The Rescue

The accident happened approximately 9 miles from camp and could only be reached by four wheelers due to the width and terrain of the trails. The rescue process was slowed due to no cell phone reception. Brad stayed with Dave while Bryce rode back to camp to get his wife Christine (a nurse!) and tell Diane. Diane and Christine arrived on the scene at about 9:45pm. By this time, Dave was having an extremely difficult time breathing due to the internal bleeding. Christine monitored his vitals, which remained stable the entire night. Dave was also in a tremendous amount of pain. Brandon stationed himself at a trail head in order to point people in the correct direction. Chad was able to find the Park Ranger who called surrounding towns that had helicopters, but the helicopters were unable to respond due to the weather in those towns. The Thedford volunteer EMTs responded to the accident, drove their truck as close as possible, and started the .9 mile hike to reach Dave. By the grace of God, Mike and Ryan 'happened' to meet the EMTs at a crossroad and were able to give them a ride to Dave. The EMTs strapped Dave to a board and with the help of 6 friends, 1 Park Ranger, and 1 Sheriff, carried Dave nearly one mile through the sandy, uneven terrain to the EMTs truck. Dave was loaded into the back of the truck and then traveled 20 minutes and hit almost every bump in Nebraska! They then transferred Dave to an ambulance and started the 30 minute drive out of the park. Once out of the park, the North Platte paramedics relieved the Thedford EMTs and traveled 60 minutes to Great Plains Regional Medical Center in North Platte.