Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
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John Daley Reporting...Ashlee Lightfoot, Rescued Hiker: "JUST AS HE WAS PUTTING MY IV IN HE TOLD THE OTHER DRIVER TO GET GOING AND I SAW COP CARS RUSHING BY AND HE TOLD ME THAT LIFE FLIGHT HAS JUST GONE DOWN."
The hiker who was rescued by the Life Flight chopper, which later crashed, is telling her story.
For one Life Flight pilot -- who had saved so many -- it was a final rescue. For the hiker, a close call.
Ashlee Lightfoot says she and a friend climbed up from the Olympus trailhead and reached the saddle just below the summit. Then, as they were heading down, she started to feel extremely sick -- apparently suffering from dehydration and heat stroke.
Lightfoot says her condition prompted her friend called 9-1-1.
A search and rescue crew hiked up to her and a little later Life Flight arrived. Lightfoot and the paramedic were secured to the chopper and she was flown down to Wasatch Boulevard.
After some discussion about whether Lightfoot would be taken in the chopper to LDS hospital --she was instead was put in ambulance and taken to Cottonwood Hospital.
Later, Lightfoot heard that the chopper had crashed. Today she expressed her gratitude to the chopper crew.
Ashlee Lightfoot, Rescued Hiker: "BRENT COWLEY AND HIS FAMILY, DENISE WARD AND BRIAN ALLRED FOR BEING SO AWESOME AND PUTTING THEIR LIVES ON THE LINE AND DOING THEIR JOB. IF IT WASN'T FOR THEM, I DON'T KNOW WHERE I'D BE AND I REALLY DO APPRECIATE THEM AND THEIR FAMILIES AND THEIR SUPPORT."
Ashlee Lightfoot: "IT DIDN'T REALLY ALL FALL TOGETHER UNTIL THE NEXT MORNING. MY NEPHEW HAD WRITTEN ME A NOTE AND SAID I'M GLAD YOU'RE OK. AND IT ALL STARTED FALLING BACK INTO PLACE THAT THEY HAD ARGUED FOR TAKING ME BACK TO LDS AND PUTTING ME IN THE HELICOPTER BEFORE IT CRASHED. IT DIDN'T MAKE SENSE THE NIGHT OF."
Ashlee Lightfoot: "IT'S HARD FOR ME. THE FIRST IMPACT OF HEARING THAT WAS VERY EMOTIONALLY HARD. MY FULL HEART GOES OUT TO BRENT COWLEY AND HIS FAMILY. I'M SO THANKFUL THAT THEY RISK THEIR LIVES EVERY DAY TO SAVE PEOPLE SUCH AS MYSELF."
