Every year, Ursula Bannister climbs to High Rock Lookout, a viewpoint near Ashford, Washington, to bring flowers to the spot where she scattered her mom’s ashes. It’s a fairly difficult hike that she usually makes with someone else, but last month, the experienced 79-year-old hiker went alone. Everything was fine until she headed back down, tripped, caught her foot in a hole and fell forward.
Bannister says by the time she stood up, her foot was “pointing the wrong way,” and she immediately knew she had broken her leg. She yelled for help and a stranger called 911, but they were told it would take five hours for the search and rescue team to arrive. The pain was intense, so she asked if anyone had any pain killers, no one did, but strangers offered a different form of help - to carry her to the bottom of the trail.
- Troy May, a 20-year-old Air Force Airman, got Bannister onto his back and carried her most of the three-hour trek down, and his friend, Layton Allen, carried her the rest of the way.
- A physical therapist made a makeshift split with wood scraps and an occupational therapist helped calm Bannister down with breathing exercises.
- May and Allen even drove her to the hospital, two hours away, and waited until her son arrived.
- Bannister broke her leg in three places and has since had surgery, but she’s on the road to recovery now.
May has been honored with an Air Force Achievement Medal for his amazing act of kindness and the guys have checked on her several times. Bannister says they’re all friends now after that experience and adds, “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.”
Source: The Washington Post
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