A trip to the Grand Canyon turned to tragedy, leaving a prominent Washington state doctor dead. Sadly, the 74-year-old passed away while attempting to hike the rim of the Grand Canyon.
The National Park Service confirmed the deceased's identity as Dr. Dennis Smith, of Olympia, Washington. They had found him unresponsive on May 15 on the North Kaibab Trail. Smith had been attempting a rim to rim hike, starting on the South Rim and finishing on the North. However, he collapsed just a half a mile from the Kaibab Trailhead.
While luck seemed to be on the doctor's side (they were able to call in a park service helicopter to airlift him), the doctor sadly died at the Grand Canyon. First responders managed to restart his heart. But it later stopped working again before they could get him to safety. His colleague, Tom Helpenstell, mourned the loss of the doctor.
He doesn't believe that heat played a role at the Grand Canyon in Smith's death.
"I think it was 100 degrees or close to it, but he's really good about hydrating," Helpenstell said via Fox News. "He's always drinking fluids. ... He's way too smart to be pushing beyond his limits. I think this was just a freak thing."
Grand Canyon Freak Accident
The doctor mourned the loss of his colleague, who had worked with for more than 30 years.
"We worked together in the same office and assisted each other every Tuesday in surgeries for 30 years," Helpenstell said. "He and I have run across the Grand Canyon three times, doing Ultra Trail-type running. Probably two years ago, he decided not to do running [anymore], so he was hiking with a group out of Tucson, Arizona, where he spends the winters."
Helpenstell described Smith as super fit. The two had completed Iron Man competitions together.
"He's super active, super fit," Helpenstell said. "This was not even a run, this was a hike. I don't want to downplay it. Grand Canyon's a big day, for sure, but this was completely out of the blue."
Outside of athleticism, the world has just lost a really good doctor. The surgeon regularly volunteered to help.
"He would jump in and take care of anyone at any time. Really, really great," Helpenstell said. "Within the surgeon community, we're the carpenters. ... Even when he retired from his regular work [in 2021], he stayed on and took call for us and stayed up at night doing cases. He kept his hand in it, until just about a year and a half or two ago. He was an amazing man."
His colleague also described him as very intellectual and scholarly. He's mourning the loss at the Grand Canyon.
"He read like crazy," Helpenstell said. "He was like an encyclopedia. We would always joke, we don't need Google, we have Dennis. He was really into health and nutrition, and what diets are the right ones to take, and what supplements. I mean, the guy was crazy about staying healthy. He had switched to playing pickleball because he thought it would make his brain learn new things, which would keep him from getting Alzheimer's or anything like that. He was more focused than anyone I know about staying healthy and living long, which makes this hard."
