A ‘miracle’ rescue

Honeymooner tells how his wife saved him after he fell into a volcano

This surely wasn’t how they expected to spend their honeymoon, but when Acaimie Chastain heard faint calls for help from her new husband Clayton — and then found him bleeding and vomiting — she knew what had to happen next.

“I knew we were going to have to climb out of the volcano, as ridiculous as that sounds,” she said.

The Indiana newlyweds were hiking up the nearly 3,800-foot Mount Liamuiga during their honeymoon on the island of St. Kitts when Clayton fell into the dormant volcano.

With no signal on her cellphone, 5-foot-2, 105-pound Acaimie had to help Clayton to safety herself, a harrowing tale

they retold Friday from Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale. That’s where they were flown a day earlier, and where Clayton is expected to recover before returning to Indianapolis.

“I don’t remember falling at all,” said Clayton Chastain, 23, who fractured the base of his skull, suffered a concussion and lost hearing in his right ear when a guide rope he was holding on the hiking trail broke, dropping him an estimated 50 to 70 feet.

“I just remember climbing across, one second, and the next second I’m on the ground.”

Acaimie Chastain, 25, had lost sight of her husband but heard faint calls for help so she started climbing down into the crater.

“I was screaming really, really loudly to make sure he was still responding,” she said.

“He didn’t know we were on St. Kitts. He didn’t know we were on our honeymoon. He had no idea what was going on.” — Acaimie Chastain, who rescued her husband, Clayton, after he fell into a dormant volcano on their honeymoon

When she found him, he had his head in his hands and was bleeding and vomiting.

“He didn’t know we were on St. Kitts. He didn’t know we were on our honeymoon. He had no idea what was going on,” she said.

Within about two hours, she guided him far enough down the mountainside to get a cellphone signal and call 911.

“It’s astounding, honestly,” he said. “Not only did she keep me going down the mountain when I couldn’t even walk … I had to lean on her most of the way down and she was able to keep going and support me (and) that was nothing short of a miracle.”

AMY BETH BENNETT/SOUTH FLORIDA SUN SENTINEL Clayton Chastain, 23, wipes away tears as he and his wife, Acaimie Chastain, 25, of Indianapolis, speak about Clayton falling into a volcano’s crater and suffering a serious head injury.

BROWARD HEALTH MEDICAL CENTER Newlyweds Clayton and Acaimie Chastain were flown to Broward Health Medical Center after Clayton fell in a dormant volcano while hiking on their honeymoon.