Elderly couple survives 6 days stranded in Utah wilderness - East Idaho News
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Elderly couple survives 6 days stranded in Utah wilderness

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GRAND STAIRCASE-ESCALANTE, Utah — An elderly Texas couple survived six days stranded in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument after their car broke down and they became lost, according to Alan Alldredge, chief deputy in the Kane County Sheriff’s Office.

Dell LeFevre, of Boulder, was checking on his cattle early Oct. 2 when he came across Helena Byler, 78, of Houston, Texas. The elderly woman was lying on Croton Road severely dehydrated and confused, Alldredge said. LeFevre contacted police and transported Helena Byler to a main road, where they met with the sheriff’s deputy and she was taken to the Kane County Hospital.

After having some food and water on the way to the hospital, she began to remember what happened to her.

Helena and her husband, Gerald Byler, 76, had left their hotel in Kanab Sept. 26 for a day trip to Lake Powell using a GPS device to guide them. While driving through the national monument in southern Utah, they became lost and their rental car became undrivable because of the road’s condition. So the Bylers began walking back up the road.

It soon became dark, and the couple spent the night in the rain. By the morning, Gerald Byler could no longer walk, so his wife left to get help. After becoming dehydrated, Helena Byler told police she drank water from puddles on the ground. She eventually found an abandoned trailer and took shelter there.

She began hallucinating and still distinctly remembers talking to dispatchers on the phone, seeing a helicopter that came to pick up her husband and entering granite buildings with people inside who refused to speak to her.

Stranded couple3
Courtesy Kane County, Utah Sheriff’s Office

“She was definitely seeing things, but they were very vivid to her, even after it had taken place and she had gotten out of the hospital. Those things were still very real to her,” Alldredge told KSL.com. “This little trailer she was in … she had to walk over a broken case of water bottles to get in, and there were cans of food in the trailer … but she was saying people were guarding the food and wouldn’t let her have any to eat.”

LeFevre found her on the road five days later, Alldredge said.

Police assumed her husband must still be near the couple’s vehicle and dispatched a medical helicopter and a Kane County deputy to the area. While in the air, the helicopter discovered an SOS sign made of rocks and flowers at the junction of the Croton and Grand Bench roads. They located the couple’s car about 3 miles away but didn’t find Gerald Byler with the car.

The helicopter landed near the vehicle, and emergency crews worked their way back up the road. About a half-mile away, they found Gerald Byler, still alive, in an abandoned trailer near a corral and a few other trailers. It was later discovered Helena Byler most likely spent the night in a trailer nearby, unaware that her husband was near, according to Alldredge.

Gerald Byler was quickly transported to Dixie Regional Medical Center and placed into the intensive care unit. Helena Byler spent one night in Kane County Hospital and was then discharged and transported to St. George to be with her husband.

As of Friday, Gerald Byler was still hospitalized but had greatly improved. The couple is expected to recover completely and return to Texas soon, according to Alldredge.

“It’s totally unbelievable,” Alldredge said. “Thanks to all those who had a part in this incident. Many little things fell into place that allowed the Bylers to be located alive. From LeFevre making the choice to use the road he did to the cooler weather, and to the assistance of Classic Air Medical. One more day would probably have resulted in a very different outcome.”

This article was originally published by KSL.com. It is used here with permission.

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