This Woman's Canyon Hiking Trip Changed Her Life Forever | I Shouldn't Be Alive S3 EP1 | Wonder

one sudden slip along a desolate canyon trail puts world champion adventurer athlete Danelle Valencia at the mercy of the Utah wilderness I was in the middle of nowhere and nobody knew where I was her legs useless she's forced to crawl for every inch to try and escape the unforgiving desert I thought I was gonna die but she'll also need the help of her best friend if she's to wins ultimate survival test the battle for her own life [Music] [Applause] [Music] obey me help Danelle bal ng is a super athlete in triathlon and endurance sports her reputation is legendary several times national and world champion it's no wonder she's just earned the title US athlete of the year for the sixth time for Donnell giving up is not an option as paramedic John Marshall is about to discover my first meeting of DeMille she just ran 60 miles across open desert and 115 degree temperature before she got to the checkpoint that I was working at this small-framed woman comes into the med booth her feet are blistered she's completely dehydrated somewhat delirious and I said hey would highly recommend we started an IV and you get some fluids back in you know just a drink and some duct tape this kind of sets the mode for my involvement with Danelle I learned that this girl right from the get-go was his artist nails this was a true athlete to the fullest extent they say to be a great adventure athlete first and foremost you have to be hard to kill Danelle was hard to kill [Music] it was December 13 2006 and I was at my house in Moab the winter season was approaching and I was wanting to get in shape for the snowshoe racing season and also to compete in some winter triathlons hey Dad give me a minute okay give me a minute so I was to head out on about a two or two-and-a-half hour run and I kind of had one of my favorite loops in mind I hadn't done this loop in a while one of the world's premier extreme sports athletes Darnell is known for staggering feats of endurance in adventure racing single and living alone a constant companion is her dog tears I got tears from puppy rescue I remember going to the shelter and there were several puppies there this one puppy sort of stood out because he was energetic and he liked to run around and he was hyper and he had this real playful attitude about him that I liked I sort of connected with that and I remember some other lady went up to Taz and was holding him and I looked at this lady and that's my dog he wasn't my dog just yet you know but I just knew that he was the one and then I kind of kept an eye on this lady while she was playing with Taz and as soon as she set him down I snatched him up and said I want this one there was something that drew me to tat something that I knew that he was the one for me [Music] with ties the company Darnell is planning a routine training run through Moab's backcountry it's a beautiful but rugged wilderness where few people have a go it was a sunny day but it was cool probably temperatures in the 30s around 30 degrees Fahrenheit I had my kayak on top of my truck hopefully planning on going kayaking later that afternoon I didn't see any bikers or hikers out just myself and test I brought my water bottle on at the last minute I thought well grab this little waste pack so I don't have to carry the water bottle in my hand that way I could just put the water bottle in the waste pack and it was a small waist pack with two zipper pockets I didn't know what was in those pockets I just grabbed it and whatever was in there from my previous run was in my waist pack and I headed out on the run let's go I had absolutely no idea that my life was going to completely change that day despite its beauty the back country surrounding Moab can be hostile and dangerous just in the last month two men have fallen victims of the deadly terrain found frozen to death in a bitter desert night search-and-rescue teams are called out regularly to save hikers in distress but Danelle is fearless six times the winner of US athlete of the year she thrives on pushing herself to the limit in the most extreme environments I was actually a pretty pretty good physical condition that I usually could push myself right to that to that limit of pain but not quite go over it it actually almost feels good like you get into the rhythm get into the flow it's out for that danelle's training route is not marked on any map and with every step she's heading further into uncharted territory I'll sudden the next thing I know Tazz was ahead of me and my foot slipped out from under me almost immediately knew that I was in trouble because I couldn't stop and I was moving fast at that point and then the last 20 feet were an overhang free fall I definitely had time to see my life kind of spin through my head and think about maybe I wasn't going to see another day and then BOOM my god I'm still alive I didn't know what I had done to myself but I knew I had hurt myself pretty bad it's a horrendous fall the impact is shattered Darnell's pelvis into pieces leaving her skeleton severed in two there's nothing but soft tissue connecting her legs to the rest of her body super athlete Danelle goes into survival mode somehow my brain didn't allow itself to think too deeply about what had happened despite her terrible injuries Darnell's endurance training kicks in and she's determined to keep moving so what I did is I took my right hand and put it on my right leg in my left hand and put on my left leg and I could feel my legs and so I knew that I wasn't paralyzed my next reaction was I got to get out of this Canyon I had to get back to my truck and I got to get I got to get home or I got to get to the hospital incredibly despite her shattered pelvis the endurance athlete tries to