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Ryan Wach still isn't entirely sure what compelled his 14-year-old son Zane Wach to walk off the edge of a cliff, but he hopes the boy will be able to tell his own tale soon.
Father and son were hiking California's Mount Whitney on June 10 when the teen experienced altitude sickness and walked off a 120-foot trail ledge, according to his family. The teen has been in a coma since being rescued, but his dad shared that he is now breathing on his own after being taken off a ventilator.
“It’s going to be a survival story in the end," Ryan told SFGATE on June 25, "but right now we’re still in the middle of it."
Ryan and Zane—who his dad described as an experienced hiker and active kid who competes in distance running, swimming and triathlons—had already summited the 14,505-foot peak via the Mountaineer's Route when the boy fell ill.
After they reached the summit, Zane started showing signs of altitude sickness and apparently experienced an eerie vision involving fictional characters.
"He started to experience some halluciantions," Ryan explained. "He knew he was hallucinating. He said he saw things like snowmen and Kermit the Frog."
Once they made it back to Mount Whitney's Trail Camp, Zane seemed to feel better, his father continued. But after another hour of making their way down, the teen started to feel disoriented once again at around the 10,000-foot mark.
“He was in an altered mental state, and I don’t know what caused it. We still don’t know,” Ryan said. “My best guess is a combination of exhaustion, sleep deprivation, probably some dehydration and lasting effects from the altitude sickness. But he essentially started to doubt reality.”
Zane thought they had already finished their hike multiple times, Ryan continued, "like he was not present any longer."
“It was completely bizarre,” he added. “He told me he couldn’t tell if he was dreaming or not, and he would shake his head in disbelief, like, ‘This is not real.’ Like he was in the movie Inception or something.”
And then, a father's worst nightmare: "I heard steps to my right," Ryan recalled to NBC affiliate KSNV, and Zane "was walking off the ledge."
He was able to grab Zane at that time before he went over the side of the steep granite slope, while a nearby group of hikers realized they were witnessing a fellow climber in crisis and called for help.
Zane told his father he was going to the car, which was thousands of feet down the trail, Ryan told SFGATE. When he had to grab hold of his son again, Zane said he was going to dinner.
"I was kind of losing my mind, in a way, because I was so scared and frustrated,” Ryan continued. “I had to wipe away tears. I was holding my hands to my eyes, and he walked off again. This time, I didn’t hear it until he was about at the edge, and when I went to reach for him, he was 10 feet away from me. I couldn’t get him, and he walked off the edge.”
Ryan estimated that Zane fell about 120 feet down the slope.
A fellow hiker was an EMT who coordinated the rescue effort, Ryan said, but they still had to wait six hours for an Inyo County Search & Rescue helicopter to get there and fly Zane to Southern Inyo Hospital in Lone Pine.
After he was stabilized, the teen was flown about 230 miles away to Sunrise Children’s Hospital in Las Vegas, the closest facility with a pediatric trauma center, where he remains in a coma.
While doctors told Zane's family it was "fairly miraculous" he wasn't hurt even worse, Ryan said, in addition to head trauma the teen has a broken ankle and finger, as well as a fractured pelvis.
But after being placed in a medcially induced coma, he is now breathing on his own, according to a June 26 Facebook update posted to Zane's grandmother Lisa Hinrichsen-Wach's account, per People.
"I'll be brief today as it was a big day but very hard," Ryan wrote. "Zane had the breathing tube removed... This was a giant milestone and opens the door to many new steps forward. He's not doing much else at the moment, the largest focus is watching closely so that he does well breathing on his own as well and being able to cough and swallow."
Ryan noted that the boy was "well into feeling the effects of withdrawal" from the heavy drugs he'd been given at the hospital, an "extremely hard and painful" process.
"As parents it's terrible to watch," he continued. "We hope he gets through this with the least possible suffering."
But Ryan has seen his son accomplish so much, he has faith he'll overcome this challenge with flying colors.
"He is a straight-A student. He is involved with the church," Ryan told KSNV. "He is just an all-around great kid. Could not even ask for a kid this good. I am lucky to be his father."
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