Teen walked off a 120-foot cliff due to hallucinations—his one word gave his family hope
Some outcomes after accidents might feel no less than a miracle. A teenager's story after he fell from a 120-foot-high cliff is a huge example of that. The 14-year-old Zane Wach went for a trek to Mt. Whitney with his dad, Ryan Wach. But all of a sudden, he started hallucinating because of altitude sickness. His dad saw him walk off the cliff because of his state and screamed. However, he managed to survive the fall and had something to say about future adventures, per NBC Los Angeles.
The Santa Clarita teen had successfully climbed the peak with his dad, but when they started descending, he began experiencing altitude sickness. It was their 19th hour on the cliff when it happened on June 10 and his dad didn't know what to do next. "He said, 'You know, Dad, I'm hallucinating. You see all those little snow things, spots down there, snow fields? They look like snowmen. Or the green lakes over there? It kind of looks like Kermit the Frog and his friends," Ryan recounted. Because of his hallucinations, the teen ended up walking off the cliff. "He just walked over the edge like he was walking to the car and I just screamed. I was certain he had died. I didn't know how he could survive that."
Zane fell on solid granite from the mountain and the father and son had to wait for over six hours for rescue teams to get to them. Ryan had no idea about what was going to happen to his son as he waited anxiously. The teen was airlifted to the nearest pediatric trauma center in Las Vegas. He was put in a medically induced coma and began breathing on his own two weeks after the incident. He got back home to his family two months after the incident and received a warm welcome from his community. "Standing hurts a little bit," Zane shared, but he was feeling better overall. The teen had suffered from head trauma and several other injuries because of the fall. He couldn't really remember anything that happened at that moment.
A GoFundMe was set up for the teen to support the family during the turbulent times. "Their family is so fortunate to have good health care, but there are many other expenses that they will incur on this long journey towards rehabilitation," the organizer wrote. Zane was moved to an inpatient rehabilitation center on July 28. He had started the next phase of his journey, where he would have to learn how to walk, talk and eat again. "The progress is slow but steady and every small gain feels like a miracle. He works with physical, occupational and speech therapists multiple times a day and one of us is by his side constantly to support and advocate for him."
Zane shared that he was really grateful to his therapist for all the progress he had made so far. The teen decided to skip school at Hart High School for a year to continue with therapy to recover. When asked if he would want to get back to the mountains once he got better, the teen's one-word response gave his family the much-needed hope. "Definitely," he said. "If we got scared and started living our lives based on one thing that went wrong, it wouldn’t be much of a life. We can’t live that way," his mom, Leann Wach, continued.
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