Friends' Boy Scout training saves man's life

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A medical student at the University of Utah can thank his former Boy Scout friends for saving his life in Spanish Fork Canyon.

It was supposed to be a fun camping trip. "This giant boulder, the three of us were trying to push it over the edge," explained Matt Jorgensen.

Jorgensen says that's when the boulder slipped and crushed his friend Sam Weber's ankle.

"I took my shirt off and cut it with a rock and made a tourniquet around his leg," Jorgensen said.

Jorgensen and another friend carried Weber down from the ledge then made a stretcher. "We ran back to camp and got a sleeping bag and cut holes in the bottom of it and stuck these long sticks through the bag," he explained.

Weber's ordeal lasted eight hours before search and rescue was able to get to him, but it's likely his friends' quick thinking saved his life.

Jorgensen says it's a case of hindsight being 20/20. "It's just the dumbest thing to do, but, I mean, it happened. We kind of all agreed that that was going to be the end of our shenanigans," he said.

E-mail: bbruce@ksl.com