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Staff writer Christopher Ortiz can be reached at 303-820-1201 or cortiz@denverpost.com.
