Husband suffers severe frost bite after crawling two km for help

KUGLUKTUK – A couple's quick trip from Kugluktuk's old graveyard back to the community turned to tragedy on Oct. 27 when their snowmobile fell through thin ice on the Coppermine River at around 7:30 pm.

Jeff Hopkins, 40, managed to climb out of the frigid water, but he was not able to save his wife, Mary Jean Hopkins-Hikomak, 43.

After his attempts to rescue her failed, Hopkins rolled over the ice onto shore and then painfully crawled about two kilometres towards houses with lights turned on – so that his children would have one parent, he later told a friend.

Hopkins didn't arrive near the New Town section of the community until after 2 a.m..

Richard Kusmack had been at friend's home watching a movie. He went outside to start his snowmobile, then heard screaming and headed out to see who was in distress.

Kusmack found Hopkins kneeling in the snow with his arms bent up in the air. His friend's hands were iced into fists and his face was purple.

Kusmack lifted Hopkins on to his snowmobile. Hopkins' legs were so frozen he had to force them open so they would straddle the seat.

Kusmack said he doesn't remember how he managed to lift Hopkins, who, dressed in sodden, frozen clothing, weighed at least 200 pounds.

"There was so much adrenalin flowing, I could have lifted a house," said Kusmack, who is the hamlet's recreation director.

Holding on to Hopkins with one arm and driving with the other, Kusmack sped down to the nursing station, yelling at passersby to telephone the nurse on call. They waited outside for a nurse to arrive when the husband of another nurse drove by and headed off to get the nursing station keys.

They carried Hopkins inside and laid him on a bed. They cut off Hopkins' frozen parka and removed his one remaining boot.

Water had frozen inside the boot and encased Hopkins' foot in ice.

The next day Hopkins was medevaced to Edmonton where he is recovering from severe frostbite to his limbs.

A search team retrieved the body of Hopkins-Hikmak on Sunday, Oct. 28.

The couple had recently moved from Iqaluit back to Kugluktuk, the hometown of Hopkins-Hikomak.

Police say the couple had several children.

This is not the first time that October has proven to be a dangerous time for travel over the ice in Kugluktuk.

On Oct. 14, 2004, elders Sam and Lena Kikpak were found dead in a lake near the community after the snowmobile carrying the Anglican minister and his wife crashed through the ice.