The Golden Hour

In spring of 1991, Tom Broxson survived a 200-foot fall–a full rope length–off the top of Yosemite Valley’s Washington Column. To this day, Tom, his climbing partner Pat and the rescuers who saved his life aren’t exactly sure what happened. There are guesses and conjectures, but the exact moment that changed Tom’s life will always remain a mystery.

Dr. R. Adams Cowley, the physician who pioneered our modern Emergency Medicine System, once said, “There is a golden hour between life and death.” His theory that a patient who survives a grave trauma has 60 minutes to reach the operating table was the guiding axiom in emergency medicine for decades.

In these precarious, defining minutes between life and death, patients fight to live, rescuers put themselves in harm’s way and decisions are made in an instant. Sometimes rescues don’t go all that smoothly. Today, with the help of Yosemite’s first responders, we bring you Tom Broxson’s story of survival, recovery and will. It turns out an hour can last a lifetime.

Music: Break by Son Lux  •   Across the Light by The Out Circuit  •   Seeing Hands by Dengue Fever  •   How to be a Dreamer by Southerly  •   The Hollows by Why?

The tracks listed above were provided by IODA Promonet. Music also provided by Bradley Carter, a reformed rock climber turned musician. You can hear his guitar work throughout the episode. It’s fitting too–Carter was actually on YOSAR. And friend Ken Christianson keeps bumping the cuts here at the Dirtbag Diaries.