Right place, right time: Nurse helps man who fell 20 feet in Adams Canyon

LAYTON — A 64-year-old man continues to recover after falling 20 feet in Adams Canyon near the Lower Falls on Memorial Day.

Ashley Anderson, an off-duty nurse, was finishing up her hike when she heard yelling.

“I had just put my boots on to leave, when my friend’s husband shouted and pointed to a man who had fallen to the bottom of the waterfall,” Anderson said. “I looked over, and I didn’t even know what I was looking at. It took me a minute to register that it was a body. This man’s leg was obviously broken, and his head was sliced open and bleeding.”

In a moment of adrenaline, Anderson organized an effort to move the man from the cold spring runoff that was covering him.

“I am always concerned, after a fall, about a spinal cord injury. But I knew we needed to move him, because the water was so cold,” Anderson said. “We couldn’t leave him in that water for the time it would take for crews to get there.”

Because of the isolated location, Davis County Sheriff’s emergency crews needed to hike in and coordinate a helicopter drop. According to witnesses, it took about 45 minutes.

“It feels like a long time — when you are in the moment,” Anderson said. “I was just waiting, thinking, ‘Is he going to go into cardiac arrest? Am I going to have to do CPR right here on these rocks?'”

Emergency authorities said the man was hiking with his children and grandchildren. They became separated, and the man fell.

“His family confirmed he wasn’t taking selfies. He was on the trail, and he slipped. These trails can be tricky,” Anderson said.

A group of bystanders helped the man until emergency crews arrived: one fellow hiker supported the injured man’s head the entire time. Witnesses said the man was conscious, alert, and positive.

Anderson is a nurse at a local school.

“I don’t usually deal with big things like this, because I am not an ER nurse,” Anderson said. “The adrenaline helped in the beginning, but once I got in the car and was driving home it hit me, and I broke down. That was scary! That was really scary. I have spent extra time with my children comforting them, because they were shaken up by what they witnessed, before my friends could pull them away and have them wait in the car.”

The man shattered his kneecap and broke his femur. Doctors were impressed that he didn’t suffer a traumatic brain injury or spinal cord paralysis.

Anderson knew she wanted to go hiking with her children, dogs, and friends on Memorial Day. But they had planned to go earlier that morning.

“We were actually going to leave earlier than we did, but circumstances had us at the waterfall later than we were planning on. Was that providence that we happened to be there when we were? I am absolutely filled with gratitude,” Anderson said. “It was a miracle. I didn’t do anything heroic. I helped. And I believe anyone would have done the same thing in that situation.”

The man is expected to make a full recovery.