LEAVENWORTH — A Sumner woman may lose her left foot and ankle after she was pinned for about an hour under a large rock that fell from an established climbing wall in Tumwater Canyon.
The father of the woman, Andrea Haisch, 21, said the impact also broke her forearm and pelvis. Monday evening he said doctors have told him there was a 50 percent chance that she may lose her foot.
The woman’s brother, Kurt D. Haisch, was on the climbing wall when the rock came loose, and he fell 15 to 20 feet. Kurt, 24, a paramedic with Ballard Ambulance in Wenatchee, suffered two broken cervical vertebra and a broken tailbone.
The siblings’ father, Dan Haisch of Sumner, said the fall “did not sever his spinal cord; it was millimeters from that type of injury.”
Andrea Haisch, a senior at the University of Washington, was watching her brother climb when the rock came loose and fell on top of her, her father said.
“They’re both lucky to be alive,” Dan Haisch said in a phone interview from Harborview Medical Center where his children were both in satisfactory condition.
Dan Haisch, who was not at the scene of the accident, said he heard that the rock weighed about 3,000 pounds.
Watching the climb, but not injured, were Kurt and Andrea’s mother, Karlene Haisch, and Andrea’s boyfriend, who is from Australia. He was holding the rope for the climber. “The rock just missed him,” Dan said.
Chief Kelly O’Brien Fire District 3 in Leavenworth said rescuers used a wheeled litter to carry a hydraulic spreading tool about a quarter of a mile to reach the injured siblings.
Andrea was airlifted to Harborview. Kurt was taken by ambulance to the same Seattle hospital.
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