Snowboarder Who Survived Week In Mountains Dies -- Boy, 14, Dies Of Infection From His Injuries

In a heartbreaking reversal of fortune, a 14-year-old snowboarder who amazed rescuers and captured the nation's attention by surviving a six-day ordeal in the storm-wracked San Gabriel Mountains of Southern California succumbed to the ravages of infection from his injuries, medical authorities said yesterday.

Jeff Thornton, who had experienced increasingly severe breathing difficulties for about 24 hours, went into cardiac arrest about 10 p.m. Friday. Efforts to revive him failed, and he was pronounced dead at 10:39 p.m., according to officials at Loma Linda University Medical Center in Redlands, Calif.

His doctors said infection that set in from his injuries - frostbite on his legs, arms and hands, dehydration, broken bones and an eye injury - had overwhelmed the ninth-grader from Brawley, Calif. The boy had gone without food and endured several winter storms and subfreezing temperatures as he struggled alone since being lost Feb. 7 about 6,000 feet high in the rugged mountains.

What the boy "went through in the mountains took a big toll on his body," pediatric intensive-care specialist Dr. Shamel Abd-Allah said at a hospital news conference yesterday.

"We are all amazed at the rapidity of this disease, how he was doing well and then not so well . . . these infections can be overwhelming," Abd-Allah said.

Abd-Allah and another physician, Dr. Takkin Lo, said they treated Jeff, who had developed some gangrene from the frostbite,

with broad-spectrum antibiotics and oxygen. The youth was transferred to the pediatric intensive-care unit Thursday night when he began having difficulty breathing. On Friday morning, he underwent exploratory surgery to find and try to clear any pockets of infection on his gangrenous feet, Abd-Allah said. But his condition deteriorated throughout the day.

"We attempted resuscitation with aggressive CPR for an extended period of time, but we were unable to get him back," the physician said.

Jeff's family did not speak with reporters yesterday but issued a brief written statement that spoke volumes about their suffering.

"After the elation felt upon Jeff being found, the despair of now losing him has devastated his family and friends." The statement went on to thank "everyone for their continued prayers and support."

Word of Jeff's death stunned rescuers and others who had followed his story since his disappearance while snowboarding with his uncle and his near-miraculous rescue six days later. Searchers found him dazed and cold but with seemingly few serious injuries, sitting beside a creek about two miles from where he had vanished, the New Mountain High ski area near Wrightwood.

The initial reports were optimistic at Foothill Presbyterian Hospital in Glendora, where Jeff was treated the first 24 hours after his rescue on Feb. 13. He was transferred the following day to Loma Linda, which has equipment to treat frostbite-caused infection through the administration of high concentrations of oxygen.

Saying they wanted to respect the family's request for privacy, Loma Linda officials released little information on Jeff's condition. On Monday, however, they upgraded their brief public report on his condition from serious to fair, which a hospital spokeswoman said was used to describe a patient whose vital signs are stable and who is no longer considered at risk of death.

But Jeff was obviously much sicker than most people realized.

"One of the things the family has a right to do is limit the amount of information," Loma Linda spokesman Augustus Cheatham said at the news conference. That created the expectation that Jeff was "just doing fine."

"He has really been quite ill since his injuries, which probably had something to do with his being transferred here for treatment," Cheatham said.

Jeff gave a brief television interview and received a visit from Anaheim Mighty Ducks hockey players Thursday - the night before he died.

The Sierra Madre Search and Rescue Team, two members of which finally had found Jeff in a ravine, released a message of sympathy yesterday. The team's men and women "are deeply saddened by the death of Jeff Thornton and extend their condolences to his family and friends. We take some solace that our efforts along with the efforts of other mountain rescue teams and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department enabled Jeff to have some time to spend with his family before his passing," the statement said.

Jeff disappeared while snowboarding with his uncle, Marc Shapiro. Shapiro said the two got off a chairlift at the top of a run on the stormy afternoon and headed into the trees in hopes of finding better snow. Shapiro said he had thought Jeff was right behind him, but the youth apparently lost his way and headed down the rugged back side of mountain.

Stormy weather hampered the search and rescuers, who on the sixth day thought they were looking for a body. Word of Jeff's rescue resonated around the nation, and at home in Brawley, where his classmates and friends had taken to wearing blue ribbons and pins with "In Hope of Jeff Thornton" inscribed on them.

Hospital officials said they did not know whether Jeff ever realized the extent of his injuries.