Mike and Kathy DeMersseman of Rapid City were on the sailboat in the Adriatic with former Lt. Gov. Carole Hillard when Hillard fell, breaking her neck and three ribs.

"It was sunny and breezy," Mike DeMersseman said, remembering the Oct. 8 accident. The fall down a few steps set off the chain of events that led to Hillard's death in a Swiss hospital Thursday.

The DeMerssemans, Hillard and friend Fred Whiting, also of Rapid City, had chartered a 42-foot sailboat for a cruise to small islands off the coast of Croatia.

They had lunch at the island of Hvar that day, then set out for Vis, another island.

The small boat was captained and crewed by one man, Vicko Ozretic. (His first name is pronounced like the credit card, "Visa.")

"Vicko was very talented and a great deal of help after the accident," DeMersseman said.

They left the harbor at Hvar under the power of the boat's small engine, and Hillard went below deck to take a nap in the small salon.

Well out into open water, DeMersseman said, the captain cut the engine and raised the sails, heeling the boat over at an angle. That motion apparently awakened Hillard, who climbed the steps to the boat's cockpit

"I was lying down with a hat over my head," DeMersseman said.

Hillard stumbled part way up the steps.

"Kathy said, 'Oh my God, she's fallen!'"

Hillard apparently hit her head on the hard wooden back of a couch below deck. She was in pain and couldn't get up. The DeMerssemans and Whiting lifted her to the couch.

"Vicko called ahead to Vis," DeMersseman said.

Other boat crews and a doctor were waiting for them at the dock. A nurse gave Hillard an injection for pain.

The steps into the salon were too small for a stretcher, so the skipper of another boat brought a smaller gangplank.

The DeMerssemans, Whiting, the captain and others used the gangplank to carry Hillard to the dock, where the doctor ordered a helicopter.

"It was one of those Russian helicopters," DeMersseman said. "A big one."

The helicopter sped off over the Adriatic "at very low altitude" for the mainland town of Split. "I think she was still on the gangplank in the hospital there," DeMersseman said."

After an MRI, Hillard was put back aboard the helicopter for the flight to Zagreb and Croatia's best trauma center.

The DeMerssemans caught up with Hillard and Whiting there. Two days later, she had surgery.

It was clear Hillard had been seriously injured, DeMersseman said, but she and her traveling companions already were talking about her recovery. She walked out of the hospital and rested at a hotel in Zagreb for a couple of days.

"Carole told us, 'I'm going to write a thank-you note to the captain,'" DeMersseman said.

She also planned to write a thank-you note to the crew of the "big and loud helicopter."

Hillard even sent an upbeat e-mail to her family back in the United States. (See the related story.)

A few days later, the whole group flew to Switzerland. "We thought, we'll just get her strength up for the trip home," DeMerssman said. "That's not what happened."

Contact Bill Harlan at 394-8424 or bill.harlan@rapidcityjournal.com