Father hiking with son loses eye after stick pierces brain in freak accident
A pensioner has been left partially blind after a falling tree branch impaled one of his eyes during a freak hiking accident.
Edward Steinkamp, 67, was enjoying a West Coast Trail in British Colombia’s Pacific Rim National Park in Canada, with his son Bret when he was struck by a branch.
Bret, 28, watched in horror as the stick rammed through his dad's left eye and into his brain after he fell off a log on May 3.
According to The Times Colonist, Steinkamp was trying to dodge having to wade through mud that was a foot and a half deep.
The Texas father was airlifted to hospital where medics had to remove his left eye during an emergency surgical procedure.
A second procedure was reportedly carried out in a desperate bid to drain his infection and he was left with swelling, reports New York Post.
A fundraiser launched by his friend Susan Lowe read: "What started as a beautiful experience with stunning views turned suddenly tragic a few days later when Ed had a freak accident and fell.
"He ended up with a stick puncturing his brain through his eye and needed to be airlifted by Pacheedahl First National Guardians to Victoria General Hospital.
"It took them 6 hours and refuelling by the national guard before they could get him.
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"Ed is now fighting infection and is in much pain. It has been determined he has lost sight in one eye and is fighting an ongoing fever.
“The costs for this will be enormous, from the airlift rescue and the medics who attended to him, to the brain surgery and needed drugs, the ambulance rides to the Ophthalmologist, the CT scans.
"As well as the lengthy and undetermined time he will need to remain hospitalized in the special ward as well as [his wife and son] Wendy and Bret’s hotel stay bills.”
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