BY JAMES GILBERT, SUN STAFF WRITER
Jan 26, 2007

Lee Clark was recently celebrating his October wedding in the Imperial Sand Dunes when the unexpected happened — a 14-foot drop off the backside of a dune surprised him as he went over, crashing into the ground below.

Moments later, his newlywed wife came over the hill with a group of friends and family who were following behind him.

"When I came over the hill, I noticed someone had crashed, but I didn't think anything of it because they usually get back up and brush themselves off," said 28-year-old Vanessa Clark of Phoenix. "As I got closer, I realized it was Lee. He was lying on the ground about six feet from his bike and he looked like a pretzel."

She said that at that point, she ripped off her helmet and started to run to where he was lying motionless in the sand.

"When I got over to him, his eyes were rolled back in his head and he wasn't breathing. I didn't know what to do, so I started shaking him and screaming for someone to call 911."

In a panic, Vanessa Clark was having trouble holding her phone and even dropped it in the sand. And when a friend was finally able to reach 911, the call cut out.

Fortunately, the flight crew of a search and rescue helicopter from Marine Corps Air Station Yuma decided to take a route that training day that flew them right over the accident scene near Dune Buggy Flats minutes after it occurred around 2:20 p.m. Jan. 19.

"It was just by pure chance that we happened to be flying there that day," said co-pilot Maj. Cesar Freitas. "A lot of different things had to have happened for us to have been there."

That aircraft was a UH-1 search and rescue helicopter crewed by Yuma Marines Maj. Michael Pietz, Sgt. Jamie Barnes, Petty Officer 2nd Class Christian Flohr, Lance Cpl. Justin Verrett and Freitas.

"As it turns out, it was lucky for him that at the time he needed us the most, we were there," Flohr said. "It was fluke."

It was at that moment that the helicopter's routine training mission to do some repelling near Moose Mountain turned into an actual rescue mission.

"All I can remember is seeing someone waving something blue at us, trying to get our attention," said Barnes, who serves as crew chief on the helicopter.

"We were training a new crew chief and we wanted to show him the area because part of his responsibility is being familiar enough with the terrain to help navigate," Freitas said. "We actually could have flown a couple of different ways that day."

Within two minutes of the accident happening, the helicopter had landed and Flohr was rendering medical attention to the 37-year-old Lee Clark. His injuries included all but one of the ribs crushed on his right side, severed sternum, two fractures in his neck and broken tailbone and pelvis.

"When I got up to him, he was lying face down and his lips and eyes were blue and (he was) having trouble breathing," said Flohr about Lee Clark, whose lungs both collapsed in the accident.

From the time the helicopter landed at the accident scene, it took less then 10 minutes for the crew to treat Lee Clark and load him onto the helicopter for the flight to Yuma Regional Medical Center. He is now being treated at a Phoenix-area hospital.

"I really think they were supposed to be there that day," Vanessa Clark said. "They were like angels. If it wasn't for them, I'm afraid my husband would have died."

James Gilbert can be reached at jgilbert@yumasun.com or 539-6854.

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