A Pennsylvania mother looking for help after her family’s car got stranded on a snow-covered road survived her 30-hour journey by eating twigs and drinking her urine.
Karen Klein, 46, had been missing since Thursday and was found Saturday near the Arizona-Utah border. Her husband Eric Klein and their 10-year-old son Isaac were also rescued, according to the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office.
“Our guys are ecstatic. This is a save,” Chief Deputy Jim Driscoll said of the searchers. “We were able to get a family back together for Christmas. It could have gone very bad very, very easily.”
The family was on a week-long trip to Las Vegas from Bryce Canyon National Park when they found that State Route 67 was closed for the winter and covered in snow. They then drove back in their rental car and got stuck in a ditch.
Karen — a Northampton Community College biology professor and a triathlete — sought an alternative to getting her family to safety.
Dressed in a parka, a knit cap and hiking boots, Karen geared up to trek through the snow and onto the main road. Her treacherous 26-mile hike lasted more than a day, beginning Thursday and ending on Friday afternoon.
When Karen ran out of food she opted to drink her urine and eat twigs for survival because she knew eating snow would accelerate hypothermia.
“She would make a decision and she would stick to it and never give up,” Kristen Haase, Karen’s twin sister, told WFMZ-TV. “She would do it or she would die trying.”
Her sister added that Klein pulled a muscle groin and at times she was hallucinating resulting from the freezing temperatures.
Her husband, Kevin, became concerned when his wife didn’t return. So he and his son Isaac left their car and hiked to higher ground to get cellphone reception to call for help.
Karen still hadn’t returned.
Searchers with Utah’s Kane County Sheriff’s tracked Karen at a closed entrance cabin Saturday morning where Coconino officials joined in assistance.
The father and son were treated for frostbite at an area hospital, and Karen was admitted to Dixie Regional Medical Center for the treatment of “pretty severe cold hand injuries,” Driscoll said.
“This is a Christmas miracle,” he said.
With News Wire Services.
