Skydiver rescued by Algonquin Lake couple
6/22/01
Shelly Sulser
Staff Writer

A series of unexpected events led to a Battle Creek man and a Hastings couple entering each other's lives on a Sunday afternoon they were not supposed to meet.

"I want to talk to them to thank them very much" said skydiver Don Huff who was alive to celebrate his 55th birthday in Pennock Hospital Monday, thanks to the efforts of Algonquin Lake residents, Gary and Pat Denslow on Sunday.

"It was definitely a team effort," said Gary Denslow, an engineer at Thermal Tech in Battle Creek.

Huff, who had enjoyed a tandem skydive in New Zealand three years ago, decided it was time to go again and enrolled in a class at Skydive Hastings to learn to jump solo.

"My son was getting a group together to go and I always wanted to do it," said Huff. "It turned out that only six of us took the class."

The group received their skydive schooling two weeks ago, but were unable to make their dives due to poor weather.

"So only three of us were able to come up Sunday," said Huff.

Huff planned to make this jump a "static" (solo) jump in which the parachute deploys automatically during descent.

"We had one guy go before me, then I was second and the third person went after me," Huff said.

During his turn, however, Huff make a critical mistake.

"I let go with one hand too soon," he said, "and I started spinning and when my parachute came out, it wound the lines up and they tangled by my head."

His attempt to reach back and untangle the lines failed and he was unable to raise his head to see whether his parachute was open.

"I tried to feel up there to control the chute, but I couldn't see them," he said. "Then I saw the chute start to collapse. I could see I was heading for the water."

A dive instructor watching Huff's predicament told Huff to pull his emergency chute.

"I said, 'yes sir, I will!," said Huff, who admitted to being a little scared as the water came closer. "It fully deployed and I hit the water hard enough."

Meanwhile, Gary and Pat Denslow were hosting a visit by their three granddaughters, Amber, Madison and Gracie, ages 3, 4 and 5, from out of town and decided to take them for a boat ride around the lake.

"For some reason, I went into the west portion of the lake which I normally don't do," said Denslow. "We went all around the lake and came back and for some reason, I turned to circle the lake again. I never do that."

The Denslows completed one-third of their second circle when Pat spotted Huff just as he entered the water.

"My wife tapped me on the shoulder and says, 'There's a parachute coming down in the water!' So I turned the boat around and thought, 'This doesn't look right,'" said Denslow. "We were going as fast as we could. He had dropped about 200 yards behind us."

Huff had entered the water about 100 yards off shore in view of the Algonquin Lake Party store and plunged 20 feet blow the surface before resurfacing, Huff said.

"I came up and I was struggling to get to shore," said Huff. "I'm an ex-Marine so I kept my head about me, trying to do everything right."

Huff said that as he struggled with the lines tangling around his arms, he saw the boat approaching him and knew that help was on the way.

"We thought, he'll probably just swim over to us, he'll use the ladder at the back of our boat and we'll take him to shore," Denslow said.

"Right after he hit, his head was bobbing up and down," added Pat.

"The closer we got, we could see this man is in serious trouble," said Denslow, who slowed his boat upon nearing Huff and circled to avoid splashing him with waves. "He was trying to stay afloat but the weight of his gear kept pulling him down."

By then, Huff was unable to grasp onto the two life jackets the couple threw out to him.

"I know the Lord was with me," said Huff. "I knew I was going down. Just as they got to me, I must have passed out."

As the couple neared Huff, Pat took over the controls of the boat and Gary jumped in without a life vest.

"He was down below about one foot," said Denslow. "All I could see was his helmet. He'd gone down for the last time and he wasn't coming back up."

Not wanting to become tangled in Huff's parachute, he decided to gather it and hand it to Pat who began pulling with all of her strength.

"She kept pulling the chute to bring this man to the boat," he said. "He was lifeless. She was able to pull up enough to get his head up."

Exhausted, Gary swam to the back of his boat and climbed in.

"I began asking God to give us the strength and the knowledge to help this man," said Gary. "We kept pulling on the chute. He wasn't moving at all, he was just dead weight. He was a big man and his chute was dragging in the water."

While they pulled Huff inch by inch, the couple yelled "help!" three times to people on shore, but received no response.

"We just pulled, two, three, four inches at a time," said Gary. "We finally got him into the boat and laid him across back of the boat and he was totally blue and not breathing."

Pat found a faint pulse and the pair rolled Huff onto his side and raised an arm to try to drain the water from the man's lungs.

Just as another boat approached the couple's location, a spotter from Skydive Hastings ran through a yard toward the lake and "we yelled for him to call 911."

The Denslows said Huff began regaining his color shortly after they turned him over and while they were rushing toward shore.

"We pulled over to a dock and the emergency crews came," said Gary. "We started to see his color come back about 10 minutes after we got him out, before the ambulance got there. We figure his lungs were full of water."

Pat said Huff's eyes were open during the entire incident and Gary recalls Huff rolling over and looking at him after regaining consciousness but before he could speak.

"He was slowly breathing on his own," said Gary.

Huff was able to talk when medical first responders and Mercy Ambulance crew memers arrived, he said.

"I remember saying, 'Yeah, I'm here!' and 'the water's a little chilly!," said Huff.

Though the Denslows have had cardio pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training in the past, the couple said they had difficulty recalling the protoccol.

"When you get in one of these situations and haven't taken CPR in a while, you forget about what to do," said Denslow. "We didn't want to blow air into his lungs and over pressure his lungs." (See related story)

The Denslows said they now plan to enroll in a CPR class.

"I challenge people to learn what they can do in a situation and to periodically go through a CPR course," said Denslow.

Huff was admitted to Pennock Hospital Sunday night, spent his birthday there Monday and was released on Tuesday with no broken bones.

He still suffers from some lung damage and must visit a pulmonary specialist, he said.

The Denslows called the hospital at about 8 p.m. Sunday to check on Huff's status and were connected to his room where they talked with his wife, Terry, who thanked them for their efforts.

After receiving a release from his doctor, Huff plans to return to Bill Knapp's in Battle Creek where he has worked for 39 years making 10,000 to 15,000 chocolate cakes a week.

He and Terri are also known for their wedding and all-occasion cake decorating business.

"Next week we're going to California for my wife's sister's 50 wedding anniversary and we're baking a cake," said Huff. "We do all sorts of cakes. We're good, I can guarantee it!"

As a former Marine and the survivor of a serious car crash 32 years ago, Huff readily admits to being adventurous and a "daredevil."

"I went bungee jumping in New Zealand and skydiving," he said. "I'm highly active. I try to do everything I can."

When asked if he will he return soon to Skydive Hastings, he said "I will go again. I'd like to go again this Sunday, but my wife says I can't because it's Father's Day. Besides that, I have to get a release from my doctor. But I'll do it. If I die, I'm ready to go."