A paraplegic man who says he was stranded in the New Mexico desert
without his wheelchair dragged himself about four miles (6.4 kilometres) down a
dirt road over three days before a motorist stopped to help him.
Tattered and dirty, Ricky Gilmore’s blue jeans tell part of the story.
His body tells the rest — the skin on his left leg and buttocks is shredded,
his wrist is sprained and his kidneys are in bad shape from going without food
and water. “Ah man, I’m just a big mess. I ache and I’m just in the first
stages of healing,” he told The Associated Press on Tuesday from his hospital
bed at the Northern Navajo Medical Center in Shiprock, New Mexico.
Gilmore, 49, is being treated for acute kidney failure from dehydration,
a sprained wrist and a blood infection. He spent two days in intensive care and
it could be at least another week before he can go home. The Farmington Daily
Times first reported Gilmore’s story. He was found along a seldom travelled
road on the Navajo Nation about 10 miles (16 kilometres) from his home in
Newcomb, which is on the eastern side of the reservation.
Gilmore said he was dropped in the desert by a couple in a white truck
whom he met while he was hitchhiking. He had invited them to his home for
steaks and they later went for what Gilmore thought was going to be a joyride. When
he declined to share his alcohol with them, Gilmore said the man grabbed him by
his feet and threw him out of the truck while parked along the desolate road.
It was early evening and Gilmore had nothing — no wheelchair, no food,
no water, no coat — to help him endure the flat desert scrubland. “It was dark
and I was shivering and the wind was blowing so I just crawled to a bush and
dug in right there. It was cold that night,” he said.
With the sunrise, survival mode kicked in. “I started dragging myself. I
did the same thing all day and I only got about two miles (three kilometres),”
he said. Two people passed by. Gilmore tried flagging them down but they only
honked and kept going. After spending a second night at the side of the road,
Gilmore said he woke up sore and thirsty and didn’t want to move. “I could have
easily gave up and said forget it, but I said I’m not going to freeze out here
and I just kept on going,” said Gilmore, who lives by himself and lost the use
of his legs in a car crash years ago.
On the third afternoon, a man in a blue pickup truck stopped and called
for help. Gilmore said doctors told him his body temperature was 94 degrees
Fahrenheit (34.5 Celsius) when he was found. “I don’t think I would have made
it another night,” he said. The Daily Times reported that Gilmore filed a
report with the Shiprock Police Department. There were no officials at the
department after hours Tuesday who could confirm details of the report. Gilmore
said he’s bandaged up “big time” and morphine is helping with the pain. Still,
he had a nightmare Monday night in which he found himself sitting at the edge
of a freeway waving his hands at the passing traffic, but no one looked at him.
His plan is simple for when he gets released from the hospital: “Go home and
pray, take inventory and just get a good night’s sleep in my own bed and heal.”
Metro News Canada
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