Bannister arrived at the trail around 11 a.m. and made her way to the lookout. As she headed back down, she made a misstep, and her foot got caught on a hole in the ground. She fell forward.
“By the time I sat up, my foot was pointing the wrong way. I knew right away I had broken my leg,” she said. “I tried to get up with my hiking pole and it collapsed on me.”
Bannister cried out for help, and before long, a stranger approached and called 911. They were told a search and rescue team would arrive in five hours.
“It wasn’t very encouraging,” Bannister said. “I asked this man to please ask anybody if they had pain killers, because at that point, the pain was pretty substantial.”
No one in the vicinity did. But two young men at the lookout came over to see what was going on. When they saw Bannister on the ground in agony, they immediately made an offer: They could carry Bannister to the bottom of the trail.
…
Had to be done.
Literally uplifting.
This story is a good reminder of the truth about human beings (told in Rebecca Solnit’s “Paradise Built In Hell”) : when real, actual tragedy strikes, people stick together, we risk our lives for strangers. It’s at the core of our moral sense. It’s what’s gonna get us through what’s coming.
Stories like this help keep that in mind ❤️🙏
Mutual Aid: A Factor in Evolution. 🥰
Look for the helpers. -fred Rogers mom
It’s the main tenet in Human Kind from Rutger Bregman. Not that all people are good people, but that in general people are way more motivated to help each other.
I hope I’m still hiking at 79 years old. That’s a rough fall though.
My ma is 72 and is still hiking, kayaking, and living her best life. (:
She also wants to hike the entire Appalachian trail before she turns 80!
God damn that’s ambitious. You going to do it with her?
I didn’t get a paywall, but sometimes the WaPo does, and if so, here’s a paywall-free link: https://archive.ph/f4tti
This is legitimately so wholesome from start to finish. No “orphan crushing machine” vibes - just a reminder that most people are generally decent and helpful humans.
If this was in the U.S., he might as well have carried her directly to a graveyard. U.S. insurance companies will definitely deny every penny of coverage of an elderly person on a trail. I hope she is wealthy.
U.S. insurance companies will definitely deny every penny of coverage of an elderly person on a trail.
What? Really? Doubt.
I mean, you can’t know for sure. Just suppose some usual shit, like it’s denied because she hasn’t met her deductable yet, or denied because the ambulance service and hospital are out of network. They can’t deny preexisting conditions anymore, and they just act as the primary payer even if there is a valid secondary layer, but they still have all kinds of denials.
Their favorite is “not medically necessary.” It’s literally rationing care. A medical doctor who examined the patient already determined that it was necessary, and now some faceless doctor, hired only for their reputation as being insurance whore, is overriding the doctor, without examining the patient, and maybe not even being in the same speciality, sometimes they aren’t even doctors, but nurses. It’s absolutely crazy that they are allowed to do that.
The whole system is a giant waste of money and time. Yeah, it produces value for shareholders, but that money comes from premiums people paid to get care when they need it and so any care needed but not provided is straight profit to the insurance company. It adds nothing to medical care or the health of the country, just value for shareholders.
