‘Just a miracle’: School nurse saves grandfather who fell off canyon while on hike
LAYTON, Utah (KSL) - Thanks to a school nurse, a 64-year-old grandfather is recovering after he fell 20 feet off a canyon in Utah while on a Memorial Day hike with his family.
Ashley Anderson, a school nurse, was hiking Monday with her two children and her dogs in Adams Canyon when her friends yelled that medical help was needed. A 64-year-old grandfather had slipped and fallen 20 feet near one of the waterfalls, his family says.
“I looked over, and I didn’t even know what I was looking at at first. It took me a second to that it was a body,” Anderson said. “This man’s leg was obviously broken, and his head was sliced open and bleeding.”
Anderson and a group of fellow hikers rushed to the grandfather’s side. The nurse helped organize everyone to keep him stable while search and rescue crews attempted a helicopter rescue in a tight space.
“We need something to put on his head to help with the bleeding, and this guy rips off his shirt and throws it at me. So, we put that on his head, and then, several of us picked him up and moved him over to a dry area over on the rocks,” Anderson said.
The grandfather broke his kneecap and femur in the fall, according to Anderson. Doctors say he was lucky he didn’t suffer a traumatic brain injury or spinal cord injury. He is expected to make a full recovery.
“It was just a miracle. It really was,” Anderson said. “There had to have been angels or somebody helping him.”
Anderson says the incident changed her. She now has a forever friendship with people who just days before were strangers.
“I am absolutely filled with gratitude,” she said. “I helped, and I believe anyone would have done the same thing in that situation.”
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