Kalama teen Jordan Holgerson, center, speaks to the media during a press conference at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center Aug. 9, surrounded by, clockwise from right, friends Taylor Lavigne and Masey Tucker, and sister, Kaytlin Holgerson.
The Clark County Sheriff’s Office is reporting that the suspect in an incident that left a Kalama teen with broken ribs and punctured lungs is cooperating with the investigation, though the department is not releasing any names at this time.
Jordan Holgerson, 16, of Kalama was pushed from the Moulton Falls Bridge over the East Fork Lewis River on August 8. She fell more than 50 feet.
At a press conference at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center Aug. 9 Holgerson was in a reclining wheelchair flanked by two friends and her sister, Kaytlin. Given the ongoing investigation into the incident, specifics about the fall weren’t discussed, though she did speak about the injuries as well as her familiarity with the location.
MaryClare Sarff, the PeaceHealth Southwest trauma surgeon who treated Holgerson, said Holgerson had four rib fractures and both of her lungs were punctured, “probably somewhat from the pressure of the fall” as well as from the fractures. She also suffered substantial bruising.
The fall was documented in a widely-circulated video where Holgerson was outside of the railing on the bridge and appeared to be hesitant to make the jump. A female, still unidentified, is seen pushing Holgerson into the water. She flailed in the air before hitting the water.
Holgerson said she may have fainted while midair but was “definitely” conscious when she hit the water. She said she tried to straighten out to land feet-first but ended up landing on her right side where the rib fractures were.
“I couldn’t breathe, so that’s all I was really thinking about,” Holgerson said once she was in the water.
Holgerson had seen the widely-circulated video, commenting it was “scary” to watch. She mentioned she didn’t like the social media attention due to the sheer volume of it — about 500 follow requests on Instagram alone.
“There’s too many notifications on my phone. I can’t keep up,” she remarked.
Though she had seen others successfully jump off the bridge into the water before, this was the first time she was going to try.
She was asked about what warnings were present at the bridge to deter anyone jumping off it.
“There’s one sign,” Holgerson said, adding she looked at it though the message didn’t stick.
“I’m thankful for my helpers,” Holgerson said, referencing those by her side as well as those she wasn’t aware of who were in some way moved by the video clip.
In a press conference following Holgerson’s, Sarff said the victim came in as a “trauma alert” and she was told Holgerson had fallen 50 feet into water.
“This could have been horrible. She could have died,” Sarff said, noting that when she arrived Holgerson was talking and seemed “fairly intact” given the circumstances.
Sarff said that when it came to falls doctors often talked about the “lethal dose” of height which could be a low as three times of body height for 50 percent mortality.
“She fell onto water which people might say is not that bad,” Sarff said, but from such a height the impact was analogous to hitting concrete.
“If she had fallen a different way she could have broken her neck,” Sarff said.
With rib fractures there is no way to splint the injury as would be the case in other broken bones, Sarff explained, though the fractures do heal on their own, taking six weeks or more.
Holgerson was released from the hospital late Thursday.
