By David Downey | Contributing Writer
Joseph Furtek didn’t hesitate when asked why he believes he survived an Oct. 18 rockslide that pounded his van with boulders on a highway in the San Bernardino Mountains.
“There’s no question this was divine intervention,” the 58-year-old Lake Arrowhead resident said Friday, Nov. 15.
“I mean, I should have died.”
There were many who helped.
There was another driver — an “angel,” Furtek said — who stopped behind his demolished van along Highway 18 in a place called “The Narrows,” near the Crestline turnoff, where the road hugs a steep cliff.
“He got out of his car, held my hand and prayed with me,” Furtek said.
Furtek, who is 6 feet 6 inches tall and was pinned inside the collapsed cabin, said San Bernardino County firefighters cut him out of the wreckage and stabilized him for a crucial ambulance ride down the mountain.
“I was bleeding to death,” Furtek added, saying rescuers considered amputating his right leg.
He lost about 75% of his blood at the scene.
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When Furtek arrived at Loma Linda University Medical Center’s trauma center, surgeons scrambled to save his life — and leg, doctors said. He had suffered several compound fractures — including an especially severe fracture to his right femur or thigh bone — and a concussion.
“He was really on death’s door for the first 72, maybe 96 hours,” said his sister, Laura Furtek, a nurse who lives in San Luis Obispo.
Laura Furtek organized an online fundraising campaign to help pay her brother’s medical expenses. The campaign had raised nearly $11,500 as of Tuesday morning, Nov. 19.
Boulders came ‘bouncing down the hill’
Joseph Furtek said several people involved in his rescue have shared with him the details surrounding the accident. He doesn’t know exactly what happened because the force of the slide knocked him unconscious.
“I don’t remember anything two days prior to the accident,” he said in an interview from Loma Linda. “I don’t remember a thing.”
“And I don’t remember anything after the accident. I don’t remember ever being admitted to this hospital.”
Furtek said that just last week he was shown photos of the twisted pile of metal that formerly was his Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van.
“When I saw them it made me appreciate how lucky I am,” he said.
In a photo published the day of the slide, a boulder is visible immediately in front of the van and another is seen resting next to the driver’s door. The driver-side door is open. The cabin area is caved in.
“These rocks were so huge that they probably came bouncing down the hill,” Furtek said.
While he considers himself lucky, luck does not equate to comfort.
Furtek has endured much pain. And he has largely been confined to a hospital bed.
“It’s driving me crazy,” he said.
Alert and sporting a full head of hair and a gray beard, Furtek moved his arms and left leg relatively freely while sitting up in bed during the interview. But his badly damaged right foot was wrapped in a lavender boot bearing a red label that read: “Do not stand or walk in boot.”
“If I get out of bed, an alarm goes off and a bunch of people rush to the room,” he said.
Furtek said he has been told he must not put weight on his right foot until Jan. 24.
Rehabilitation is no ‘cakewalk’
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However, the journey to hopefully regaining full use of that leg is underway.
On Friday night, Furtek said he was being transferred to a rehabilitation center in the Loma Linda complex, where he is set to spend the next several weeks. His rehabilitation program involves exercises three hours a day, six days a week.
“It’s not going to be a cakewalk,” he said. “I’m not looking forward to it.”
Dr. Rebecca Rajfer, a Loma Linda traumatologist, said the prognosis for walking is “pretty good.”
“But he will need months of therapy in the meantime,” Rajfer said.
“Learning to walk again is a lot of work.”
Rajfer said Furtek has undergone six orthopedic surgeries and procedures, including “cleanouts” to remove bacteria and debris from wounds to prevent infection.
Dr. Thomas Donaldson, chair of Loma Linda’s Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, said Furtek suffered “devastating” injuries, and particularly to the large femur bone in his upper right leg. Part of that bone is missing, he said.
Rajfer said traumatologist Dr. Jason Chen performed a life-saving surgery on Furteks’ femur when he arrived at the hospital.
Several days later, on Oct. 24, Rajfer surgically realigned his femur.
Furtek said he is grateful for the doctors and nurses who are helping him and keeping a watchful eye on his condition.
“They’ve been awesome,” he said.
Before his transfer Friday to the rehabilitation center, Furtek was being watched closely in a room on the hospital’s 15th floor. From there, he had a view of the mountains — the site of the rockslide.
“It was right over there,” Furtek said on a recent cloudy morning, pointing out the window. “You can see the Crestline turnoff … when it is clear.”
Man never expected such an accident
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 25 to 50 people are killed annually in the United States by landslides and debris flows.
Living in Lake Arrowhead for the past several years, Furtek said he knew from time to time that rocks tumble onto local mountain roads such as Highway 18. But he never imagined he would become the victim of a slide.
“I didn’t anticipate this is the way my life was going to go,” Furtek said. “It’s crazy. I mean, it really is.”
The rockslide occurred at a time when Furtek said he was moving forward from a divorce and a DUI conviction. In June, Furtek pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor DUI and was sentenced to probation.
Furtek said he had been trying to sell his Lake Arrowhead house. And he had just paid $200,000 cash for the van, which he planned to use as a temporary home.
Furtek said he hoped — and still hopes — to relocate to the San Luis Obispo area.
An accomplished salesperson, Furtek said he spent more than 30 years selling medical devices before retiring in 2023.
Because the accident created financial challenges, in addition to the physical ones, Furtek said he intends to work again — once his right leg heals.
In a welcome development, his sister said he has healed to the point where he is beginning to regain his sense of humor.
“He’s a big guy,” Laura Furtek said. “He’s a big personality.”
Laura Furtek said her brother isn’t bitter.
“There is not an ounce of, ‘Why did this happen to me?’” she said. “He said, ‘God spared me for a reason, so I’m going to make the best of it.’”
Staff writer Brian Rokos contributed to this report.
HOW TO HELP
A GoFundMe fundraiser has been set up to help pay for Joseph Furtek’s medical expenses.