Paraplegic man stranded in desert drags himself four miles to safety
AP
A paraplegic man who hitchhiked in the New Mexico desert was dumped without his wheelchair and dragged himself about four miles down a dirt road for three days before a motorist stopped to help him.
Associated Press reports that Ricky Gilmore, 49, was found with tattered jeans and the skin on his left leg and buttocks shredded after the three-day ordeal.
His wrist is sprained and his kidneys have failed after going without food and water.
'Ah man, I'm just a big mess. I ache and I'm just in the first stages of healing,' he said yesterday at the Northern Navajo Medical Centre in Shiprock, New Mexico.
The Farmington Daily Times reported that Gilmore was found along a seldom-travelled road on the Navajo Nation about 10 miles from his home in Newcomb after he met a couple in a white van while hitchhiking and they dropped him in the desert.
He had invited them to his home for steaks and declined to share his alcohol with them, which led to the man grabbing him by his feet and throwing him out of the van while it was parked along a desolate road.
It was early evening when he was left in the desert and he had no wheelchair, food, water or coat.
He said: 'It was dark and I was shivering and the wind was blowing so I just crawled to a bush and dug in right there. It was cold that night.'
Survival mode kicked in when sunrise came and he added: 'I started dragging myself. I did the same thing all day and I only got about two miles.
'I could have easily gave up and said forget it, but I said I'm not going to freeze out here and I just kept on going.
'I don't think I would have made it another night.'
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