Jennifer McPhee
Northern News Services

Colville Lake (Nov 04/02) - Colville Lake's band manager, Joseph Kochon, spent almost 24 hours outside after a snowmobile accident left him with a fractured back and broken ribs.

"If it was someone else, I don't think he would have lasted out there, with all the pain he was going through," said his brother Wilbert Kochon. "He was pretty strong."

About 100 kilometres north of Colville Lake, Kochon's snowmobile hit ice, bounced and crashed into the shore. The sleigh he was carrying slammed into his back.

One of his brothers, travelling behind him, found him in extreme pain, and went back to retrieve Wilbert Kochon who was travelling even further behind. They were all en route to their parent's campsite.

"He was kneeling down and he couldn't move... If he had hit his head, he would have been dead."

They moved him into a tent and gave him pain pills.

"We made him as comfortable as we could and nursed him all night."

It wasn't until daylight that a rescue helicopter with a doctor and nurse on board arrived.

Canadian Helicopters pilot Mike Craig said it was too dangerous to search for Kochon under low clouds in the darkness of an unfamiliar area.

"Why would you risk four other lives to do something unsafe? The information we were given was that he was injured, but it wasn't life-threatening."

Joseph Kochon is recovering in Edmonton. The band office has been flooded with phone calls from people asking how he is.

"We got him out and he's okay," said his brother.