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A former Olympic hockey player who endured nearly a week in the
Sierra after getting lost while snowboarding had to have both his
feet amputated, but he said Wednesday that he feels lucky to be
alive - and vowed to ride again.
Further surgery
"I feel rich. I've never been a happier man than I am right now,"
Eric Lemarque, 34, said from a wheelchair during a news conference
at the Grossman Burn Center at Sherman Oaks Hospital. "God has saved
me." Lemarque wore a red hockey jersey and his legs were swathed
in bandages. On Sunday, surgeons amputated both of Lemarque's feet
at the ankles because of frostbite. He has had to undergo a follow-up
procedure to remove much of the rest of his lower legs, leaving
tissue about 6 inches below the knee. His feet had lost circulation
and gangrene had set in. "Unfortunately, frostbite to this extent
... calls its own fate," said Dr. Peter Grossman, associate medical
director of the center. "There's nothing much that we can do."
Five days on
the mountain
Lemarque said he was snowboarding alone on Feb. 6 at Mammoth Mountain
ski resort when he deliberately left the marked boundaries of a
run and became disoriented. He wandered for miles down the mountain's
western slopes, which were covered in up to 15 feet of snow. A search
began five days later and he was found Feb. 13, sprawled in the
snow, conscious but barely moving. Lemarque said he survived by
eating pine nuts, bark and a few sticks of bubble gum. He slept
on pine needles and branches to keep dry. He had matches but they
were too wet to light. Lemarque said he knew early on that he would
lose his feet. "I couldn't get a boot on. I was walking in the snow
with one foot in a boot, with no socks on either foot." His feet
were "pretty purple, pretty red ... I just couldn't get 'em warm."
Signalling in
vain
He used his MP3 player as a signaling mirror without success. He
also listened to its radio signal to orient himself and was heading
back up the mountain when a helicopter found him. It was only on
the last day, he said, that he began to lose hope of rescue. "I
found myself trying to walk and falling over, and I started to become
a little bit disorganized in my thoughts," he said. "I started to
dream about actually getting saved and I started to think that,
'hey, this is a game and I want to reset the button.'" The helicopter
"was a sight I'll never forget," he said. "It warmed me to know
that I was going to be all right." Doctors said he could take his
first steps using temporary prostheses in six to eight weeks. Lemarque
said he wants to return to the slopes as soon as his injuries heal.
"I'll be snowboarding next season," he said.
Lemarque said the experience
has brought him closer to his parents, who are divorced, and has
made him re-examine his life and appreciate it more. "This could
be the greatest experience of my life," he said. Lemarque played
hockey in the 1994 Winter Olympics for the French national team.
[Source: SanLouisObisco.com]
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