After hours of laying at the bottom of an embankment in pain and unable to move, Lawrence “Matt” L’Hommedieu began to pray. He asked God to have mercy on him — whatever that would bring.
Within 10 minutes, a pair of passers-by who saw his motorcycle on the remote, gravel road called down to L’Hommedieu and said they were getting help.
“It’s just amazing that they showed up when they did,” L’Hommedieu said, describing that moment as his darkest hour.
Once he knew help was coming for him, he was able to relax.
The 46-year-old Stevenson man crashed his motorcycle Thursday afternoon in the Columbia River Gorge while on his way to meet a friend. They were going to look for the parachute of D.B. Cooper, the man who hijacked a plane between Portland and Seattle in 1971 and parachuted to an uncertain fate with $200,000. It was a project they had been working on, and L’Hommedieu wanted to search in a place they’d never been before.
L’Hommedieu wasn’t very familiar with the Department of Natural Resources road and took a turn too quickly. He was thrown off the motorcycle and rolled down an embankment, where he landed on his back in a stream. Although he was able to move out of the water, his body soon froze. L’Hommedieu knew his left leg, which swelled, was broken in multiple spots.
“What was going through my head was, ‘How do I get out of this predicament?’ ” L’Hommedieu said Monday from his bed at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center.
He used his training as a firefighter and Navy SEAL medic to fashion a tourniquet out of sticks, a belt and shoe laces. It wasn’t ideal, but L’Hommedieu knew he needed to control the swelling in his broken leg to avoid further injury.
The sound of the stream drowned out the sound of any cars passing by, not that it would have made a difference, L’Hommedieu said, because he couldn’t move. So it became a waiting game, as he hoped that someone would find him.
He reflected on life and what he had contributed to the world, unsure whether he’d survive. Night came and went.
On Friday, Anson and Angela Service of Vancouver, who were in the Gorge for a hike, spotted his motorcycle near the road. When they drove by a few hours later and saw the motorcycle again, they pulled over and saw L’Hommedieu down the embankment.
“It was just amazing that the Services found him,” said L’Hommedieu’s father, Dave. “If they had not been there, he might not have been here.”
Although the couple had to leave to get cellphone reception to call 911, it seemed like help arrived quickly, Matt L’Hommedieu said. Skamania County sheriff’s deputies responded with Skamania County Emergency Medical Services and rope rescue teams, which lifted L’Hommedieu to the roadway, said Sheriff Dave Brown.
An ambulance drove him to the Skamania County Fairgrounds, then a Life Flight helicopter flew him to PeaceHealth Southwest, where he’s recovering. He didn’t want to have his photo taken in the hospital.
L’Hommedieu, who has always been an active guy, said he hopes to heal well enough to get back on his bike again. Next time he’s out adventuring, though, he said he’ll be more careful.
