Family Mourns After Dad’s Final Act of Love

A tightknit Santa Ana family was devastated on Monday after a construction foreman working away from home in Washington state jumped into a collapsing ditch Sunday to try to save his only son, and instead was crushed to death.

The widow of Jose Galdamez, 53, was still trying to figure out how to break the news to their son, Michael Anthony Galdamez, 21, whose father died trying to save him at a golf course construction site 20 miles east of Seattle.

“They were one,” said Yolanda Galdamez, 54, who wept during a telephone interview from the intensive care unit of a Seattle hospital. “They were extremely close. Before I even heard any details, I knew my husband had died trying to save our son.”

Father and son, who traveled across the country doing construction work for Oliphant Golf Construction of Madison, Wis., were at the site of the Members Club at Aldarra course in Fall City, Wash., when the tragedy occurred. “They were always together,” said 16-year-old Joanna Alvarez, Jose Galdamez’s niece and goddaughter. “Even when they argued, it was about the little things. It wasn’t about anything big that kept them from talking. For Michael, his father was No. 1.”

Jose Galdamez, father of three girls and grandfather of nine, jumped into the V-shaped, 14-foot-deep ditch about 4:10 p.m. Sunday after mud and heavy clay buried his only son up to the tops of his legs.

“He’s buried in there and he starts calling for help,” said King County Sheriff’s Deputy Gregg Walker. “Two guys jump in to help, and one was his father. More dirt starts falling from one side . . . and crushes the father against one side. He was buried at chest level.”

All work was halted on Sunday when a state agency determined the trench walls had been insufficiently bolstered, according to the Seattle Times. Formerly a farm, the 269-acre golf course has been under construction for a year. Building resumed last month at the conclusion of the region’s rainy season, King County Fire Chief Chris Connor said.

The younger Galdamez was digging near the bottom of a trench to install a drainage system for the golf course when he was trapped. The Fire Department received a frantic call from another worker who had jumped into the ditch with the elder Galdamez, and used a cellular telephone to dial 911. When firefighters arrived, four men were shoveling through the heavy clay.

Within minutes, firefighters shored up the sides of the trench to prevent further collapse and pulled the elder Galdamez out. But resuscitation efforts were futile, Connor said.

An autopsy on Monday revealed Jose Galdamez died of “crushing force injury,” the King County medical examiner’s office said.

Backup workers from several agencies were called in to aid the overwhelmed 22-member department.

“This was a huge operation,” Connor said, “and very dangerous for everyone involved.”

Fearful of another collapse if they used rescue equipment, 34 firefighters clawed through the mud and clay with their bare hands for more than three hours to extricate Michael Galdamez from the ditch.

“Machinery creates vibrations that can make it worse,” Connor said. “The digging has to be safe. It has to be by hand.”

On Monday, the family rallied at a Seattle hospital to support the younger Galdamez, whose legs were crushed and lungs were damaged during the Sunday afternoon ordeal.

Michael Galdamez faces months of surgeries and grafts on his legs, followed by therapy, his mother said. She worries his health will decline when he learns what happened to his father.

Since Michael Galdamez graduated from Saddleback High School in 1997, the father and son had worked together, traveling around the country to various construction projects.

Because the two were gone almost year-round, Yolanda Galdamez traveled frequently to see her “baby” son and husband. This summer, she planned to visit Seattle with some of her grandchildren.

“That’s how I was getting to know the States,” she said. “I would go wherever they were.

Jose Galdamez, a native of El Salvador, did not get to meet his ninth grandchild, a boy born May 3.

“He was a very loving and giving person,” his wife said, “and he was crazy about his grand-kids.”