“I was up on the ledge and was moving out of the way so other people could take a picture,” Kauffman instructed Phoenix TV station KPNX.
“I squatted down and was holding on to a rock. I only had one hand on it.
“It wasn’t that good of a grip. It was type of pushing me again. I misplaced my grip and began to fall again.”
Rescue crews had to rappel down the cliff and get the injured boy out of the canyon in a basket.
“I simply bear in mind considerably waking up and being at the back of an ambulance and a helicopter and getting on a aircraft and getting (to the hospital),” Kauffman, who lives in Casselton, North Dakota, said.
His father Brian Kauffman was in North Dakota when he heard about his son’s fall and rescue.
A National Park Service search and rescue team set up a rope rescue down to the steep and narrow trail and raised the teen safely to the rim.
“We’re extraordinarily grateful for the work of everybody. Two hours is an eternity in a scenario like that,” Brian Kauffman said.
He said Wyatt and his mother were on a trip to visit national parks when the Grand Canyon fall occurred.
Brian Kauffman said his son was discharged from the hospital Saturday and was being driven home.
Wyatt and his mom were expected to reach Casselton on Tuesday.
“We’re simply fortunate we’re bringing our child residence in a automotive within the entrance seat as a substitute of in a field,” Brian Kauffman told KPNX.
Source: www.9news.com.au
