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On The

Mend

Girls recovering after frightening
accident during camping trip.

Kaylie and Dresden hold hands in the hospital.

Robin Schwartz | Contributing Writer

T

hey lay side by side in a Bloomfield
Hills family room that has been
temporarily transformed into
a recovery ward. Kaylie Eisenberg and
Dresden Cogan, both 15, are slowly heal-
ing after a harrowing ordeal that left the
teens with severe injuries and a dramatic
story to tell.
Dresden is in a body brace with a bro-
ken back. Kaylie suffered a lacerated kid-
ney, liver and spleen, two broken ribs and
three cracked vertebrae.
It happened Saturday, July 9. The girls
were camping at Isle Royale National Park
(on an island north of Michigan’s Upper
Peninsula surrounded by Lake Superior)
as part of an annual 11-day CIT trip with
Camp Tanuga. They had just completed an
afternoon hike when they tied their ham-
mock to some trees, which appeared to
be sturdy, and one of the large tree trunks
came crashing down.
“I got on the hammock right next to
Kaylie and then I heard a crack,” Dresden
recalls. “I kind of knew what was happening,
but I couldn’t get out. I didn’t know what else
to do, so I put my arms over my head.”
The tree landed on top of both girls. A
third camper, Tess Rosenthal, managed to
get out of the way and attempted to hold
the tree up while yelling for help.
“I got out from under the tree and I saw

Kaylie under the tree and I stood up, but
I collapsed,” Dresden says. “I remember
lying on the ground crying and screaming.
A counselor lifted the tree off of Kaylie.”
According to the girls, that counselor,
Jackson Rumble, also ripped two doors
off of nearby structures and used them to
create makeshift backboards to stabilize
them. Other campers worked to comfort
and calm their injured friends while a
frantic effort unfolded to alert National
Park Service rangers and get emergency
personnel to the remote campsite.
“When I first got out from under the
tree, my first instinct was to cry,” Kaylie
says. “I wanted to cry, but it hurt to cry.
We didn’t know what was wrong with
me. I tried staying calm. If I was freaking
out screaming, I don’t think I would have
made it.”

Dresden on a makeshift backboard
following the accident

Kaylie was also placed on a makeshift
backboard to help stabilize her.

CALLS FOR HELP
Family members say counselor Olivia
Stillman and camper Drewe Raimi ran to a
nearby campsite approximately four miles
away to call for help. The park’s website
says cell phone service on the island is
not reliable. “Maritime radios and park
service satellite phones were used” to
finally reach authorities, according to a
letter sent to parents by Camp Tanuga staff
members. The letter also says Wilderness
First Responders (who receive a two-year
certification) travel with each hiking group

along with an extensive first aid kit. The
camp did not respond to a request for
additional comment. The girls’ parents
received a late-night phone call notifying
them about the accident.
“All they said was that Dresden was in
a terrible accident and she was alive,” says
her father, Sol Cogan. “We knew they were
both alive and they were both conscious,
and that’s really all we knew.”
Kaylie’s father, Brian Eisenberg, added,
“As a parent, it’s your worst nightmare to

receive that call. I am thankful that Kaylie
and Dresden are recovering and that, in
time, their normal lives will resume.”
Kaylie’s parents, Eisenberg and Stacey
Bernstein, and Dresden’s parents, Cogan
and Teisha Tann, scrambled to secure
private planes to get to Hancock, Mich.,
where a rescue helicopter would be bring-
ing the girls.
Back on the island, it took approxi-
mately six hours for medical personnel to
arrive. After that, Kaylie and Dresden had

continued on page 12

10 August 18 • 2016

