A woman who broke her leg while hiking was rescued by a trio of strapping young whipper snappers, who carried her all the way down the mountain on their backs.
Even realizing she’d be alone for the 3.2-mile trek, Ursula Bannister had been confident of getting to the place where she scattered her mother’s ashes 23 years ago; she had gone up many times before.
For anyone who’s taken the trail to High Rock Lookout, a viewpoint near Ashford in Washington, they’ll know it’s hard and steep.
As the 79-year-old Bannister predicted, she made it to the top, left some flowers, and began heading back down. Catching a hole in the trail bed with her foot, she fell forward hard and by the time she turned herself right side up, she saw her foot was pointing the wrong way.
In pain she cried out for help, and before long a group of 3 young hikers came to her side and called 911. A search and rescue team said they’d be there in 5 hours, discouraging everybody.
20-year-old Troy May, an Air Force Airman, was hiking up to the lookout that day with his fiancé and a friend Layton Allen. Bannister asked them if they had any painkillers, to which they replied they did not, and realizing the woman had nothing to help her strap in for 5 upcoming hours of agony, May took action.
“I knew I was capable of carrying her down,” May told the Washington Post. “I really didn’t make much of a decision, I just knew I needed to carry her down if I could.”
Lifting her gently onto his back, he began the slow, careful journey downhill, hiking three-quarters of the 1.8 miles that remained on Bannister’s journey, while Allen took care of the home stretch. On the way they passed occupational therapist Emily O’Brien, who led Bannister through some breathing exercises, and physical therapist Tim Meyer who splinted her leg.
With the extra hands, May was able to move more assuredly, and keep enough puff in his lungs to talk to Bannister on the way down to try and keep her mind off the pain.
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They asked her about her life as a child moving to the United States from Germany in 1959, having been born just after the fall of the Third Reich, and May would later recall she had a lot of cool stories.
Once they arrived at the trailhead, Allen sped Bannister off to Tacoma General Hospital where doctors told her she had a compound break of the tibia, fibula, and heel bone. They were impressed with Meyer’s splint, and said it might have been a lot worse.
She would leave the hospital late that night as her leg was too swollen and inflamed to operate on.
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She would eventually receive 11 screws and a titanium plate, and embark on a long road to recovery that saw some of her rescue team come and visit her, including May who won an Air Force medal for his efforts.
“I was just overwhelmed with gratitude that these people literally came out of the woods to help me and they were totally unselfish and kind,” Bannister said, adding that the friendship she gained in May and the others was worth more than the pain and discomfort.
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