A nurse impaled himself on a trekking pole in a freak hiking accident and miraculously climbed 10 miles down Montana’s tallest mountain for help — with the rod sticking out of either end of his torso the whole time.
David Cifaldi, a 32-year-old emergency room nurse, was 11,800 feet into climbing Granite Peak with his two friends last Monday when he suddenly slipped and landed on the pole, according to KTMF and a GoFundMe created for his medical expenses.
“I just slipped on some rocks,” Cifaldi told the outlet. “It was just kind of a freak thing.”
After getting up, Cifaldi noticed one of his trekking poles had cleanly pierced through his side.
“I think my nurse brain clicked on,” he said. “As soon as I was able to self-assess and establish that this was not life-threatening right now, I was pretty convinced I was going to get off that mountain under my own power.”
Cifaldi and his pals decided to leave the pole lodged in his body and hike more than 10 miles over rugged terrain — descending over the peak’s boulders and snowfields to reach the trailhead to get help, the outlet reported.
One friend used a satellite communicator to contact local search and rescue while another stayed with Cifaldi to help him navigate the crucial trek.
“David navigated the plateau’s snowfields and boulder fields, made his way down past Mystic Lake, and reached the trailhead entirely under his own power — never once complaining, staying in remarkably high spirits,” Jesse Ross, who was hiking with Cifaldi, wrote in a GoFundMe statement.
“Near Mystic Lake, he even asked one of us to hike ahead and warn other hikers, so no children would have to see the wound,” Ross said.
Cifaldi reached the trailhead after 6-and-a-half hours and was taken to a hospital before being transferred to Intermountain Health in Billings, where the trekking pole was finally removed.
“I feel very lucky,” Cifaldi recalled. “A couple inches the other way, and this would be a different story.”
The nurse is now recovering and hopes to quickly return to helping his patients — but is facing “significant medical bills.”
The fundraiser to raise money for Cifaldi’s medical expenses, including a possible upcoming surgery, has raised over $2,700 of its $10,000 goal.
