A Texas marketing executive had to drink from puddles and eat tadpoles to survive after he got lost in a state park during a scorching 107 degree temperature.
Jeff Hahn, 59, of Austin, and his 25-year-old daughter Harper Hahn plan to hike just a few miles inside Big Bend Ranch State Park in mid-June.
However, their plan went South when they got lost and Jeff began to experience leg cramps as the heat got to them, according to Texas Highways.
The pair had only been hiking for eight hours when they ran out of water and the heat stress began to take its toll on Jeff. He can only walk a short distance before needing to rest.
“You’re exposed, there’s nowhere to hide,” Jeff told Texas Highway. “There is not a blade of grass. There are no trees.”
As her condition worsened, the father-daughter duo decided Harper would continue without her seeking help, as they had no cell reception.
He left his father in the rocky area, but when he returned with park superintendent Nathanael Gold, Jeff was nowhere to be found.
Harper turned back to her father around 7:30pm but by then Jeff had continued to slowly move in the general direction he believed help was coming.
Jeff Hahn, 59, of Austin, and his 25-year-old daughter Harper Hahn planned to hike just a few miles inside Big Bend Ranch State Park in mid-June. Jeff Hahn / Linkedin
His leg was burned and he told a local outlet the only way to ease the pain was to keep walking.
As Marketing & Communications Principal Hahn drags herself through the state park, she reminds herself: “Keep calm. Strong legs. Harper is on his way.”
He went to a hut several miles away from the outcrop, where he found two closed bottles filled with a liter of water each on the windowsill.
They were eight hours into the hike when they ran out of water and soon the heat stress began to take its toll on Jeff and he could only walk a short distance before having to stop.Harper Hahn
After leaving the hut, he continued through the garden in the dark until his foot caught on a rock. He falls, breaks his wrist, and lands on a large rock, where he finds a puddle of water.
Although he was desperate for a sip of water in the extreme heat, he pulled out the straw attached to his water bottle and drank it, still lying on his back.
Jeff continued, eventually climbing a hillside and into a small canyon, Texas Highways reported. He finds a river full of tadpoles and uses his hat to scoop up the fish and eat them.
Harper turned back to her father around 7:30pm but by then Jeff had continued to slowly move in the general direction he believed help was coming.TPWD
Moments later, he would hear a plane in the distance and then a helicopter. A rescuer would then call his name and they would bring him back to his daughter after more than 24 hours.
Harper meets his father a trail leader, where he sits in a lawn chair, pale and dirty.
“My dad was just chilling like it was a football game,” he told Texas Highways. “He looks like my father.”
After 27 hours in the state park, rescuers found her near a pool and reunited her with her daughter. TPWD
Jeff has rhabdomyolysis, where muscles begin to break down. It can be triggered by extreme climbing conditions. He also suffered acute kidney failure and was taken to hospital, where he spent several days, the outlet reported.
Since the ordeal, the executive has made a full recovery – minus having limited mobility in his broken wrist.
Despite having a medical emergency, he plans to return to the park and wants to replace the water bottle he drank at the lodge.
“We will transform ourselves into trail angels,” he told the outlet.
The Post has reached out to Hahn for comment.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
