PJ Forgione spent the night alone in the wild with a broken vertebrae.
SEATTLE — A Seattle man is recovering at Harborview Medical Center after falling 60 feet down an embankment in the Olympic National Forest on May 4.
PJ Forgione spent the night alone in the wilderness before being rescued by two state wildlife workers who happened to hear his cries for help.
Forgione installs microphones in remote woodlands to monitor wildlife for adventurous scientists. He had just set up his equipment at the Olympics and was hiking back to his car when he said the trail collapsed beneath his feet.
“I was really confident in my stride, and the next thing I knew I was falling backwards,” Forgione said.
The fall severely injured his spine.
“I fractured my T-12 vertebrae, which caused damage to other parts of my spine,” he said.
Two weeks after the fall, he was unable to move his lower limbs.
Unable to move, with no cell service and the sun already setting, Forgione faced a terrifying night alone. He worried about the dangers of being motionless in the remote forest.
“If a big cougar showed up or something, I was conscious when I landed and I knew my legs weren’t going to work, so I wouldn’t be able to run away if an animal showed up,” he said.
He remained calm and focused on surviving until morning.
“Luckily, it wasn’t too cold at night, so I thought, okay, let’s address this first thing in the morning,” he said.
His rescue was pure luck.
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife technicians Noah Collell and Jacob Portnoy were conducting their annual creek survey near Forgione Falls when they heard an unexpected noise.
“We came down this hill and were like, oh, what is that noise? We thought it must be an animal or something, but when we got down to the water we could hear someone saying, ‘Help,'” Coral recalled.
A Navy helicopter eventually transported Forgione to Harbor View.
Now alternating between a hospital bed and a rehab center, Forgione recently celebrated a small milestone – transitioning to solid food.
“I’m really excited about the sandwiches here,” he said.
friends, family and online fundraiser Everyone rallied around him as he faced an uncertain timetable for recovery.
Forgione said he’s trying to stay positive to get through it.
“There’s a long road ahead, but I’m trying to stay as positive as possible to keep the momentum going,” Forgione said. “I’m still here and in control of this.”
