Three off-duty Redding firefighters tried desperately to clear the airway of San Carlos resident Michael Murphy after he took a tragic fall while hiking Mt. Shasta, according to KRCR Channel 7.
The three men saw Murphy, 57, slip and tumble down the mountain nearly 2,000 feet Thursday and performed an emergency tracheotomy on him with the assistance of two doctors who were also hiking Mt. Shasta, according to KRCR.
The group was able to keep Murphy alive until a California Highway Patrol helicopter arrived and airlifted him to Mercy Medical in Redding, according to KRCR.
Murphy died, however, before he reached the hospital.
The San Carlos resident was 57. He is survived by wife Natalie, son Patrick and mother Pat.
A vigil is planned 7 p.m., Sunday, June 21, at St. Charles Parish in San Carlos, where Murphy was a long-time deacon. He also attended school at the church as a child.
“For me, Mike was the heart and soul of our parish family, a community he has been part of since his childhood. One young neighbor delivered a card to his mom Pat Lautze in which she wrote: ‘Sorry for the loss of your sun.’ That young person captured what Mike meant to so many as he was the beacon of light in his ministry and preaching to our community and so many others,” St. Parish pastor David Ghiorso wrote on the church’s website.
Murphy was also a teacher at Sacred Heart Schools in Atherton, where he taught math and religion.
He was also a coach at St. Joseph’s School in Atherton.
He graduated from St. Francis High School in Mountain View and from the University of Santa Clara in 1980 with a major in history.
A vigil service is set for Sunday, June 21, at 7 p.m., at St. Charles Church, 880 Tamarack Ave., San Carlos. The funeral mass is set for Monday, June 22, at 10:30 a.m., at St. Charles Church.
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