After breaking his pelvis, puncturing a lung, cracking his tailbone and suffering other injuries in a fall during a hike at Ape Cave near Cougar, Wash., University junior Eric Ball plans to return to finish his hike to the cave’s end.
He insists his injuries won’t stop him from completing the trek or doing other things
he loves, such as skiing, sailing, rock climbing
and hiking.
But Ball had to overcome something most people never will — the 21-year-old biology and philosophy major was born with an impairment that distorts his vision. He can’t see well, and, unlike most people, he can’t drive or play ball sports.
“I would imagine that it’d be like a normally sighted person looking through a telescope or binoculars the wrong way,” Ball said.
But according to Ball and his family members, his disability has never been limiting.
“Eric’s always been in talented and gifted programs and was working toward his Advanced Placement diploma in high school without any help. Generally, he just goes to class and figures it out on his own,” said Melody Ball, Eric’s mother. “We’ve always let him try things he’s had an interest in, and we let him make it work for him.”
“I think he’s adventurous and he likes to do things that are exciting to him,” said Jenny Lee, Eric’s girlfriend of two-and-a-half years. On July 5th, Eric and four of his friends began a hike in Ape Cave, near Mount St. Helens. The group was about three-quarters of a mile into the cave when it noticed a rock shelf about 10-feet high, Ball said.
“There was a large rock built out of the shelf that had a rope tied to it; me being the usual adventurous person that I am, I climbed the rope up there,” Ball said. Once Ball was up on the rock, he saw graffiti and other markings
that made it appear that people had climbed it before, so Ball said he “didn’t think there was anything risky or wrong about being up there.” He then came to a ledge that looked like a step, with another ledge about three feet below it, but there was a hole under it that he didn’t see.
“I jumped down to the other ledge because I didn’t think there was a hole,” he said. Because most of the cave was wet, once Ball hit the second ledge, he began to slip, causing him to fall through the hole. Ball landed on his feet, but quickly fell to the ground. He shattered four ribs, punctured a lung, suffered an intricate split on the entire left-side hip socket, broke his pelvis in four places, fractured his groin in two locations, cracked his tail bone and endured a compression fracture in his ninth lumbar.
“I couldn’t breathe for about 30 to 45 seconds,” Ball said.
After waiting nearly two hours in the 43-degree cave for rescuers to arrive, Ball was evacuated by helicopter to Legacy Emanuel Hospital in Portland. His injuries put him in the hospital for eight days.
“My girlfriend, Jenny, and her parents went back to the caves … They estimated (the fall) was about 25 feet,” Ball said. “I was kind of lucky because I fell on a sandy patch and there weren’t a lot of jagged rocks or anything that I could have fallen onto.”
Ball was confined to a wheelchair until Aug. 25, but just like his visual impairment, being in a wheelchair didn’t stop him. He continued to hang out with friends and go to the movies, fair and zoo, although he said it was still inconvenient.
“He bounced back faster than everyone thought,” said Kirk Steputis, a longtime family friend. “I was encouraged to see all of the support he got from friends and family.”
Doctors thought he’d have to use crutches for a few weeks, followed by a walker and then cane, but Ball said he “kind of ignored that and started using a cane for a couple days, and after about five days I didn’t need to use that anymore.”
“My goal in physical therapy was to be able to go to school in the fall; they said it would take about a year until I am fully recovered, but I don’t think it’ll take nearly that long,” he said.
Despite his impaired vision, Ball doesn’t feel that he faces very many limitations.
“I think part of it has been how I have dealt with it, my attitude toward it and my lifestyle so far,” Ball said.
Although he sustained so many injuries, Ball still plans to stay active and hopes to return to the Ape Cave within a year. This time, he said, chuckling, he plans to finish the trip “without getting injured, hopefully.”

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