Scouts pull off ‘miracle’ — with a little help

Heather Rawlyk

Thursday, May 13, 2004 | 10:57 a.m.

Tyler Pinegar likes to ride his BMX bike with his buddies and to play the guitar, unremarkable pastimes for a 13-year-old kid in northwest Las Vegas.

What is amazing, however, is that Tyler is alive today.

Ten months ago, the doctors at Loma Linda Trauma Center gave the Lied Middle School seventh grader a 5 to 10 percent chance of survival -- and even if Tyler did survive, he was likely to suffer paralysis or brain injury, according to his father, Brian Pinegar.

"But my son is alive today because of a miracle and several key players," Pinegar said. "It took the action of the Boy Scouts, the temperature of the water and more than 300 prayers, and he made it."

Tyler's injury took place on a Friday afternoon in July 2003, when Pinegar joined his Boy Scout Troop at a secluded lagoon during a week-long camp at Lake Arrowhead, Calif.

The lagoon is a popular spot for the scouts to cliff dive, and Tyler was next in line to jump.

When Tyler went to take a running leap, his feet slipped out from under him, his father explained. Tyler plummeted 20 feet, slamming his head against a rock before landing in 10 feet of cold, murky water below.

Troop Leader Greg MacKay witnessed the boy rotating towards the rocks before landing in the water, and called for someone to make sure he was OK.

Another troop leader, Paul Anderson, was in the water near where Tyler landed when he heard the commotion.

David Poma, a 17-year-old Boy Scout, jumped into the water to look for Tyler.

"I dove down a couple times and when I came up, I noticed bubbles," Poma said. "I dove down again and came face to face with Tyler. Seeing him down there is something that I will remember for the rest of my life."

It took the strength of both Poma and Anderson to bring Tyler's water-filled body to the surface, where Assistant Scout Master Jay Bingham took over with cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

"My son Stetson has been best friends with Tyler for years and Tyler was actually a guest of ours for this camping trip," Bingham said. "When Brian (Pinegar) dropped Tyler off I told him that I would take good care of him (Tyler). That conversation kept playing over and over in my head through all of this."

With coaching from Poma, who had learned the basics of CPR the day before the accident, Bingham successfully got Tyler to breathe on his own. The boy was suffering from several serious injuries, including a deep abrasion on his neck and shoulder. He also was bleeding from his nose and ears.

Dr. Brian Loveridge, an ER Physician and Troop Leader, learned of Tyler's injuries and immediately knew a skull fracture was involved.

"Whenever you have blood coming from the ears and nose, there's a skull fracture," Loveridge said. "I knew this was serious. I knew there had to be a Life Flight helicopter to take Tyler away or he wouldn't make it."

Loveridge, who is also a marathon runner and triathelete, ran 2.5 miles to the lagoon, he said. On his way, Loveridge ran into the camp paramedic and insisted that a helicopter be called.

"The emergency room physicians that treated Tyler told us that had he been taken by ambulance, he would not have made it to the hospital," Brian Pinegar said.

Once at the Loma Linda Trauma Center, Tyler was placed in Level 3 Trauma, suffering from 3 skull fractures, a broken wrist and several lacerations to his body, Brian Pinegar said.

"The doctors gave him a 5 to 10 percent chance to live," he said. "They told us if he made it he'd be in ICU for at least 3 to 6 weeks and then be in rehab for 3 to 6 months."

Brain damage was also very likely, Brian Pinegar said. But by the next morning, Tyler was making miraculous improvement, he said.

"Tyler fully recovered and was out of the hospital in one week with no brain damage," he said. "We had several doctors coming up to us informing us that this had to be some kind of miracle."

Brian Pinegar said he also noticed that all the other near-drowning patients in Level 3 Trauma were suffering from some form of brain damage. "I saw these other children who had been under water for less time than Tyler and they had suffered brain damage, so I asked the doctor why Tyler was different," he said.

"The doctor explained that because Tyler was in such cold water, the temperature makes the brain require less oxygen. "So there you go, there's another miracle factor," he said. Loveridge, who often deals with similar situations in the emergency room, said Tyler's recovery is nothing short of a miracle.

"I called his dad and told him that Tyler had a 50-50 chance of living and my gut feeling told me he had about a 10 percent chance of coming out of this a normal kid," Loveridge said.

"To have him walking around, having fun and being normal today is a miracle." The temperature of the water, the quick eye of MacKay, the search and rescue of Poma, Anderson and others, and the call for Life Flight by Loveridge are key reasons why Tyler is here today, his father says.

"That and the 300 prayers we got from friends and church," he said. The seven key players in Tyler's rescue were awarded with medals Wednesday night, Brian Pinegar said.

Medals of Merit were awarded to Mark Stephensen, who lifted the boy from the water, Russel Tonks, Jr., who assisted in the search and MacKay, who witnessed Pinegar's awkward fall.

Bingham and Loveridge were awarded the organization's Heroism Award and Poma and Anderson will receive Honor Medals. "They're all shy about it, but to me, they're all heroes," Brian Pinegar said. "They were the right people at the right place at the right time and I own my son's life to them. Now Tyler has his whole life in front of him."