Jordan Holgerson, Teen Pushed Off 50-Foot Bridge: 'I Could Have Died, Easily'
CLARK COUNTY, Wash. (KPTV) -- A Kalama teenager says she could have have been killed when she was pushed off a Clark County footbridge near Moulton Falls last week.
The video showing 16-year-old Jordan Holgerson getting pushed off the edge of the bridge at Moulton Falls Regional Park has gone viral, and the Major Crimes Unit of the Clark County Sheriff's Office is investigating.
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Deputies say they have identified the person who pushed Holgerson, but so far, no charges have been filed.
"I have five broken ribs, there are air bubbles in my chest," Holgerson said at a hospital last week. "I could have died, easily."
To protect the investigation and potential legal pursuits, Holgerson won't talk about who pushed her or what happened on the bridge.
But she did say that as she was falling toward the water she did what she could to minimize the impact.
"In the air, I was trying to push myself forward so I could be straight up and down so that my feet hit first, but that didn't really work," she said. "In the air, I think I might have fainted, but when I hit the water, I was definitely awake and aware."
She fell 50 feet and hit the river below like a belly flop. Most of her injuries are along her right side.
She was taken by ambulance to PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center in Vancouver, where Dr. MaryClare Sarff was on the responding trauma team.
"This could have been horrible. She could have died," Sarff said.
According to Dr. Sarff, people don't survive half the time when they fall 25 feet. Holgerson fell twice that far.
"She fell onto water, which people might say isn't that bad because it's water, but when you're falling from that height the water is like concrete," she said. "She's really lucky that she wasn't very injured, considering. If she had fallen a different way, she could have broken her neck, she could be a quadriplegic."
Holgerson said she may be released from the hospital as early as Thursday. Going forward, she can't do anything active for six weeks while her lungs and ribs heal.
She said she's been swimming in that area before and has seen people jump off the bridge and come out just fine.
A day after Holgerson was pushed, FOX 12 found people still jumping off the bridge. Some said they even came there because of the viral video showing what happened.
There's a sign on the bridge warning people not to jump or dive.
Firefighters say it's an ongoing issue at the park. They say they've responded to four cases already this summer, which is a new record.
--By Kelsey Watts
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