Son Saves Fathers Life

Emerald Pool just above Vernal Fall in Yosemite. Photo by John Bennett.

Emerald Pool at the top of Vernal Fall is a cool, inviting haven on a hot summer day. Many hikers don’t realize the eminent danger they put themselves in when they plunge into the pool after the long, hot hike to the top of the Fall. Jeff Dobek Sr. is only too well aware of the danger after his 11 year old son rescued him from the frigid water 50 degree water.

Gilroy Dispatch: After a grueling, 1,000-foot hike up to Vernal Falls in 105-degree heat, the Gilroy resident peeled off his sweaty clothes and plunged into the 50-degree snowmelt of Emerald Pool, a shallow lake at the top of the falls known for its deep green hue. Hesitant at first, his father, Jeff Dobbek Sr., decided to give the frigid pool a shot and dove in after his son. As father and son stroked toward the opposite end of the pool, Dobbek Sr., 53, felt his body temperature plummeting and the gentle current tugging him away from the shore.

Dobbek Jr. beat his father across and scampered up the slippery bank.

“Jeffrey just kicked himself up,” Dobbek Sr. said. “But I couldn’t find a foothold. I started to panic a little bit and Jeffrey’s telling me to just kick harder. I could feel my body shutting down.”

Exhausted and lightheaded, Dobbek Sr. slipped beneath the surface.

“He was trying to pull himself up and he just fainted,” Dobbek Jr. said. “He fell into the water with his eyes wide open.”

Dobbek Jr. paused for a moment to register what just happened before jumping back into the freezing water after his father.

“I’m like, ‘What’s he doing? Did he drop something?’” Dobbek Jr. remembered. “I jumped in after a few seconds when I knew something was wrong.”

Doggy-paddling furiously and holding his father by the armpits as they drifted farther from shore, Dobbek Jr. yelled for help. Dobbek Sr. weighs 210 pounds, while his son weighs 115 pounds.

Fortunately, two off-duty lifeguards taking a dip nearby heard Dobbek Jr.’s cries for help and pulled his father ashore.

“They did one pump on his chest and he coughed up a bunch of water and came to,” Dobbek Jr. said.

Dobbek Sr. remembered his return to consciousness as a bizarre experience.

“It was completely black but the first thing I heard was myself internally moaning,” he said. “I thought, why am I moaning? This is embarrassing. Eventually the lights came back on.”

After a few minutes, Dobbek Sr. sat up, then stood and took a few steps.

“I was very, very proud of my son,” he said. “You learn a lot about the people you love under stress. I’m so happy to be alive.”

Confidant he could walk back down to the valley floor but knowing there was no way he was swimming back across the pool to retrieve his and his son’s belongings, he started walking up the hill to a bridge. But with water in his lungs and low blood pressure, nausea set in.

“That plan backfired,” he said.

A rescue crew of about a dozen carried Dobbek Sr. down to the valley on a bumpy stretcher ride where his wife, Ingrid, and 8-year-old daughter, Christina, waited. The mother-daughter pair had been on a bike ride in the valley when Ingrid Dobbek received a call from her son recounting the rescue. Then her son’s phone’s battery ran out, Ingrid Dobbek said. With the help of park rangers, mother and daughter reunited with the rest of their family in the meadows on the valley floor.