stand up and run out of the canyon [Music] but with a skeleton effectively in two danelle's legs cannot support her body unable to walk or run she's facing her worst nightmare her legs useless she's alone on a ledge separated from her dog tears Janelle is stranded in a thousand square miles of barren uninhabited wilderness I knew that I needed to get out of that Canyon the temperatures were cold and it was the middle of winter but I couldn't stand up I couldn't walk so I just started dragging myself with her skeleton broken into shattered at the pelvis Danelle is critically injured most people would be in agony but super fit athlete Danelle is experiencing an enormous adrenaline surge masking the pain but the problem for Danelle now is which direction to go she's no idea if there's a safe way down from the ledge [Music] Tass comes to Darrell's rescue [Music] Taz's found a way back through the canyon to reach her she is no longer alone but Tazz's appearance brings more than comfort since he had gotten to where i landed i knew that there was a route out so i used him as my guide and kind of dragged myself where he went along the shelf and then back down to the bottom of the canyon [Music] with incredible determination the now follows turns to the bottom of the canyon and now plans to pull herself back to her trunk but as the adrenaline surge wears off the pain is starting to take ahold take all my energy to sort of drag myself an inch and and then I would the pain would be so bad I would have to regroup and try it again time is working against Danelle she knows the dangers of this remote wilderness and that if she doesn't reach safety by nightfall the sub-zero temperatures could kill her with her energy slipping away Danelle remembers her waist part I didn't know what was in that waist pack because I didn't check before I left and in one of them was a little gel pack sugar pack that endurance athletes often bring with them to help provide energy for running eating the gel provides Danelle but a much needed boost as well as a moment to reflect on the colossal tusks she's taking on but her progress is excruciatingly Li slow at one point I looked back at my tracks and I could just see where I dragged myself through this Canyon took me probably two and a half hours just to get to the bottom dragging myself inch by inch the cannon that took me maybe two or three minutes to walk up the only comfort Danelle has is her dog's constant companionship TAS was with me this whole time I think you probably realized that I was injured I think he was kind of wondering why I was going so slow as the winter Sun sets the temperature is dropping below freezing daylight is fading fast and with it any chances of getting out of the canyon before nightfall [Music] despite Danelle superhuman efforts she's far from safety too tired to go on she stops for the night but she knows that this desert has a habit of claiming victims in the hours of darkness it was comforting having tests there and I also knew that if there was to be a say a coyote or something that was to come into the canyon that he would have he would bark and and scare any wild animals away but Taz's presence won't save her from the bitter cold of the savage desert night with the injuries to my midsection it was a little bit uncomfortable if he got too close to me because it would kind of move my bones around I was really hopeful that I was gonna make it out of there or somebody was gonna get me I should have realized right then that I was about to die and that I was in the middle of nowhere and nobody knew where I was with hours to go before dawn the temperature is already well below freezing and it's still falling it was bone-chilling you know it'd be like laying in a freezer my feet were frozen and they got frosted exposure to the cold is causing tinel's body to shut off the blood supply to her extremities to protect her vital inner organs frostbite could claim her fingers and toes but it's only the first stage in the onset of hypothermia I know that once you start to get too cold then the brain will shut down which is a symptom of hypothermia with winter temperatures plunging into the 20s in the Moab desert Danelle draws on her athletic trainers to help her survive the night despite a fractured pelvis Danelle starts to do crunches to keep herself warm it was almost like just used lifting my head up my head and my shoulders up I couldn't do a full sit-up because I didn't have any movement in my midsection it takes a superhuman effort it's almost too much for her and then I started to fatigue and I was I became tired and I said to myself I gotta find a pace that I could maintain through the entire night Danelle forces herself to do one sit-up every five seconds non-stop over the next six hours it's an extraordinary challenge but it's the only way she'll stay alive I know if I fell asleep I would died of hypothermia and I knew if I stopped doing that crunches that I would have died of hypothermia in an incredible feat of physical endurance and mental stamina Donnell wills herself to survive in freezing conditions when most people would probably have given up Danelle has made it through the night by doing situps in the morning she has no time to rest she intends to crawl her way two miles back to her truck my plan was to take that gel to give me some energy and then to continue to crawl out [Music] I thought that it would be no problem for me to continue dragging myself and what I didn't know is that that the adrenaline had gotten me through those first five hours right after the accident Danelle is in for a terrible shock the adrenaline that protected her was completely worn off now if she's to survive she must face her ordeal with no defense against the pain flooding throughout her body I tried to move it was just throughout