I will attempt to recount what happened from my perspective. On the Saturday of the tragedy, we had intended to have a workday at the base for YWAM CM staff. When we heard that the DTS was going to the waterfall, we decided to change our plans, since one of our staff members, Jorge, had already helped out so much working on the new base. Jorge joined, Debbie; my parents, Art and Ellen Sanborn; my wife, Anne; and me.
My parents had taught the previous week at the DTS, on hearing the voice of God. It had startled them when Jonathan had said that he had heard the audible voice of God tell him that he would “Never leave Thailand.”
We arrived at the waterfall picnic area about 10 minutes after the DTS gang at about 11:00am. We joined them for a picnic of chicken, sticky rice, and fruit. Jonathan thoroughly enjoyed the fried crickets that dad had brought. We cleaned up and got ready to go to the falls about 11:30am. At this time I found a large yellow beetle in the stream that I gave Jonathan. He was sitting with our puppy miniature pincer on his lap. He handed me his sunglasses, and asked me to look after them since he was going to carry the ice chest up to the falls.
We arrived at the falls at about 11:40. At 11:45, Mags, from England, slipped and cut her head open. I rushed down and checked her out. She was bleeding badly, but the wound was not too serious. I thought a stitch or two might be best, but she was not interested in that. Several people arrived with ice and cloth to cleanse her wound. I ran back to the car for our medical kit. At about 11:50 I returned and bandaged her wound. I looked over at the falls, and saw Jonathan dancing under the falls having such a great time; he looked like he was glowing. Mags then laid down on the blue mat as mom and some students prayed for her. I looked over and saw a group of others playing guitar and worshiping. I saw my wife looking confused, and she said that something was wrong, and she felt dizzy.
I looked over at the falls and saw my dad waving, something was indeed wrong. It was about 12:00 noon. I grabbed the medical kit and raced over to where dad was. They were just carrying Jonathan away from the waterfall area, and he was gasping for air. The wind was blowing cold moist air, and they carried him to the flat warm area where our bags were. He was turning blue and I asked the guys to set him down. I said that we needed to begin mouth-to-mouth as he became unconscious. Debbie, said that she had asthma, and that we should help him to relax and not begin mouth-to-mouth just yet. My mom insisted that I take charge and everyone agreed. Bruce stood at a distance confused and not sure how to act.
Several people recounted to me later what had just happened. Several people had dove under the waterfall, and clung to the rock face behind the waterfall. It was very difficult to breath back there, due to the high moisture content back there. Jonathan had climbed up the rock face and then jumped into the water. He then left that area and had to go sit down. Apparently, the change in temperatures, the physical exertion, and the extremely humid air had set his condition off. He had tried to use his medicine to no avail. His last words were “Help me Jesus!” which he said several times.
With each gasp of air that he choked in, Debbie would spray his medicine into his mouth. It did not seem like the air or the medicine was getting into his lungs. Everyone was around him praying for him, as we tried to keep him warm with towels. When his body stopped gasping for air, we realized that we needed to begin mouth-to-mouth. Daniel had expertise in this area, and took charge of this. He also knew about the proper frequency of chest compressions, and took charge of that, along with, Charla. We then put a blue bamboo mat underneath him.
After about every 3 cycles, his mouth would expel fluid. We put him on his side and rubbed his back in long slow strokes, as he vomited. And we would begin the resuscitation process again. Debbie and others spoke to Jonathan calmly asking him to stay with us and to remain calm. After about 4 minutes of this, color started to return to his face. I stood up to take a breather, and signaled to several people that the situation seemed to be improving. Bruce walked over to my dad, and said, “We nearly lost him.”
A moment later, I looked back and realized that everything was not ok. He was turning blue again, and his pulse had stopped. I knew then that he needed to get out of there, as quickly as possible. One of the guys had run to the entrance and gone with a guard by motorcycle to call an ambulance with his cell phone. Mom arrived from the trail with Jorge, and said that an ambulance should be there soon, and that maybe we should do a trachea (she brought a hollowed out pen).
Based on what Debbie had told us, his lungs were completely closed off. The problem was getting the air into his lungs not his throat. I ruled a trachea out, as I figured that his blood pressure would rise, he would bleed a lot, and it would make Mouth to Mouth more difficult, it might have even put more fluids into his lungs. Even before we had left that spot, he was probably dead. We tried mouth-to-mouth and chest compressions for about another minute, as I explained my plan. We would rush with him and at about every 10 yards, we would do mouth-to-mouth and chest compressions. Anyone who was having problems carrying could raise his hand and someone would replace his position. Daniel would make each call when we were ready to race to the next spot. We stopped about 4 times on the way to the truck, which was just pulling into the entrance of the trail. About 6 or 7 of us jumped in. It was probably about 12:15. We put towels on him and under his head. As Daniel would do mouth-to-mouth, I would wipe Jonathan’s mouth. We raced very fast with the horn beeping, as Bruce followed in his truck.
Daniel and I showed a couple of the other guys how to do chest compressions. We arrived at a little clinic at about 12:20. We took his body in, as the person on duty looked at him. The look on her face said, “Why are you carrying a dead person around?” We asked if she owned and knew how to use defribulator shock paddles, or if she had a syringe of asthma medicine. She slowly opened up a bunch of cabinets and found a portable breathing device. Daniel and I looked at each other and we absolutely knew that she didn’t know anything about treating asthma. Daniel chose to not bring the breathing device, as he felt he could be more effective doing it manually. We quickly raced him out of there and put him in Bruce’s truck, since it was a much faster vehicle.
About a minute down the road we saw an ambulance, and Bruce decided to chase it, hoping it was headed to the clinic. We got to the clinic, and the ambulance wasn’t there. We discovered later, it had gone out to the waterfall. This setback caused a delay of less than 2 minutes. The truth is, the ambulance probably wouldn’t have offered us any benefit besides the red twirling lights on top.
We skidded around and raced back down towards MaeTaeng hospital. Daniel valiantly doing mouth-to-mouth along the way, as I held Jonathans head, and others did chest compressions. At about 12:50pm we arrived at the little hospital, and lifted him on to the gurney with the blue mat still under him. In the Emergency room, they did all of the resuscitation things that we had done, as well as put a tube down his throat, and put an iv drip on his arm. We stood around the outside of the room and continued praying very hard. After about 15 minutes of effort, the doctors declared him dead on arrival and let us in the room. We called Emmi’s phone to let everyone know, and find out where they where. I was thinking I would need to drive back to the falls to get people, but they had all safely made it to the DTS base. Everyone was very shaken up.
We gathered around Jonathan’s bed and prayed. Bruce asked God if He would please do His miracle now. Jonathan had now been declared dead, and so now God could raise him back up. We watched intently, but not a muscle flinched. We slowly walked outside and huddle up for one more prayer. Everyone hopped in the back of the truck as I slowly drove back to the base. When we arrived everyone was in small groups crying and dealing with their grief. As Bruce went to call the parents we gathered most people together as I recounted for everyone what had happened, and encouraged them not to blame God or anyone else. I spent quite a while debriefing the team and helping to sort through the groups emotions.
The next day I helped to arrange the death certificate with the American consulate and delivered the document to Bruce. 3 days later on the day that the family were due to arrive I purchased makeup and with Jorge applied it to his blackened face to make him look more natural for the family.
The parent’s response was very Godly and a blessing to all of us. At this point Bruce began to act as if this was only his burden to bear and as if only he had done anything. Bruce never again discussed the situation with me except to express how traumatized he was.