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HEBER — All Daniel Henderson remembered of that spring day was that it was beautiful.
The picture he took with his friend confirmed that.
What he didn’t remember about March 30 — and had to learn from others since — was just how close he came to death.
Henderson and his friend were on the trail to Lisa Falls in Little Cottonwood Canyon when something went horribly wrong.
“The trail just happened to be on the side of a cliff,” Henderson said. “I wasn’t doing anything stupid. I just stepped on a rock and the ground gave out because it was thawing.”
Henderson fell 200 feet — 50 to 60 feet vertically before his body tumbled through rocks and trees and eventually came to rest in a stream.
“I landed, I think, partially in a creek, which search and rescue said probably helped me because it stopped the swelling because it was so cold,” Henderson said.
What followed was an extremely technical operation for Salt Lake County Search & Rescue that ultimately drew news coverage.
“The work that the search and rescue team did that day — all of it — when I saw what they hiked through in the video and all that so fast, I can’t even say thanks enough for that,” Henderson said.
Nearly nine months later, Henderson is still recovering from the ordeal that left him in a medically-induced coma for 3½ weeks and a hospital room for two months. He fractured his spine, broke his arm, wrist, shoulder, seven ribs and suffered a traumatic brain injury.
Henderson had to learn how to tie his shoes and walk again.
“I have short-term memory issues now,” he said. “I get fatigued. (It was) a lot of stuff.”
Recovery, though, was a path Henderson already knew very well.
“I had a really bad alcohol problem and I was homeless, sleeping under a bridge in Covington, which is across the Ohio River from Cincinnati,” the 22-year-old said of his younger self.
Henderson’s first drink came at the age of 13, and he was an alcoholic before the age of 16.
“I was in and out of psych units, jail,” he said. “I was miserable. Nobody wanted anything to do with me, and I didn’t think there was a way to get out of it.”
Henderson said he eventually elected to go forward with treatment in Southern California.
“That finally helped me get my life together,” he said. “They said that if you just put action into this and do what your therapist is saying and take our advice, things will get better.”
His path ultimately led him to work in business development for Wasatch Crest, but he said mental health issues subsequently resurfaced while he was sober.
“They set me up for success by sending me out to Utah to treatment and, not only that, they stayed with me through it,” Henderson said. “I could come down there and volunteer and run book studies or shovel snow and earn like $20 — stuff like that, and they were nothing but nice to me.”
Henderson said he will reach four years sober on March 6, and he has had no relapses or regression since his fall.
He said he took his experiences from recovering from alcoholism and applied them to his traumatic brain injury.
“I couldn’t change what happened, but I could change the outcome,” he said. “So I decided to change the outcome.”
His determination has impressed those around him.
“Daniel is a fighter — I don’t know many people that would have come through what he came through,” said Jim Huffman, founder of Wasatch Crest, who got to know Henderson as a co-worker and friend. “It’s a real testament to him.”
He described Henderson as a “miracle on two” legs, considering both of his recovery stories.
“I just want to tell Daniel how proud of him I am,” Huffman said. “I have to say, in all honesty, in that moment, seeing him in that hospital bed, I didn’t know if he would make it.”
Henderson said he is extremely grateful to those who have helped him along the way — including those who contributed to his GoFundMe account as he healed from his fall.
He now shares his recovery story with others in treatment settings in order to help find their path through addiction.
“Addiction was honestly harder than falling 200 feet off a cliff,” Henderson told a group recently. “I’m determined to stay sober and to help someone. Every bad experience in your life can turn into an opportunity, and this is, like, a golden opportunity.”
