BEND, Ore. -- Preliminary autopsy findings in the death of a Portland teen at a Central Oregon wilderness camp may lead to criminal charges for staff members.
Sergey Blashchishen, a 16-year-old Portland boy, died hiking in Central Oregon late last summer. According to his mother, Sergey was at the Sage Walk Wilderness Camp to "get his life back on track after dropping out of school."
?Background:
Sergey collapsed during a hike on his very first day at the camp.
At the time, Deschutes County Sheriff's deputies said CPR had been attempted and a medical transport requested.
Blashchishen was declared dead at the scene. Blashchishen had just passed a sports physical the day before.
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"I don't know what to think, I still don't believe it, I still think he will come home," said Lyudmila Blashchishena of her 16-year old son.
"He kind of lost himself a little bit, because you know he dropped out of school and he didn't want to go."
?But after months of searching and doing odd jobs, Blashchishena said her son wanted to get his life back on track.? That's when the family discovered Sage Walk, a Central Oregon camp for troubled teens.
"We liked how they advertised their treatment, adventure, discipline and everything... we thought it would be just right for him."
"I kind of inside, do not believe that a 16-year-old child, athletic, could die from hiking, even if it's 85 or 90 degrees," Blashchishena said. "I just really want to know the truth, what happened there."
The Bureau of Land Management suspended the permit for the wilderness camp to operate on BLM land.
Sergey was taken from the family's Portland home and driven to a campsite just outside of Bend. Staff members showed up at the house early in the morning and took Sergey away in a van, while his parents had been instructed to not be home at the time.
According to an affidavit requesting a search warrant of the Sage Walk Corporate headquarters in Redmond, Blashchisen set out on a five mile hike August 28, 2009.?
New to the program he was given plenty of water, but his diet was restricted.? For breakfast, he was given just two cups of granola or oatmeal.? An hour into the hike other's noticed Sergey walking awkwardly, a sign of heat exhaustion or heat stroke.
In the affidavit Lake County Sheriff's Deputy Chuck Pore wrote, "Not one of the staff questioned if Sergey's walk was one of these issues.? This appears to be the first sign Sergey was entering heat exhaustion."
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The hike continued.? Sergey reportedly fell several times wearing a forty to fifty pound pack on his back. An hour later, he vomited.? Thirty minutes later, he stopped breathing.
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"Medical emergency symptoms are being ignored because counselors are being told to shape behavior and put medical symptoms on the back burner," says Blashchisen family attorney Gordon Gannicott.
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"We do know that our EMT-trained staff worked tirelessly with the student until the AirLink emergency helicopter arrived on the scene, at which time the student's care was turned over to the AirLink medics," a statement from SageWalk said Wednesday. "SageWalk considers student safety our number one priority and takes this incident very seriously.? Over the course of our 12 year history, our program has adhered to the highest standards of care and we currently meet or exceed all industry and state standards.?
"We were the first wilderness program to be individually accredited by the Northwest Association of Accredited Schools, and we are licensed by the State of Oregon to work with students who are experiencing issues with substance abuse and are also licensed by the State of Oregon as both an Outdoor Youth Program and Private School."
"Medical emergency symptoms are being ignored because counselors are being told to shape behavior and put medical symptoms on the back burner," says Blashchisen family attorney Gordon Gannicott.
Though final results of an autopsy are not complete, preliminary findings show Blashchisen died of heat stroke.? Based on interviews with staff members detailing prior hikes at the camp Pore concluded, "Sage Walk may have taken children to the precipice of disaster and been lucky.? On Friday August 28, 2009 this luck ran out"
To date, no criminal charges have been filed in the case, but Deputy Pore believes the actions of the staff could amount to criminal mistreatment and reckless endangering.
In response to the accusations Sage Walk, The Wilderness School issued a statement reading, "We maintain that we took every step possible to ensure the safety of this student, as we have every student over the course of our 12 year history, and disagree with the Lake County Sheriff's Deputy's view of the events."
(KGW Reporter Katherine Cook contributed to this report)
