Further details.....
Cave ordeal cause of gap in memory
Duke student fell 40-50 feet, got help hours later
By Tom Beal
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 03.21.2006
David Shipman, the Duke University sophomore rescued Friday from a cave in the Huachuca Mountains, suffered a concussion bad enough to temporarily affect his memory but broke no bones and injured no organs in his 40- to 50-foot fall.
He was released from University Medical Center on Saturday and was at home Monday with his parents in Sierra Vista, looking through family photos in an attempt to fill in gaps in his memory, said his father, Lt. Col. Gregory Shipman, a U.S.. Army Reserve officer who works weekly as a dentist at Fort Huachuca.
"He literally came out of this thing with a concussion and retrograde amnesia," Shipman said. "It's just absolutely a miracle that someone could fall 40 feet and remain in there 10 hours before anyone got to him, and then another 12 hours to get him out. We're just grateful to all those people who risked their lives," Shipman said.
A force of 170 volunteer, military and government rescue workers assembled to extract Shipman from the cave.
Gregory Shipman said doctors expect his son to fully recover his memory. He put off a planned Monday return to Duke, where he is a sophomore in biomedical engineering, to recover and receive additional medical treatment.
Shipman had entered the cave Thursday afternoon with two friends. They had ropes, climbing gear, helmets and headlamps for the exploration of the wet cave, which descends in a series of steep drops from its opening — a slit on a cliff face at the northern end of the Huachuca Mountains.
Gregory Shipman said he had been to the cave once but stayed in the first room because he doesn't have the climbing skills needed to rappel to the next level. He said just getting to the opening was arduous.
His son, who has been rock-climbing and caving for half his 20 years, is an experienced spelunker and had explored the cave many times.
Last Thursday he took two friends who waited in the first room of the cave while Shipman went off to search for some items he had left behind during a Christmas break visit, including a memory card for his camera. He planned to return and help his friends, who had experience rock-climbing but not caving, make the descent into the cave, said Gregory Shipman.
When he didn't return, one friend stayed at the mouth of the cave while the other hiked out and drove to where he could use his cell phone to call authorities.
When Gregory Shipman was contacted, he immediately called Steve Willsey, a family friend who was one of the resources Shipman used to home-school his son. He said his son had been caving with Willsey for about 10 years.
Willsey led rescuers and paramedics to Shipman, who was semiconscious at the bottom of the pit in the far reaches of the cave.
Shipman said he worried about broken bones and internal injuries, worried about his son going into shock or succumbing to hypothermia in the damp cave. "It was just a miracle," he repeated.
And about that memory card. It wasn't in Shipman's clothing when they brought him out, and Gregory Shipman said his son, who remembers little of the ordeal, is "99 percent sure" he didn't find it.
http://www.azstarnet.com/dailystar/metro/121033