The California boy remains in a medically induced coma.
The haunting words a 14-year-old said as he hallucinated and walked off a 120-foot cliff in front of his dad have been revealed.
Moments before he fell, California native Zane Wach told his horrified father that he saw ‘snowmen and Kermit the frog’ while hallucinating from altitude sickness.
The teen remains in an induced coma after falling from Mount Whitney in the Sierra Nevada mountain range three weeks ago.
According to SFGate, the incident left him with severe head trauma, as well as a broken ankle, finger, and pelvis.
As he made his way down the mountain with his father, Ryan Wach, who had no concerns over how his son would handle the hike.
Speaking to the outlet, he stated: “He’s in better shape than I am.”
He further added that his son 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.”
However, Zane began exhibiting symptoms of altitude sickness as they climbed the mountain.
Wach noticed his son’s issues, and as they had already finished the toughest part of the hike, he decided to take an easier trail descending the mountain.
As the headed toward the trailhead, Zane began experiencing ‘some hallucinations.’
“He knew he was hallucinating,” said Wach.
“He said he saw things like snowmen and Kermit the Frog.”
He kept an eye on his son on their way down, noticing that Zane looked ‘considerably’ better, but a short time later, Zane was acting strangely again and began doubting ‘reality.’
“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.”
The pair stopped after Zane told his father they had ‘already finished the hike multiple times over.’
“It was completely bizarre,” 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.”
Zane’s deteriorating state prompted another group of hikers to call a search and rescue team to get him down; however, at the same time, things were getting worse quickly.
Wach told the Independent that his son was ‘worse’ than before.
“He almost seemed like he was sleepwalking. He started dragging his feet and stopped in his tracks.
“He didn’t want to go on.”
Zane started to make erratic movements towards the edge of the trail, telling his father that he was going to the car or trying to get dinner.
His father, overwhelmed by what was going on, let go of his son to wipe his tears.
“I had to wipe away tears. I was holding my hands to my eyes, and he walked off again,” he told SFGate.
“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.”
Zane fell approximately 120 feet before hitting the ground.
Wach bolted down the slope to his son. when another hiker, who happened to be an EMT, noticed the goings-on.
The 14-year-old was left on the slope for about six hours as the Inyo County Search & Rescue teams worked to remove him from the mountain.
Zane was airlifted to Southern Inyo Hospital in Lone Pine, before being flown to the nearest pediatric trauma center, Sunrise Children’s Hospital in Las Vegas.
Given the extent of the fall, doctors at Sunrise said it was ‘fairly miraculous’ that he didn’t sustain further injuries.
According to a GoFundMe page set up to help with Zane’s medical bills, Wach revealed his son is ‘improving’ and briefly opened his eyes on Wednesday but ‘still has a long way to go.’
Hallucinations are a serious side effect of altitude sickness, specifically high-altitude cerebral edema (HACE) which causes the brain to swell due to a lack of oxygen.
HACE affects less than 1% of people who reach an altitude of 13,000 to 18,000 feet above sea level.
