{"id":19815,"date":"2024-09-27T09:17:45","date_gmt":"2024-09-27T13:17:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/?p=19815"},"modified":"2024-09-27T09:27:39","modified_gmt":"2024-09-27T13:27:39","slug":"woman-79-fell-while-hiking-a-stranger-carried-her-for-hours-on-his-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2024\/09\/woman-79-fell-while-hiking-a-stranger-carried-her-for-hours-on-his-back.html","title":{"rendered":"Woman, 79, Fell While Hiking, A Stranger Carried Her for Hours on His Back"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
US Air Force<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Once a year, Ursula Bannister climbs to High Rock Lookout, a viewpoint near Ashford, Wash., where she scattered her mother\u2019s ashes 23 years ago. She brings flowers for her annual visit.
\nBannister, 79, usually hikes with a family member or friend along the 3.2 mile trail, which is\u00a0a relatively difficult trek<\/a>. This year, on Aug. 28, Bannister went on her own, figuring she\u2019d be fine because she\u2019s an experienced hiker.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s steep so it\u2019s considered a hard hike, but because I\u2019ve done it so many times, I wasn\u2019t nervous about it,\u201d said Bannister, who lives in Tacoma, Wash.<\/p>\n

Bannister arrived at the trail around 11 a.m. and made her way to the lookout. As she headed back down, she made a misstep, and her foot got caught on a hole in the ground. She fell forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy the time I sat up, my foot was pointing the wrong way. I knew right away I had broken my leg,\u201d she said. \u201cI tried to get up with my hiking pole and it collapsed on me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bannister cried out for help, and before long, a stranger approached and called 911. They were told a search and rescue team would arrive in five hours.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t very encouraging,\u201d Bannister said. \u201cI asked this man to please ask anybody if they had pain killers, because at that point, the pain was pretty substantial.\u201d<\/p>\n

No one in the vicinity did. But two young men at the lookout came over to see what was going on. When they saw Bannister on the ground in agony, they immediately made an offer: They could carry Bannister to the bottom of the trail.<\/p>\n

Troy May, a U.S. Air Force Airman stationed at\u00a0Joint Base Lewis-McChord<\/a>, was at the lookout that day with his fianc\u00e9 and a friend who was visiting from New Mexico.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew I was capable of carrying her down,\u201d said May, 20. \u201cI really didn\u2019t make much of a decision, I just knew I needed to carry her down if I could.\u201d<\/p>\n

May eased Bannister onto his back and started hiking downward. He carried her for most of the nearly three-hour journey, and his friend, Layton Allen, carried her for the rest.<\/p>\n

Others pitched in as well: Shortly into the hike, May\u2019s boots were giving him blisters. A man he didn\u2019t know on the trail saw the situation and gave May his shoes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was just one kindness,\u201d said Bannister.<\/p>\n

A physical therapist bandaged Bannister before they headed down the trail and built a makeshift splint for her leg out of wooden scraps, and an occupational therapist did breathing exercises with her to help calm her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just overwhelmed with gratitude that these people literally came out of the woods to help me and they were totally unselfish and kind,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

During the long hike down, her rescuers shared stories and asked Bannister questions about her own life to distract her from the mounting pain. She told them about her childhood in Germany, and what it was like to move to the United States in 1959 when she was 14.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe had a bunch of cool stories,\u201d said May. \u201cWe were trying to keep her talking to make the hike go faster \u2026 we really had quite the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their efforts to distract her worked, Bannister said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I didn\u2019t focus on my pain, I didn\u2019t scream quite as loudly,\u201d she said. \u201cI think we were all just giving each other psychological support.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once they reached the parking lot, Allen drove Bannister to the Tacoma General Hospital \u2014 about two hours away \u2014 and May followed them in his car. They waited at the hospital until Bannister\u2019s son arrived.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought these people were behaving like angels coming from the sky,\u201d she said. \u201cI was just thankful that these guys were willing to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the hospital, Bannister learned she had broken her leg in three places \u2014 her tibia, fibula and heel bone.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe emergency team was very impressed by the splint that the therapist had built,\u201d said Bannister, adding that doctors told her the damage would likely have been worse had Bannister waited longer to get medical attention.<\/p>\n

She arrived home that night at 1 a.m. with crutches and had to wait one week for the swelling to go down before she could undergo surgery.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am now the proud owner of 11 screws \u2026 and a titanium plate in my leg,\u201d Bannister said.<\/p>\n

Over the past few weeks, Bannister has been recovering in a wheelchair, and her orthopedic surgeon expects she will be able to put weight on her right leg within four to six weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am healing. I\u2019m on the right path,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

During her recovery, the people who helped her hike down from High Rock Lookout have checked in several times \u2014 including May, who received an\u00a0Air Force Achievement Medal<\/a>\u00a0on Sept. 9 for helping to rescue Bannister. He was also\u00a0featured in a story\u00a0<\/a>on a U.S. Air Force website.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ll be friends for a really long time,\u201d Bannister said.<\/p>\n

Although breaking her leg was painful and unpleasant, the extent to which strangers rallied around her made it a positive experience, overall.<\/p>\n

\n

This article originally appeared on MSN<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Once a year, Ursula Bannister climbs to High Rock Lookout, a viewpoint near Ashford, Wash., where she scattered her mother\u2019s ashes 23 years ago. She brings flowers for her annual visit. Bannister, 79, usually hikes with a family member or friend along the 3.2 mile trail, which is\u00a0a relatively difficult trek. This year, on Aug.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":627,"featured_media":19818,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16,12,879],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-good-deeds","category-inspiring-people","category-military"],"yoast_head":"\nWoman, 79, Fell While Hiking, A Stranger Carried Her for Hours on His Back<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2024\/09\/woman-79-fell-while-hiking-a-stranger-carried-her-for-hours-on-his-back.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Woman, 79, Fell While Hiking, A Stranger Carried Her for Hours on His Back\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Once a year, Ursula Bannister climbs to High Rock Lookout, a viewpoint near Ashford, Wash., where she scattered her mother\u2019s ashes 23 years ago. 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