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FLATHEADBEACON.COM AMAZING! 15


Bringing Jacob Back to Life





Ten years after he fell TV program about reviving children 
who had fallen through the ice.
into the Middle Fork Rescuers will not conirm a person 
is dead until they are warm and dead, 
and died for two hours, 
Jacob Feightner is alive and Lori knew the hospital staff would 
keep working on Jacob.
and well
When they got to the hospital, the 
situation was dire – Jacob’s core tem- 
perature was 69 degrees. Emergency 
By MOLLY PRIDDY of the Beacon
room physician Dr. Scott Rundle told 
the family the outlook was bleak, Lori 

en years ago, 3-year-old Ja- remembers, and a chaplain started 
cob Feightner fell into the speaking with them about organ do- 
Middle Fork of the Flathead nation.
River. By the time he was
But Rundle and the rest of the 
lown to the hospital, about 45 min- emergency staff, including registered 
utes later, he was frozen and clinically nurse Derek Starker, kept working on 
dead.
Jacob, slowly heating his internal or- 
And after two hours of extreme gans up and using warmed oxygen for 

dedication from emergency services his lungs.
and medical personnel, the frozen lit- After more than an hour at the 
tle boy was warmed up and brought hospital, Jacob’s heart began beating. 
back to life.
“[The doctor] said, ‘Do you want to 
Seeing Jacob open his eyes was come see Jacob? He is responding,’” 
a miracle in and of itself, his mother Lori said. “We walked in and said, ‘Hey 
Lori Feightner remembers, but what buddy.’ He turned his head to us and 

is truly amazing is that Jacob has no his eyes were lickering. Beyond that,
permanent effects from the incident, I don’t remember much.”
other than a scar on his leg.
Jacob was lown to Spokane,
“He’s in ninth grade math, even where his overjoyed family drove to 
though he’s only in eighth grade,” meet him.
Lori said last week. “He’s 13, he plays The coldness of the water saved 
soccer, loves his iPod, loves to read. his life, Lori said. Due to his small 
There are no lasting effects other size, Jacob’s body was able to essen- 

than that scar, and only we can really tially shut down its need for oxygen 
see it because we know it’s there.”
while he froze, she said; had it been 
It’s the best outcome possible for anyone larger, even 5-year-old Jona- 
a situation that was truly harrowing. than, it would have likely meant death 
The Feightners, who live just outside or severe lasting effects.
Columbus, Ohio, were in the Flathead “The water preserved every- 
at the start of a ive-week vacation thing,” Lori said.
in 2004.
Jacob had to attend physical ther- 
ABOVE: Jacob Feightner 
Lori’s husband John and the boys – at age 13.
apy because his left hand was having 
Jacob, 3, and Jonathan, 5 – wanted to LEFT: Jacob, 3, and trouble grasping, but that was likely 
get in a quick canoe trip before set- Jonathan, 5.
due to being pulled out of the water, 
tling into camp. She remembers John she said. He recovered his grasping 
checking the map and talking with COURTESY PHOTOS
ability quickly.
people about the river, but they didn’t These days, the Feightners are 
know how high the water was.
ids, knocking everyone overboard. Hammond, an avid kayaker who able to look back on the rescue with- 

“I don’t think anybody took into John was able to throw Jonathan to offered to help search the waters, out reliving all the fear they had that 
consideration the snowmelt off of shore, but couldn’t ind Jacob. Some- eventually found the little boy hung day. They keep in touch with the med- 
the mountains,” Lori said.
one in a nearby cabin must have heard up by his life jacket on a rock.
ical team who helped save Jacob, and 
She went downriver to wait for John’s shouts for help, because a call Jacob was technically dead – no Lori and John have spoken with Jacob 
their return, and after a while saw was placed to 911.
pulse, no respiratory rate.
about his future, which could be in 
ambulances rushing up the road. She Emergency responders rushed to Hammond performed CPR until the medical ield.
prayed they weren’t for her family, the river, including Kevin Hammonds, the helicopter arrived to transport The amazing rescue in Montana 
but soon an ambulance pulled up and who had just inished a backcountry the boy to Kalispell Regional Medical gave Jacob a future.

John got out.
trek and was at the Halfway House Center.
“Hopefully it has helped bring to 
“My husband said, ‘Jacob’s gone,’” restaurant for dinner when the res- Lori said that before the family light that no, you shouldn’t give up on 
Lori said.
taurant’s owner, a member of a local arrived in Montana, they stayed in a someone,” Lori said.
The canoe had hit a series of rap-
quick response unit, was notiied.
hotel in North Dakota and watched a
[email protected]


In the fall of 2011, Kalispell resident Jake 
John “Gus” Thompson, a 
Bramante tackled the inal switchbacks at longtime resident of Kalispell, 
the Lincoln Lake trailhead and became the pitched in the irst World Earlier this year, Whiteish !
!
S
S
T
irst known person to hike all 734 miles of resident Sean Busby T
A
A
established trails in Glacier National
Series in 1903 for the became the irst person E
E
Park in a single season.
Pittsburgh Pirates.
with Type 1 diabetes to F
F
snowboard the backcountry 

on all seven continents.
On June 23, 2004, Ruth Barber was ishing on Flathead Lake when 
she landed a 42.69-pound, 42.5-inch lake trout, the state record.





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