Colorado man, 60, is stable after weekend hunting accident

Lincoln County Sheriff’s officials on Monday released the names of the two men involved in a hunting accident in the Libby Creek area Nov. 16 that left one man critically injured with a gunshot wound in his leg.

About 11 a.m., deputies responded to the accident in which Mike Wagner, 48, of Libby accidentally shot John Cleveland, 60, of Colorado in an upper thigh. Wagner, who did not know Cleveland, applied a tourniquet above the wound. The pair met an ambulance for transportation to Kalispell Regional Medical Center. Cleveland was originally listed in critical condition, but Lincoln County Undersheriff Brent Faulkner said Monday Cleveland’s condition had been upgraded to stable. Typically, a tourniquet is applied above severe wounds to slow bleeding. Quite often, the result of a tourniquet will sacrifice a limb. However, Cleveland has not lost the limb to amputation a result of the tourniquet application, Faulkner said.

Wagner drove Cleveland to meet an ambulance for initial treatment before he was taken to St. John’s Lutheran Hospital.

The near-term intent is to stabilize Cleveland enough to transfer him to a Colorado hospital for further medical care.   

Faulkner said authorities still are investigating the shooting.