A teenage boy miraculously survived a 100ft fall when he slipped off a cliff at the Grand Canyon.
Wyatt Kauffman, 14, was vacationing at the iconic nature site in Arizona when disaster struck.
He said he slipped when he tried moving out of the way so other visitors could take a photo while at the North Rim.
Speaking from his hospital bed, Kauffman told Arizona’s 12News of how he suffered nine broken vertebrae, a ruptured spleen, a concussion, a collapsed lung, a broken hand and a dislocated finger.
His face has also been left scarred and bruised. The teenager, from North Dakota, said he doesn’t remember anything after the fall.
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Speaking to 12News, Kauffman said: “After the fall, I don’t remember anything after that.
“I just remember somewhat waking up and being in the back of an ambulance and a helicopter and getting on a plane and getting here.”
Before the fall, the teen explained: “I was up on the ledge and was moving out of the way so other people could take a picture.
“I squatted down, and when I was, holding on to a rock. I only had one hand on it.
“It wasn’t that good of a grip. It was kind of pushing me back. I lost my grip and started to fall back.”
His dad Brian Kauffman said: “We’re just lucky we’re bringing our kid home in a car in the front seat – instead of in a box”.
“Two hours is an eternity in a situation like that, but when they have to repel down the cliff and get them out of the canyon in a basket,” he said while praising the heroic work of first responders.
Hastings & Hastings, an accident legal firm, said an average of 12 deaths happen at the Grand Canyon every year, or one in every 1.8 million visitors.
So far this year, there have been five known fatalities at the site, one of seven natural wonders of the world.
On August 1, one person died and over 50 others were injured when a bus rolled over at Grand Canyon West.
And on July 2, a 57-year-old woman was doing an eight-mile hike when she fell unconscious and died from the extreme temperatures.
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