By Robert Hall
Paul Cheeseman said he suffered a hernia six years ago under the excruciating conditions of a wilderness therapy program in Arizona for boys.
Cheeseman, now 23, a junior from Mesa, Ariz., majoring in near eastern studies, said he was hot, dry, and tired after walking across the harsh desert landscape of Arizona. He had dry heaved continually with no food or water immediately available.
When things got worse, a staff member picked up the 180-pound Cheeseman, ran with him for more than a mile to an old army truck, and drove him to a shabby hospital that afforded him no treatment.
Cheeseman was eventually removed to a better hospital in the city where he underwent hernia surgery.
“It was bad – bad, bad, bad. But at the same time, it was always worth it,” Cheeseman said.
After the death last week of Ian August, 14, from Austin, Texas, the fifth death in a wilderness therapy program in Utah since 1990, Skyline Journey, located in Nephi, Juab County, is under scrutiny and is dealing with issues that are eerily similar to Cheeseman”s experience.
When pressed about similar issues of safety and concern, Jeff Johnson, spokesman of Skyline Journey, said he was unable to comment about the incident until the investigation by the Millard County Sheriff”s office was completed.
“It”s a fairly in-depth investigation,” said the Sheriff, Ed Philips. “The only reason we”re investigating it is to make sure this isn”t a part of a crime.”
The Office of Licensing for the Department of Human Services, which oversees wilderness therapy programs in Utah, is keeping things under tight wraps.
Even so, Licensing Specialist Kelly Husbands said he could not address the issues of previous deaths because he has not been around long enough with the department.
However, Johnson said, “From what I understand the first three incidents in the state happened from programs that probably shouldn”t have been running.”
Yet Cheeseman is quick to defend programs like Skyline.
Cheeseman may have drunk from dirty rivers and streams and followed maps without whereabouts, yet he promptly returned to the wilderness trail after surgery.
“They loved me. They built a stretcher out of their blankets to carry me on. All the kids in the group carried me on the stretcher,” he said.
Johnson, too, is quick to defend.
“I imagine that the state wasn”t nearly as involved early on,” he said. “I”m sure that Utah is the safest state in the country because they”ve been doing it for so long.”
Johnson said the greatest difficulty after such an incident is in working with the family, the staff and other youths involved in the program.
