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Nurse impaled by pole during hike forced to trek 10 miles for help: 'A freak thing'
A 32-year-old nurse walked more than 10 miles down a rocky mountain with a metal trekking pole stuck through his side after a fall near the top of Granite Peak in Montana. David Cifaldi, who lives in Billings, spent six and a half hours walking over rough ground to get help while the pole stayed in his body.The accident happened on July 20 while Cifaldi and two friends, Jesse Ross and Brad Reich, were climbing the 12,799-foot mountain. The group was 10 miles into the walk, near an height of 12,000 feet, when Cifaldi slipped on loose rocks."It was just kind of a freak thing," Cifaldi told local television station KTMF. "As I rolled over, I noticed one of my trekking poles laying on the ground. As I kind of sat up, I realized that the other one was stuck in my side."
Medical check on the mountain
Using his medical background, Cifaldi checked his body on the spot before trying to move."I think my nurse brain kicked on pretty quick. I was able to feel the trekking pole through my skin," Cifaldi told Backpacker magazine. He took a few deep breaths to make sure the pole had not hit his chest or lungs.To help him see the injury better, his friends took pictures of the wound. In a post on a GoFundMe page set up to help pay Cifaldi's medical bills, Ross wrote that the pole "went all the way through his lat, sticking out both ends, with roughly 8 inches between the two holes."
Despite the deep wound, Cifaldi was sure there was no serious inner bleeding. "I was pretty confident that it was a soft tissue injury," he told Backpacker.Reich spoke about Cifaldi's calm reaction in an interview with KTMF: "Once he established that he felt like he was okay, he was still talking. He was still breathing. There was not a pool of blood. So, at that point, he made the decision that he goes, 'okay, let's we got to get off the mountain.'"Although Ross used a Garmin satellite device to call local rescue teams, Cifaldi decided he could handle the walk down without a helicopter rescue."I was pretty convinced at that point that I was going to get off that mountain and I was going to do it under my own power," Cifaldi told KTMF.
The 10-mile walk down
The three friends turned around to walk back down their 10-mile path across high boulder fields, snow patches and steep paths. Cifaldi used the chest strap on his running vest as a simple sling to hold his body steady.
One of his friends walked behind him the whole way to watch for any sudden bleeding.Ross described the hard walk to KTMF: "It's a hard enough hike as it is. And, you know, it's so rugged again the boulder fields, the snow fields, just the endless switchbacks and having to do that with so much precision so, you know, there isn't another fall, the condition doesn't change. He was just so focused and locked in."On the GoFundMe page, Ross shared that Cifaldi made the long trip "entirely under his own power, never once complaining, staying in remarkably high spirits."
As they got close to Mystic Lake, Cifaldi asked one friend to walk ahead to warn other hikers so young children would not be scared by the sight of his injury.A few hours into the walk, the group felt sure they would get out safely. Cifaldi told Backpacker that once they knew they were "gonnab make it," they started "making kebab jokes" to stay cheerful.
Hospital care and recovery
After six and a half hours on the trail, the hikers made it to the trailhead.
Cifaldi was taken to a local hospital before being moved to Intermountain Health in Billings, where doctors safely took the trekking pole out of his side.Cifaldi is now resting at home, though Ross noted on GoFundMe that he still needs medical care and may need another operation later on."I feel very lucky," Cifaldi told KTMF. "A couple inches the other way, and this would be a different story."The scary event has not stopped his mountain plans. Cifaldi told Backpacker he plans to go back to Granite Peak next year to finish his climb to the top.
