Washington state teenager Autumn Veatch survived a plane crash and then hiked down a rocky mountain slope to get help for her stranded grandparents – all after being unconscious for two days.
Veatch, 16, walked into Rick LeDuc’s general store in Mazama at 3 p.m. Monday.
A driver had spotted Veatch as she walked along Highway 20. She told the driver she had hiked down a drainage basin of the steep mountainside. Two days before, she said, her step-grandparents’ plane crashed into the Cascade Mountains.
Veatch didn't say much about the condition of Leland Bowman, 62, and his wife Sharon, 63, who she left in order to get help.
WSDOT Emergency Management and Security Coordinator John Himmel said the plane had not been found as of Tuesday morning,
reported the Seattle Times, but information from Veatch has narrowed the search.
“She said she'd been through a traumatic experience, and a crash, and had been out for the past two days,” LeDuc told
Kirotv.com.
Veatch was dehydrated, exhausted, and diagnosed with rhabdomyolysis, a breakdown of muscle tissues that leads to damaging protein in the blood, .
The teenager's father, David Veatch, told KIRO 7 that doctors reported she could be released as soon as Tuesday from the hospital.
“Yes, it’s a miracle,” Veatch said. “We had, I don’t know how many people say they’re praying for her on Facebook. Yes, I believe it works.”
LeDuc told the station he gave the teen something to eat and drink because she appeared dehydrated and hadn’t eaten in two days.
“They were over the mountains, got into some clouds, and the last she remembers, it was mountains coming up very quickly, and the rest is kind of a blur,” said LeDuc. “She looked like she'd been through an ordeal, but considering the time she had been out and what had happened to her, she looked remarkably good.”
The survival tactics Veatch used came from watching reality survival shows, according to her dad.
“Her dad said, ‘Isn't it great I made you watch all those survival shows with me?’ and she was like ‘Yes, thank you,’” said her friend Amber Shockey.
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