Injured tramper survives week after 100m cliff fall
A badly injured tramper survived for a week sipping water from a creek, his only food eaten by a possum, after he slipped and fell 100 metres down a cliff in a remote part of Canterbury.
David Jensen, 61, set out from the Lake Coleridge area on February 20 on a four-day tramp through the Mungo Pass to Hokitika.
The trip went badly wrong on the first day when he fell on loose rock and tumbled down a steep cliff, leaving him with a fractured spine, head injuries and several other fractured bones. Despite his injuries, Jensen managed to drag himself to a nearby stream, where he lay for a week awaiting help.
On Saturday, Jensen was found by search and rescue volunteers who had flown from both Canterbury and the West Coast.
Garden City Helicopters crewman and paramedic Tom Hyland told Stuff that New Zealand Land Search and Rescue (LandSAR) had about 30 minutes of fuel left in their helicopter when somebody spotted what appeared to be a body at the bottom of a ravine. ‘‘I would describe this incident as an incredible test of human strength and survival, an unbelievable stroke of luck, and a huge challenge of mental and physical fortitude,’’ Hyland said.
Jensen, from Christchurch, was only able to muster a few words, Hyland said, when they arrived at Unknown Hut near the Wilberforce River where the LandSAR team had moved him. ‘‘All the details we got was a very unwell gentleman in his 60s who had been missing [for] a week ... We rocked into the hut and he was being cared for and, remarkably,
he was still talking,’’ Hyland said.
‘‘He was so emaciated and his injuries were severe, and it was just incredible that he was still ticking along and holding on seven days later,’’ Hyland said.
It was ‘‘miraculous’’ the LandSAR team spotted him, and Hyland said that it appeared Jensen would not have survived ‘‘too much longer’’ if he had not been found when he was.
Jensen told his rescuers he lay beside the stream for a week, sipping water to sustain himself, while all the food from his pack was eaten by a possum.
Jensen was taken to Christchurch Hospital where he remains.
His family thanked his rescuers, saying: ‘‘We just are extremely thankful for their work in finding him and bringing him back to us.’’