| Name | Age | Sex | Injuries | Injured areas |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hails, Bob | 45 | Male | Fracture | Pelvis |
At 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, January 24, Bob Hails (45), Sam Hails, Frantz Lattka, Dell Quick and Jim Steinberg entered Soldiers Cave. Their equipment had been inspected a short time before by a National Park Service ranger when they obtained permission to enter this restricted cave. They proceeded down 20 and 60 foot rappels to the Waiting Room and on to the Waterfall Room via a hand line.
Arriving at the Aragonite Room, they stopped for some prolonged photography. At 2:45 Lattka and B. Hails went into the northern portion of the room which was separated from the rest by two narrow crawlways. Lattka climbed a 35-foot, steep flowstone slope on one wall and went into Ruby's Route, a horizontal passage at the top of the slope. Hails tried to follow but got up only about 6 feet. Starting to down climb he fell. A foot from the floor his feet hit a protrusion causing him to land in a sitting position with his feet under him. The others heard the fall and came to help.
Hails complained of pain low in his back and extreme pain in his pelvic region. He had feeling in his legs and no paralysis or numbness, but could not stand because of the pain. It was apparent that he would have to be evacuated and that additional personnel would be required. Extra clothing and a space blanket were put around him and carbide lamps were applied to keep him warm. The cave temperature was about 45 degrees.
At 3:30 p.m. Quick and Lattka went for help, exiting the cave at 4:15. Lattka collected extra gear at the campground, ate and re-entered the cave at 5:30. At 4:45 Quick drove to the nearest ranch to call authorities. At 8 p.m. four rangers and a volunteer arrived at the campground and at 9 p.m. reached the entrance. Lattka exited at that time to report the victim stable. He was stationed at the entrance with a radio. Quick led the others into the cave and reached the victim at 11 p.m. EMTs examined Hail who could not move due to the pain.
To get permission to administer pain-killing drugs word was sent out to Lattka to radio for more assistance, also to include rock climbing expertise. At 4:30 a.m. (Sunday) a registered nurse arrived at the site of the victim and administered morphine. Meanwhile a group of six rock climbers were rigging the cave with ropes and pulleys. At 6 a.m. Demerol was administered and the victim was moved through the crawlways to the main portion of the Aragonite Room where he was tied on a wooden backboard. He was then moved by Tyrolean traverse through, up and out of the Waterfall Room, hoisted up the 60 foot pitch at the Waiting Room, along another Tyrolean traverse through the crevice, removed from the backboard to traverse a tight place, hauled up a steep slope and a 20 foot pitch and again taken off the board to negotiate the tight entrance passage.
The victim exited the cave at about 2 p.m. Sunday, some 26 hours after entering. His injuries were later diagnosed as a fractured right pelvis.
The accident occurred through lack of a belay in the course of normal caving activity. An upper belay for the less skilful Hails would surely have prevented the accident. A length of 3/8" nylon rope is easily carried for use in such situations. For greatest safety, the rule should be that a belay should be used whenever a fall could cause an injury. It is obvious that the rescue was carried out with exceptional efficiency. This is due, at least in part, to the fact that this is a National Park Service restricted cave and that the Park Service has at their disposal expertise of various sorts for situations such as this.
A caver fell and fractured his right pelvis which then caused a technical vertical rescue to be required. The caver was finally extracted after 26 hours underground.