A hunter in Oregon was impaled by the very elk he had hunted. Gary Heeter, 69, had just downed a big elk and was dragging the carcass back to his camp behind an ATV.
This is the site of the crash where a hunter was impaled upon an elk he had just killed (photo via KTVZ.com)
As he drove up a steep hill, the ATV began to tip backward, reports KTVZ.com.
As the ATV tipped backward, Heeter, naturally, fell backward off the ATV, landing on the elk’s antlers, which impaled him.
His hunting partner called 911. The guys in the hunting party started applying bandages and pressure on the wounds to help.
And then the great men and women of the police and medics responded quickly, even getting a Life Flight helicopter to the location.
When a local deputy arrived at the site, he saw Heeter was conscious and communicating, but he was quickly going into shock.
But there was one problem — the helicopter couldn’t find a place to land in the mountainous, wooded area. They were running out of gas.
A Life Flight helicopter much like this one struggled to find a clearing to land in order to help a hunter in the mountains of Oregon (photo via Gephardt Daily)
Down on the ground, the local medics had arrived, leaving their ambulance about 1-and-a-half miles back, and started treating Heeter.
The helicopter found a clearing to land, but it was about a half-mile away. The helicopter medics and the medics from the ambulance got Heeter on a stretcher and carried him to the helicopter.
Fortunately, they got Heeter to the nearest hospital and he made a recovery.
Unfortunately, one reader said what the hunter did — drag an elk up a hill — was “stupid,” “foolish,” and not “proper.” Let’s not be like this commenter and have empathy and pray first.
