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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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West Jefferson County Search & Rescue
June 23, 2003

During the night and early morning of 06-22 / 06-23 Deputy Dave Thomas of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office was involved in a Search and Rescue operation in the West End. A 46-year-old diabetic, David L. Urvina, a resident of Olympia was cross-country hiking with 4 friends and relatives. They were in the rugged Solleks area.

Urvina did not have any insulin or medication with him when he began having diabetic trouble. He was left on an old washed out road with a fire to keep him warm while the others went to get help. Urvina did manage to climb a short ways up on his own.

When Deputy Thomas arrived on scene with the Forks ambulance they were able to make voice contact with Urvina. Two from his party and two from the ambulance crew went over the hill towards him. It sounded like he was only a few hundred feet over the hillside. It turned out he was about 1000 feet down a very steep bank that had been pre commercial thinned, which left a huge amount of slash debris to climb over.

Urvina was in no shape to climb out under his own power. He was complaining of leg cramps and chest pains. He was stabilized and 20 inmates from the Olympic Corrections Center were called out. With 2 supervisors. They were able to use chainsaws to cut their way down to the scene and used a litter to carry Urvina back up and out. Half of the carry was a couple feet at a time because of the steep ground.

Urvina was then transported to Forks by ambulance. He was talkative at the time. No injuries or losses happened during the rescue effort. From first call to getting patient out was about 9 hours.