my whole body was just excruciating pain and on top of the physical pain was the mental pain of being stuck there I would rather had 20 people around me hitting me with a hammer that would have been better than what I was going through [Music] and that's when I started to think somebody's got to notice that I'm missing I thought maybe some of you will notice my truck is still parked there but as she lives alone no one is looking for Danelle no one knows she's missing she is completely alone it's nearly 24 hours since her devastating fall and Danelle is facing a new danger dehydration I was aware of how dangerous it can be to get dehydrated with a fresh water supply gone only a small puddle by her side is helping us stay alive but it was really a struggle to drink from that water source it was hard to get the water into my water bottle and into me there was a lot of silt in it but while water can help keep her alive it also carries a risk they didn't want to drink too much because if I peed on myself then the risk hypothermia would have been worse because it was so cold out there urinating would wet her clothing in the bitter cold it would freeze speeding up the onset of hypothermia only Janelle's willpower has prevented it from already happening as the day wears on the risk posed by the bitter cold lingers but a new threat emerges inside her body Darnell's injuries have taken a lethal turn for the worse I started to feel this inflammation and my midsection and it was kind of soft and squishy and I remember if I tried to move this whole Jelly Roll would sort of move almost like a water balloon or something I remember thinking at the time all it's it's inflammation it's not inflammation it's far worse then I was shattered pelvis has severed blood vessels in her pelvic cavity she's been bleeding internally for a day and a half starving her brain and other major organs of the vital oxygen they need for her to survive Danelle is bleeding to death [Music] unable to move and facing another night in freezing temperatures Danelle is finding it much harder to stay in control she struggles to do her sit-ups worse still he's beginning to hallucinate because of her blood loss and fatigue I remember looking it up to the stars and instead of them being these vivid stars where I could see the Milky Way all I could see was these stripes in the sky the second night was a lot harder that first night test kind of cuddled up next to me in the second night he didn't want to he would come and check on me but he didn't cuddle up next to me he just kind of looked at me like you know what are you doing laying there but I don't think he knew what to do either yeah it probably was maybe he was thinking you know should I leave and go get some dog food you know and take care of myself or should I stay here with her [Music] the cows knew something was wrong then his demeanor had changed a little he seemed a little bit depressed he seemed kind of frustrated that I wasn't taking him to his doggie bed you wanted it to continue on back to the house and he kept looking at me like come on let's go to a more comfortable spot second I felt a lot colder - me too it felt long and cold what Danelle doesn't realize is that the cold is keeping her alive her core body temperature is now so low that her metabolism is slowing dramatically her blood pressure is dropping which in turn is slowing the internal bleeding the cold is delaying the worst but Darnell is already living on borrowed time as the night wears on Darnell is fighting for her life it's taking every ounce of willpower to avoid drifting off to sleep where the onset of hypothermia would lead to certain death I remember wanting to be at home in my bed or it was warm and comfortable and where I could sleep I had been awake this whole time and I was starting to get the sleep monsters where I wanted to sleep but I knew had to stay awake and I still kept hoping somebody would notice that I was missing the reality of the situation was that I was in the middle of nowhere and nobody knew where I was thanks to her endurance training and extraordinary willpower Danelle has survived a second night in the freezing winter desert where most people wouldn't have survived one but it's unlikely she will survive another three pints of blood have seeped into her pelvic cavity and she's becoming much weaker and that lump around my midsection it was blood I couldn't see it because it was all internal but I was losing a lot of blood I didn't want to die and I had to get out of the canyon nobody knew where I was so I tried again and I I was determined to just to fight the pain and to try again [Music] two days after she set out on her run several phone calls from tinel's family and friends had finally alerted the police to her disappearance morning Frank well you got there I got a possible missing persons call yesterday we went out to the house this morning to check it out lights are on laptops on trucks gone no signs of activity for a couple days at least I know her Danelle balan g the marathon runner she trains up around the mosses matter of fact I'm heading up that way right now I'll take a look around let me know I will oh maybe I made it about three inches and I got myself stuck in this small wasn't even a pothole it was just a a change in direction in the rock and I couldn't even barely get my stuff out of it with little blood-borne oxygen reaching her vital organs Darnell's body is close to shutting down it's only her extraordinary physical conditioning with keeping her alive but she won't live much longer without medical help and she knows it I was hyperventilating I could barely breathe and I also starting to lose my vision I would turn my head to look and and it would just sort of be this blur across the sky and then I'd have to focus on something in