A 13-year-old has miraculously survived after he reportedly plunged nearly 100-feet from a ledge from the north rim of the Grand Canyon, located in the state of Arizona in the United States, during a family trip.
Authorities said that Wyatt Kauffman was airlifted to a Las Vegas hospital with nine broken vertebrae, a ruptured spleen, a collapsed lung, a concussion, a broken hand and a dislocated finger, the Guardian reported. It took two hours to rescue him after a slipped on a cliff at the Bright Angel Point trail on Tuesday last week.
"I was up on the ledge and was moving out of the way so other people could take a picture. I squated down and was holding on to a rock. I only had one hand on it," Wyatt told media.
In an intense operation, rescue crews rapped down the cliff and picked him out of the canyon in a basket. "I just remember somewhat waking up and being in the back of an ambulance and a helicopter and getting on a plane and getting here," said the 13-year-old Kauffman.
Wyatt lives in Casselton in North Dakota, where his father Brian Kauffman was when he heard about the news. "We’re extremely grateful for the work of everyone. Two hours is an eternity in a situation like that," Brian said.
The senior Kauffman said that his son was discharged from the hospital on Saturday and will reach home by Tuesday this week with his mother. "We’re just lucky we’re bringing our kid home in a car in the front seat instead of in a box," he added.
The search and rescue teams in the Grand Canyon receive over 300 calls for service every year, from heat illnesses to falls. "I can say with great confidence that they put to use advanced medical skills in an austere environment that are rarely executed in most other places," said Meghan Smith, the Grand Canyon national park's preventive search and rescue supervisor.
The Bright Angel Point trial, from where Wyatt fell, has been warned by park officials of being exposed, narrow and steep. Visitors have been advised to always keep a safe distance if at least six feet from the edge of the rim. It is one of the most popular sights of the Canyon for its scenic views.
In another case, a woman died after falling off he west side of Teewinot mountain during a hike in Wyoming’s Grand Teton national park on Friday.
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