The cave explorer was stuck for over 24 hours as the rescue team was left with a difficult decision to attempt to save his life but cause him immense pain in the process
It was a decision no one should have to take but for the attempted rescuers of a cave explorer it was a matter of life and death.
John Jones suffered what has been described as the worst death imaginable when he became stuck for more than 24 hours, upside down, in a tiny, cramped cave. In their desperate bid to get him out the rescue team was left with a difficult decision to attempt to save his life but cause him immense pain in the process.
Brandon Kowallis was the last person to see the young man before his tragic death after getting stuck upside down inside of a cave, and the details of that night still haunt him. At just 26 John Jones lost his life after being trapped for over 24 hours in the Nutty Putty Cave in Utah in 2009 – although, he wasn’t alone. A team of rescuers worked tirelessly to try to save him, and one of those team members was Brandon.
A cave explorer himself and an avid YouTuber, Brandon gave his best efforts to free John from the position he was in and allow him to escape the cave, but it was no easy feat. Since then, he has opened up about the harrowing decision he was left with as a last resort to save John’s life.
A six-foot-tall John was entirely wedged into the cave, in a part known as the birth canal, due to its incredibly tight space. As a result, he could not move – one wrong turn in that tunnel had cost him his life. In a blog post detailing the events, the rescuer recalls the mission on that doomed day of November 15, 2009. After reaching the cave to find an upside-down, unconscious John, he noticed things were going “quickly downhill”.
He explained: “It looked like he could only be lifted another foot or two in his current position because of where the webbing was anchored around his knees. After a foot or two, he would hit the ceiling. And then once he reached the ceiling, there was no way to tilt him to a horizontal position.”
There was no way to manoeuvre his position, as John would need to hoist himself and use his own strength, but by this point, he was unconscious. In a desperate attempt to save him, the rescuers considered a harrowing tactic that meant using a jackhammer to widen the tunnel, but it would result in brutal injuries.
In the process of doing this, the rescuer admits John would have been cut up badly and broken many bones, but it was the only – and final- option to save his life. Although, Brandon remembers just how difficult this task was after hours of chipping away and hammering at the rocks.
In his blog, he wrote about his estimations, being that it would take anywhere from ‘three to seven days’ to free John from the cave, and that was time they simply didn’t have.
Before this, the cave explorer recalled the elusive state that John was in, writing: “He was in and out of consciousness and had started talking about seeing angels and demons around him.” When he reached into the cave, he was met with a man making disturbing gurgling breathing sounds, due to the fluid building in his lungs, and had restlessly twitching legs.
While they were trying their luck, Brandon, along with other rescuers, continued to chip away into the night, even knowing they could break his bones, but it wasn’t enough to save him. When they went in to check on him, he was pronounced dead at around 11:52, after suffering cardiac arrest and suffocation.
The 26-year-old medical student was leaving behind a loving wife, Emily, who was pregnant at the time of his death. The baby was named after him, and he became the little brother to his daughter Lizzie.