order to sort of get my vision back barely able to see Danelle can go no further defeated she spends a painstaking three hours inching her way back to her only source of water fifty hours after her dramatic fall the adventure athletes hopes of getting out of the canyon alive now seem futile I got myself back into this spot and I just laid on my back and started crying and I started to lose hope [Music] and tez came over to me it's just licking my tears and I was so sad that I wasn't gonna get I didn't know what was gonna happen to test there's not gonna be anybody to take care of him I was gonna miss not being able to play with Taz miss bent being able to run with them and do the things I love to do and that's when still get talked about it local detective Craig Shumway knows that Danelle often trains in the Amasa back area north of ma he's hoping his hunch pays off bingo now a search-and-rescue operation can be launched but it may already be too late for DES now within an hour of the discovery of Darnell's truck the Grand County Utah search-and-rescue team mobilizes Darnell's been missing over two days and they no any hopes of finding her alive are fading fast okay we've got a missing person's potential injury in the a massive back area John Marshall is in charge of the search team that's in the field our organization is set up that individual officers take turns being the officer in charge on any particular day that date just happened to be my day female brunette about five foot four 120 pounds named Janelle valor G Valenti you know her and instantly in my mind the story completely changed we're not looking for a lost tourist somebody who just wandered off the trail we're looking for somebody that's got more backcountry experience than your average John Doe on the street and if this person's been missing in the backcountry for two two-and-a-half days they're not just lost this person is in some serious trouble while critically injured and exposed to freezing conditions Darnell's endurance training has helped keep her alive for over two days but the physical ordeal is wearing her down mentally I was pretty close to dying at that point and I had lost hope that anybody would find me [Music] now after 51 hours her intense willpower is breaking down despite increasing risk of hypothermia she can no longer stop herself from urinating with night bringing colder temperatures Danelle knows that without a miracle she likely freeze to death by morning the extreme athlete has finally given in that's when I started to think about my life and everything that I did I started to think about my life and everything that I did and everything that I still wanted to do and I thought about my family and my friends and how much they meant to me and I thought I was going to die I mean I was I was dying need you to help me Taos was there with me he was all I had at that point and I said to ant myself as I'm hurt I need help can't go get help go get me help it does go find some help for me please go this is my last chance to his [Music] [Music] go can you turn around and he took off Taz is our only hope but Darnell knows that by sending him away she may now face death alone with little time to spare Moab rescue operations chief John Marshal arrives at the immerser backcountry search area first in the backcountry here in southeastern Utah doesn't play any favorites it's a beautiful aw inspiring landscape but it also is deadly there's about Donnie you see him yeah I got him [Music] Taz's found his way out of the canyon and is heading towards the search party but as he races towards them John fears the worst I know my dog will never leave my side as long as I have a pulse so to see her dog down in the bottom of the canyon for the first time my heart dropped it says off this can't be a good sign the dog has left its master as the rest of the search party arrives Taz reaches the top of the canyon but he doesn't stop and his behavior is bewildering particularly to experienced trekker they go get hunt this bedraggled dog came running down the jeep road and right through us the odd thing was he didn't really want anything to do with us like he didn't walk up to the first person and go feed me John Marshall knows that Thais could hold the key to finding Danelle but standard procedure dictates that he cannot delay the rescue operation any further bago you take the master back trail and the ATV bago Gerhardt is under no illusions about the enormity of the task facing them usually you're going to look for somebody that's just out after dark or they broke their ankle and you pretty much know where they are but this was a full-on surge had no idea within say 20 square miles which is huge in this country with all the canyons and cliffs 20 square miles going to take a long time to cover it's time they simply don't have as evening approaches temperatures are already dropping but bago Gerhardt can't rush for fear of missing a clue that may lead him to dinner [Music] as we went up every time there was a sandy place I'd look in the sand for tracks and pretty soon I thought I found some tracks that could be two days old and there were dog tracks along with the shoe prints back at the search-and-rescue base John is now sure that Taz is trying to tell them something this dog was on a mission so it's almost as he is if it ran around and say hey look at me and look at me I'm gonna get everybody's attention now I'll show you where she's at [Music] where is he going [Music] although setting down in the bottom of the canyon the dog reappears and headed back up the amassing back trail so I get on the radio and I radio over to the the vehicles heading up the trail 1 to 8 12 to 1 t 836 hey Bay go looks like the dogs come in your direction let him pass I'm looking over my shoulder and sure enough Tazz appears and