Paraplegic Sky Diver Survives Fall
A paraplegic sky diver plunged 9,500 feet into a stand of trees after both his parachutes failed, but he suffered only a broken right leg and bruises.
Mark D. Garcia, 32, of Peoria, Ariz., was listed in fair condition Monday at Emanuel Hospital & Health Center in Portland.
The accident occurred Sunday afternoon at Beaver Oaks Airport in Eagle Creek.
Garcia said he managed to cut away his main parachute after a line became tangled, but he then had the same problem with his reserve chute and it never fully deployed.
He told nursing supervisor Judy Pahl that he believed he was going about 70 m.p.h. when the trees broke his fall.
Garcia, who was on vacation in Portland, told Pahl that he has been a paraplegic since a car accident in 1980. He said he took up sky diving in 1988, and the jump Sunday was his 69th.
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