Volunteer says Scouts saved him after accident
A Blanchard man who lost part of his leg from infection after a fall hopes to be home for Christmas.
Hill, 47, who helps with Edmond Boy Scout Troop 78, was with 15 boys and seven adults on a campout at Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge when he fell Nov. 12.
During a monthlong stay at OU Medical Center, four infections set in, prompting physicians to amputate his left leg just beneath the knee.
“I am doing really good,” Hill said this week from Jim Thorpe Rehabilitation Center in Oklahoma City. “This is a new challenge.”
Hill is learning how to walk with a walker and use a wheelchair.
“If everything goes well, I will be out by Friday to attend Christmas Eve services,” he said.
A father of three sons, Hill has helped with Scouting programs since 1997.
The theme for the November campout was hiking and rappelling.
Hill was standing on a rock cleft, preparing to take photographs of his 11-year-old son.
“I was trying to get in a better location and take photos of my son,” Hill said. “The rocks gave away, and I didn't have anything to grab a hold of.”
The Blanchard man fell on his face and then flipped over and landed straight legged on his left leg, according to an investigation report filed by Ralph Bryant, Wichita Mountain deputy refuge manager.
Hill landed at the feet of several Scouts who had just rappelled to the bottom of a pit known as the 40 Foot Hole.
“The Scouts saved me,” Hill said. “They kept me calm and from moving around, they took care of me.”
Lying there with facial fractures around his eye and several broken ribs on the right side of his body, Hill went in and out of consciousness as the Scouts administrated first aid.
“My left leg was severed by the ankle,” Hill said. “It was held on by tendons and skin.”
It took Medicine Park emergency rescuers two-and-half hours to pull Hill, who weighs 240 pounds, out of the pit, he said. He was carried out by hand and then carried another quarter-of-a-mile to the ambulance.
“They were kidding me about my weight,” he said.
Hill, who spent eight years in the Army, is a sheet metal mechanic at Tinker Air Force Base. He said he looks forward to getting a prosthesis so he can go back to work.
Edmond troopmaster Dorman Morsman said he thinks Hill will soon be active again and helping with the troop.
“He is very dedicated to the program and involved,” Morsman said.
