MARYSVILLE — It was an agonizing wait.
Grace Tam, who had been hit by a giant chunk of ice, was kept warm beneath donated shirts and jackets.
Nurses who had been enjoying a day off in the wilderness Saturday at the Big Four ice caves came to the 11-year-old’s side, first checking her pulse and, as her condition worsened, applying CPR.
All the while, her family hoped for the best.
“I prayed to God,” her father, John, said.
John Tam has written his story about what happened that day and shared it with The Herald. He also filled in details and described his grief in an interview Tuesday — the same day he made funeral arrangements.
Mainly, he wishes he could switch places with his daughter.
“It isn’t fair,” he said. “I’m 55 and she is 11. I should have been the one who died.”
Tam said he wishes emergency crews with more sophisticated life-saving equipment could have arrived sooner, but he also understands the site is remote, the medical crews were volunteers and there are no guarantees it would have saved his daughter, who died of crushing pelvic injuries. In fact, he is trying to collect the names of those who helped that day to send them thank-you cards.
“I’m not trying to blame people,” he said. “I just don’t want it to happen to other people.”
The family had been before to the Big Four ice caves in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest east of Granite Falls. It always seemed like a nice destination for a family outing, one they looked forward to taking with two Japanese foreign exchange students.
The Tams reached the caves around 1:40 p.m., after a picnic.
Around 2 p.m., Grace, her mom, Tamami, and younger brother William were about 15 to 17 feet in front of the cave as John Tam was walking down the hillside to get into a position to take a picture.
That’s when the ice broke loose. Tam said it rolled forward and hit Grace, but didn’t land on top of her. His head was turned away and he didn’t witness the impact.
Fellow hikers helped carry her down to a flat surface.
Grace said she was not in pain, but that she couldn’t feel her legs.
They kept talking to her, asking her questions to keep her awake.
“What’s your favorite food?” they asked.
“Pasta,” Grace answered.
“Who’s your favorite teacher?”
“Mr. Daoust.”
“Who’s your best friend?”
“Carrie.”
Even as Grace could not feel her legs, she kept her humor when she was asked the last name of her best friend.
“Cha Cha Cha,” she said, referring to her friend whose last name is Cha.
Grace felt dehydrated and she was given tiny sips of water as her head was braced with a rock on each side and sweatshirts served as a makeshift pillow.
By about 3 p.m., the nurse couldn’t find a pulse and Grace’s eyes were dilated. They gave Grace CPR for about 50 minutes, Tam said. They tried giving her oxygen through the drinking tube from her mother’s water bottle.
John Tam believes the first emergency medical team arrived more than two hours after the accident. The delay was caused in part because there wasn’t cell phone reception in the mountainous wilderness.
When an employee with the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest Darrington ranger district was found at the trailhead, a 911 call was relayed by radio through the Verlot station.
The nurses working on Grace asked for suction equipment, but the medical team didn’t have it, Tam said.
Tam said medics tried using a defibrillator to revive Grace’s heartbeat, but after two to three jolts, the battery failed, and a backup battery was not charged.
A Snohomish County Search and Rescue helicopter was dispatched to retrieve Grace.
Lt. John Flood of the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office said search and rescue does not have a helicopter pilot at its base in Snohomish and it takes time and information to start a rescue.
John Tam said he will have to cherish the memories of the time his family had with Grace, who dreamed of opening a shelter for dogs someday.
“Now the time ended with Grace and we must realize and remember her as she was and all the quality time we have had will never end.”
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