takes off up over the hill I'm going you know I think I should follow tabs for about 5 minutes just to see okay dog let's see what you know time is running out as nightfall approaches a new threat to the rescue operation has emerged heavy snowfall is forecast which Danelle couldn't hope to survive following tires may now be the last chance of finding to nail alive [Music] experienced mountain tracker bago Gerhardt knows that Darnell's dog could be her only real hope of survival I know to pay attention to do two dogs because they they know stuff so when he when he ran up over the hillside I had a very strong feeling of I better follow him for a few minutes as Tazz leads bago deeper into the canyon the going becomes more treacherous Bega must slow the ATV and risk losing the dogs trail [Music] Danelle has no way of knowing that Tazz has found help she is resigned to dying out in the open but when he returns Danelle senses a change in his behavior next thing you know task came up and he came right by me and he went straight to the puddle and he started drinking from my puddle I'm everything and that's my lifeline that's the only water I got can't you find a different puddle Taz but I couldn't you know I couldn't say that to him and I just I just pet him a few times and let him drink from the puddle and his demeanor had changed a little bit he had seemed to get a little bit of energy back then he licked my face again he was kind of wagging his tail a little bit and I it was sad for me to see him see this happy little dog that I was never gonna be with at the same time I heard this other sound [Music] I wasn't hopeful because I had been screaming help for you know for 50 some hours straight and nobody had come to help me and just about the time I thought I was gonna run out of Road I heard this blood-curdling scream I'll never forget it and had to be nel [Music] the sound got closer and the engine cut out and I start begging desperate begging for help explaining that I've hurt telling this person you cannot leave I need help need help [Music] it was the best moment of my life because I knew right then that I was going to get a second chance I knew I was gonna make it it was quite emotional because not very often do you go on a rescue where somebody's life is really quite on the edge the look on her face was one of relief and then the tears came [Music] the next thing he said to me was you got one good dog and I just start crying I just laid there start crying [Music] I don't think any human could have survived another night in those temperatures tosses extraordinary bond with Danelle has saved her life Taz certainly did make the difference in shaving hours or perhaps even days off of finding to no and in this rescue she didn't have hours or days to spare she was on the brink as it was I knew Tazz was a smart dog but to be able to do what he did this was a whole nother level of communication suddenly you know my dog was taking care of me instead of me taking care of him now I look back on it now and I'm super so grateful he's truly a best friend [Music] Danelle is airlifted to hospital and undergoes emergency surgery to repair the severed vessels that have pumped three pints of blood into her pelvic cavity then there's a six-hour operation to pin a shattered pelvis back together it's touch and go whether she'll pull through when we get the reports back of to her medical condition and all the doctors were saying she she really shouldn't be alive with the massive amounts of blood loss that she had the hypothermia the frostbite everything combined she should have been dead days ago but here it is two and a half days later and she's smiling but there's another shock waiting for Danelle when she gets to see her feet for the first time in three days laying there in the hospital bed and they had taken my shoes off and I finally got a glimpse of my feet and they were black from frostbite every single one of my toes and then part of my foot was black you know with frostbite you just have to give it time and eventually over the next 24 hours slowly but surely the color started to come back in my toes my feet and so I knew I was gonna I knew I was gonna be able that my feet were gonna be okay the prognosis but the nails fractured pelvis was not so reassuring my doctor said that the injuries in my pelvis were pretty extensive so I didn't know if I was gonna be wheelchair-bound the rest of my life or if I was gonna be able to walk again her life has been saved but her body may be shattered beyond repair doctors fear she may never walk again against all the odds the extraordinary determination that kept her alive in the canyon has now put her back on her feet again after six hours in surgery and months of rehab Danelle is up and running I'm still able to do what I love to do it took it's taken several months of recovery and Rehab but I'm back out running again and running the trails cows and I go out almost every day and Tess as a new playmate my son is he's really a gift in every moment with him I appreciate and I think I appreciate him even more knowing that you know he may have never been if it wasn't for Taz and all the people that you know were there to help me survive that experience

Channel: Wonder

Views: 5,673,843

Rating: 4.8535638 out of 5

Keywords: trapped in the grand canyon, i shouldn't be alive dog, grand canyon survival, grand canyon survival stories, grand canyon fall survivor, I Shouldn't Be Alive S3 EP1, I Shouldn't Be Alive S3, dog saves owners life, owner saved by dog, canyon fall, wonder survivor stories, i shouldnt be alive, i shouldnt be alive full episodes, pet saves owner, survival videos, i shouldnt be alive new, isba, Dog Saves Owners Life After Dangerous Canyon Fall

Id: p1AhZaBPlis

Length: 48min 11sec (2891 seconds)

Published: Tue May 01 2018