Avalanche Victim Located by Feature on Mobile Phone

“You get a feeling something’s just not right,” his wife Penny told the FOX affiliate KCPQ and CBS affiliate KIRO.

“I followed my intuition, saw his location, checked it a couple times and saw it wasn’t moving.”

She alerted the rescue services who dug him out.

He had hypothermia as well as a lung full of fluid and a broken leg when he was found.

“She’s the best,” Michael said of his wife.

“She’s my lifesaver.”

Lauren Harris, Michael’s daughter, said in a statement shared on GoFundMe that her father will likely take 14 to 16 weeks to recover “if everything goes well.”

“It is a true miracle that he survived and didn’t sustain life altering or life threatening injuries,” Lauren said.

“I have been thanking God since the incident that he is still here with us.”

More than $30,000 has been raised through the GoFundMe a week after the incident.

Donations will go toward medical costs and covering other bills, Lauren said, noting that her dad “is the sole provider” for her family.

Micheal Harris. Image from Go Fund Me page.

See here for his full post on the GoFundMePage from daughter, Lauren:

I’m writing this as I still haven’t quite wrapped my head around the nightmare and severity of the past 48 hours.

This past Thursday I woke up to serval SOS texts and calls from family members.

What stood out to me was the frantic voicemail my mom left me saying she needed me to get ahold of her immediately.

I called her right back after hearing the fear and distress in her voice.

The first words she said to me was “your dad is missing”.

Those words were not the words I was anticipating.

My heart sank, I felt like I was going to vomit and I felt the beginning of an anxiety attack coming on.

She proceeded to explain to me that my dad had gone up to Stevens pass by himself for a powder day and that his location on find my iPhone had not moved for the past 3 hours.

She let me know that she was going to be driving up the pass in an effort to find him and that she had not been successful in trying to get in contact with ski patrol up on the mountain.

I got off the phone with her and made the effort to get ahold of ski patrol to inform them of a missing person.

After some time I was finally able to get ahold of dispatch.

I was able to give identifying factors and made them aware my mom was heading up to show them the location on her phone of where it said he was.

Per my mom, ski patrol was waiting and ready for her when she arrived and acted quickly to locate my dad.

After what felt like an eternity, ski patrol radioed overhead that he had been located and they would be bringing him down on the sled.

Per ski patrol and EMS medics, my dad had been struck by an avalanche that was inbounds of the resort.

He had been down and covered by the avalanche for 4 hours.

He was hypothermic with a temp in the high 70s/ very low 80s.

Warm IV fluids were started and was quickly taken to the ER.

A full trauma was called.

After various labs and imaging, my dad only sustained a contusion of his lung, pneumonia, injuries to his kidneys and a right tibial plateau fracture.

He is currently in the hospital and has surgery scheduled for his broken leg.

The ortho provider that talked with him explained that the recovery time for him will be about 14-16 weeks if everything goes well.

It is a true miracle that he survived and didn’t sustain life altering or life threatening injuries. I have been thanking God since the incident that he is still here with us.

With all of that being said, I’m never one to ask for help but right now, my family and I are asking for help during this time of need.

My dad is currently in between jobs right now and is out of work.

With this unfortunate circumstance and situation at hand, it appears his time out of work is going to be extended further.

I have started a GoFundMe to try and help alleviate some of the medical costs as well additional bills for my family as my dad is the sole provider and we are unsure how long the road to recovery actually looks.

Literally anything helps.

Thank you to all of the friends and family that have reached out sending their thoughts, love, and prayers.

We see you, we hear you, and we love you all so much.

I also went to give a big huge thank you to Stevens Pass ski patrol, EMS personnel, the nurses, doctors, PAs, RTs and all the hospital staff that have been all hands on deck to help aid my dad to get where he is now and help him on his way to recovery.

Micheal Harris. Image from Go Fund Me page.

PlanetSKI: Number 1 for digital ski news

Your digital platform for ski news, resort information, travel, equipment rental, sport, money saving deals and everything connected with snowsports – web site, social media & more.

The post Avalanche Victim Located by Feature on Mobile Phone appeared first on PlanetSKI.