Four days of horror: the story of the rescue of a tourist in the California desert

New Zealand tourist Claire Nelson could not even imagine that, going on a walk through the national park of the United States Joshua Three, she would become the heroine of one of the most horrifying survival stories far from civilization. Her story of salvation tells Air force.

Nothing foreshadowed trouble until the moment when, having slipped, she fell from a large boulder and injured her thigh so that she was actually immobilized. When all this happened, she was alone under the scorching sun in the middle of the desert.

Claire is New Zealander, but has recently lived in Toronto, where she moved after living in London for a while. When friends invited Claire to stay at their home near Joshua Tree and look after their cat for a few weeks while they were away, she happily agreed.

Claire Nelson had been to this park before and really liked the wilderness, which was reminiscent of a real desert - with trees and cacti, “like in a Dr. Seuss book.”

Early in the morning she went to the park to take a six-hour walk. She took with her several liters of water, trekking sticks and sunscreen.

"I felt like I was right where I would most like to be," Claire told the BBC.

At 8:30 a.m. Claire spoke with the park information center staff to clarify the route details. They told her that this route was not very difficult, and the trail was in excellent condition.

Claire walked along the path about three kilometers, but then she realized that she could not find a marker with the mark of the distance traveled, which should be on the path.

She decided to stop and rest on one of the huge boulders, and at the same time deal with the route.

Фото: Depositphotos

“It all happened at the moment when I tried to get off the stone. I climbed up quite high and it was so slippery that I immediately fell down,” says Claire.

“I understood that there was nothing I could do to slow down. Everything was like in a slow motion movie. All I could think in my head was: no, no, no...” she recalls.

Unbearable horror

“I fell to the sound of a strong crunch and my whole body ached. The first thought was: this is bad,” she says.

Claire fell on her left side, smashing the pelvic bone. She tried to get up, but could not move. She tried to call the rescuers, but the phone was out of range of the cellular network.

“I could never imagine that I would find myself in such a situation - not because I considered myself an experienced traveler - it just seemed to me that such an extreme scenario could not happen in real life - at least not to me. I go hiking quite often, and I thought I was adequately assessing the situation and the dangers, but then I realized how stupid I was,” says Claire.

“I thought: I can’t believe I’m here alone and no one knows where I am. I am traumatized and have no way to call anyone for help. It was a moment of complete and unbearable horror,” admits Claire.

stay alive

“I panicked at first,” says Claire. But then she quickly switched to solving pressing issues: she needed to cope with the pain, hide from the sun and conserve as much water as possible in order to survive.

“I just knew that the only thing I could control was how long I could last,” says Claire.

Claire took the aspirin she had in her pocket to reduce the pain in her broken thigh.

With the help of a trekking stick and plastic bags, she built herself some sort of shelter from the sun. When the water ended the next day, she began to drink her own urine to survive.

“After I fell off the rock, I made short videos so that I could explain what happened to me when they found me. I haven't watched them yet. And I’m not sure if I want to watch them,” says Claire.

“Some thoughts were constantly spinning in my head, and this helped me not to give up. For example, I thought: I want to see this person again. I want to try some of the food again. I want to come there again. And the thought that my loved ones would find my lifeless body in the desert was unacceptable; I couldn’t do that to them,” says the traveler.

Claire Nelson spent four days and three nights in the desert. According to her, to make time go faster, she divided the day into several “parts”: in the first half of the day she tried to scream and call for help, in the second half of the day she had to hide from the sun so as not to get heatstroke.

“All I could see was the kestrels circling menacingly above me, sensing that death was near,” says Claire.

Salvation

“When night came, I became desperate because no one came all day. On the fourth day it was already hot, and I tried to gather my strength, but I was already beginning to lose all hope. I kept falling asleep and waking up wondering how much longer I could last like this,” Claire recalls.

Closer to the evening, Claire heard the sound of a flying helicopter. She thought it was a hallucination.

“Then I heard them calling my name: Claire, we are looking for you. I was lying on my back on a small round boulder and they couldn't see me. I screamed as hard as I could, but they didn’t hear.”

She made a kind of scarecrow out of a stick and her “blanket” from the sun and began to wave it with all her remaining strength.

Her efforts were rewarded - rescuers noticed her.

“They said that they were used to finding people in an extremely deplorable state, but here I am - laughing - beside myself with happiness that they found me. They were very surprised,” says Claire.

Treatment

Now Claire is undergoing treatment in the United States. According to the traveler, she is very pleased with the work of doctors, but there are difficulties in connection with payment procedures. Medical services in the US are expensive, and it is rather difficult for a foreign woman to understand the existing system of medical services.

“The care I receive at the hospital is amazing, but there is a lot that I don't understand. When the checks arrive, I can’t even imagine what the amount will be,” explains Claire.

Claire's friends created a social media page to raise money to cover the steadily rising costs of her treatment.

“I was absolutely shocked by the number of messages of support,” admits Claire.

Now Claire is undergoing physiotherapy and, in her words, is learning to walk again. She is looking forward to the moment when she can do everything herself again.

Read also on ForumDaily:

22 medical services that are available for free with Medicare

Six ways to cut your medical bill in the US

What I learned about medicine in the United States when I got insurance

Do you want more important and interesting news about life in the USA and immigration to America? — support us donate! Also subscribe to our page Facebook. Select the “Priority in display” option and read us first. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our РєР ° РЅР ° Р »РІ Telegram  and Instagram- there is a lot of interesting things there. And join thousands of readers ForumDaily New York — there you will find a lot of interesting and positive information about life in the metropolis.