Canadian man survives Rocky ordeal by eating raw meat

[Honey]

Mr Hildebrand was stranded in a high-mountain pass in the Rockies

A Canadian man has described how he survived trapped under his vehicle for four days in the Rocky Mountains after it hit a rock and landed on top of him.

Ken Hildebrand, a paramedic, said eating rotten animal meat, collecting moisture on tape and thinking of his family kept him alive.
Mr Hildebrand, who was out checking animal traps, said he kept wolves and coyotes at bay by blowing on a whistle.
He is in hospital with leg injuries, frostbite, dehydration and hypothermia.
Facing the prospect of dying of cold or starvation in freezing temperatures, Mr Hildebrand, who gives lessons in first aid in the Canadian province of Alberta, said he went into "survival mode".
"I knew I had some [orange] surveyor's tape. I took it and tied one end around my wrist. I threw it at different angles to make an X. If someone flew over they would see me no problem," he is quoted as saying in the Globe and Mail newspaper.



He stayed alive by eating the animals he had collected, even though the rotting flesh made him sick, and used some of his surveyor's tape to get a little bit of the dew that dropped onto it.
"I ate a lot of dirt to get a little moisture," he said.
He was also harassed by wolves and coyotes, which he managed to ward off with repeated blasts on an emergency whistle.
"I thought of my family and God and that was it," he told the Reuters news agency from his hospital bed in Lethbridge, Alberta.
Mr Hildebrand, who has a weak leg due to polio, said he tried to lift the vehicle off his good leg using an axe, but did not have the leverage to move it.

Hiker rescue
He was trapped on 8 January in the high-mountain Crowsnest Pass area about 80 miles (130km) south-west of Calgary, Alberta, where he was checking animal traps in an area where ranchers had complained of wolves preying on livestock.
"He was stuck there for four days and three nights - almost 96 hours straight," Troy Linderman, director of Crowsnest Pass emergency medical services, is quoted as saying in the Globe and Mail.
"He had told some people where he was going, so people knew he was overdue," Mr Linderman said. "Several people looked for him, but they couldn't find him." Mr Hildebrand was finally rescued by hikers on the fourth day of his ordeal.

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Canada man survives Rocky ordeal

[Sojiita]

Ummm..if you are trapped for only FOUR freakin' days there is not risk of 'starvation' and no need to be eating raw rotten meat. After a week or two then maybe. The only reason I can think of eating that would be to get the moisture out of it-dehydration is a much quicker killer.

If he 'stayed alive' by eating these things, it was because of the moisture in them. You could die of dehydration, or hypothermia in 4 days. Starvation?..in FOUR days? Hardly. Whoever wrote the article is an idiot.

[radha]

four days? after how many days is your body in danger of starving?

[Sojiita]

four days? after how many days is your body in danger of starving?

Weeks-usually many weeks. I think the old saying was 3 seconds without blood, 3 minutes without air, 3 days without water, 3 weeks without food, something like that.

although I can see eating as not just eating for nourishment or to keep from starving, but if it is cold, eating to help provide fuel for body heat to help keep from freezing. And if no water is available, dead animals would provide some moisture, so I would give him that.

*but NOBODY is going to starve to death in 4 days unless they are already very very ill.

[Tati]

He also wouldn't have known when he would be rescued, and probably figured it was better to eat the meat before it got even more rotten. I definitely agree that it wasn't necessary at that point, but I guess he was trying to do what he could with what he had.

[Dixie Normos]

four days? after how many days is your body in danger of starving?

40 days...in IDEAL weather/temperature. I used to live a few miles from where that guy was. Trust me, without food, you lose body heat more rapidly. The mountains this time of year can get to -35oC at night, but generally it's -25oC...pretty freakin' cold. You also burn more calories when you shiiver, meaning you'd starve faster. True, it still would have taken him longer than four days to starve, but without that food he may have been too weak to ward off those predators, or call for help.