No injured cavers recorded.
On Sunday, April 12, a group of eight cavers visited Priest's Cabin Hollow, a cave adjacent to Horn Lake in Winona County, Minnesota. This is a maze cave in the top part of a 250 foot high bluff overlooking the lake. After driving to within 150 feet of the entrance. They got out their caving gear and, at a little after 11 a.m., they entered the cave. Two of the party looked for survey stations, to continue their survey, while the others explored the small maze. "At about 11:30 Paul Scobie (34) was crawling rapidly through a small belly crawl about 30 feet long when he began to experience chest pains." A rest did not relieve the pains so he crawled back to a room where the surveyors were. This room opens to the surface and was well-lit by daylight. Scobie reported that he didn't feel well and lay down. His chest pains got steadily worse, however, and in another 15-30 minutes he was unable to move without increasing the pain. Still, he was "conscious, calm and rational." A couple of blankets were fetched from a vehicle and some time was spent looking for poles with which to make a stretcher, none were to be found so they laid out the blankets next to Scobie, moved him onto them and rolled up the edges for hand-holds. With three people on each side they alternately carried or dragged the victim back to the entrance. There were tight places and the flexible blanket stretcher proved most effective. They reached the vehicles about 12:30 p.m. One vehicle was sent to the nearest phone to call for an ambulance while the other followed slowly, transporting Scobie. They reached a main road and the ambulance arrived shortly after. Scobie reached a hospital shortly before 2 p.m. As suspected, he had suffered a heart attack and was hospitalized for three weeks. After several months of physical therapy he had resumed normal activities including caving.
Scobie had done no caving for several months but reportedly led an "active life'' and was in "reasonably good shape. Yet a 30 foot belly crawl caused a heart attack. It is obviously advisable to perform regular exercise that stresses and conditions the cardio-vascular system to a similar extent as the activities you occasionally take part in. Scobie gives the usual symptoms for future reference: "Pain may be most prominent, usually in the center of the chest behind the breast bone, frequently accompanied by nausea, sweating, and numbness radiating to the arms, neck or jaw. The degree of pain may vary considerably, from mild 'indigestion' to unbearable intensity. If pain does not abate in two minutes, suspect a heart attack." It is typical that the victim will deny the possibility of a heart attack.