Positivity: Woman Survives Three Days after Outdoor Fall
She is very lucky to have made it:
Injured student survives 3 days in wild
By Seattle Times staff and news services
May 17, 2006A woman who survived for three days without food or water after she broke her leg in a 25-foot fall was rescued Monday from a beach south of La Push, Clallam County.
David Skinner, a hiking aficionado and an Olympic National Park employee, said he was on a recreational hike with his girlfriend when he ran into a frantic Montana couple.
The couple had just come across Dana Crane, 19, of Brunswick, Maine, who suffered the broken leg and injuries to her pelvis, sternum and lower vertebrae in a fall from a rock outcropping.
She spent three days alone on the beach where she landed, about 10 miles south of La Push.
Skinner, after finding Crane, contacted park services, which alerted the Coast Guard. A helicopter airlifted Crane to Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles. She was later transported to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
Skinner, who lives just outside Port Angeles and clears remote trails for the national park, was at Harborview on Tuesday to return Crane’s backpack, which he had retrieved.
According to Skinner, Crane had been hiking — solo but well-equipped — when she stopped for a spell.
She left her pack in one location and took an exploratory foray that led her to the rocky outcrop on cliffs near Strawberry Point. There, the rocks crumbled beneath her feet and she fell to the beach below.
When found, she was severely dehydrated but conscious and able to respond to emergency personnel, Coast Guard Petty Officer Jason Wilder said.
A Harborview spokeswoman said Crane, a student at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, was in serious condition Tuesday in the intensive-care unit.
“This young lady is extremely lucky,” said Olympic Park spokeswoman Barb Maynes. “Had the volunteer not found her, it could have been a different story.
