Charlie Wooldridge, a prominent Denver artist, never thought that he would need his CPR training. But the training saved the life of a 15-year-old boy struck by lightning in Marble this week.
On Monday, after three days of camping with his wife and two kids, Wooldridge and the family decided to take one last hike with a family they had met earlier.
That hike nearly turned deadly as a summer storm blew in and lightning started hitting the peaks above them. The seven hikers took cover under a tree, but the tree was hit. Everyone in the hiking party was stunned; 15-year-old Brock Neville took the brunt of the strike.
“I don’t know how long I was out, but all of us seemed to wake up at the same time,” Wooldridge said. “I checked my wife and kids, then saw Brock turning blue. He wasn’t breathing and had no heartbeat.
“Suddenly, I remembered to plug his nose, tilt his head back.”
Brock wasn’t the only one injured.
The bolt knocked Wooldridge eight feet away. Wooldridge’s wife, Maria, landed on her face five feet away. Bark flew like shrapnel into all seven of the hikers. Brock, who was leaning against the tree, was burned all down his right side. Brock’s uncle, Chad Mohr, 31, of Wichita, Kan., and Mohr’s fiancée, Jaclyn Snyder, suffered dime-sized burns.
“When it hit, it felt very hot,” Mohr said. “My right leg wouldn’t move. I couldn’t even scoot along on my butt to my nephew, who wasn’t breathing.”
Wooldridge also felt the heat. “Suddenly I saw nothing but fire in my eyes,” he said “I felt like my coat was melting to my back.”
After Wooldridge administered CPR, Brock started breathing again, but remained unconscious. Wooldridge started cleaning his wife’s bloody eye, but then Brock stopped breathing again. Wooldridge got him breathing a second time, but could see that he was in shock and needed help.
Wooldridge’s children were hit, but not seriously injured. Zoe, 9, had burn marks on her arms, and Christian, 5, lost his eyebrows and eyelashes. Wooldridge and his family started running down the trail to get a sleeping bag from their truck.
“I couldn’t see,” said Maria, who had been struck in the eye and lost her contact lens. “I yelled in the rain to Charlie and the kids to help me.”
Mohr and Snyder made their way to their two ATVs, then returned with the sleeping bag for Brock. Rescuers eventually met everyone at the trailhead and transported them to Glenwood Springs, where they recovered.
Brock, who doesn’t remember a thing, is scheduled to leave the hospital today and return to Wichita.
It had been a good year for Wooldridge before the hiking disaster. He is a sculptor and painter who created a ceramic mask for the Hospice of Colorado Mask Project that sold for a record $141,000. He also created sculptures mounted in front of Littleton High School in Greenwood Village.
Though there were no human casualties, there was one death the Wooldridge family will have to cope with.
Misha, Wooldridge’s 10-year-old chocolate standard poodle, died instantly. Wool dridge stayed behind after everyone was evacuated to the hospital and hiked alone to retrieve Misha’s remains. “We cremated her today,” Wooldridge said Tuesday. “That was so hard on us, especially the kids.”
Undaunted, the Wooldridges plan to leave Glenwood today and continue their camping vacation until next week. “We feel it’s important to carry on,” said Maria Wooldridge. “It’s good for us to be together.”
