An experienced bushwalker whose ankle "clean snapped in half" had to crawl to safety for two days after falling down a waterfall.
Neil Parker, a Brisbane Bushwalkers' guide, was on what he thought was a routine three-hour hike at Cabbage Tree Creek on Sunday when the accident happened.
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Parker, 54, was climbing down a waterfall when he slipped and fell six metres. He snapped his ankle and wrist and then dropped his phone into the water as he was calling for help.
Speaking from Brisbane's Princess Hospital on Wednesday he told reporters he used hiking sticks to splint his leg and then crawled to a place he hoped he could be rescued from.
"My left foot just below my ankle, clean snapped in half," he said. "The whole bottom of my leg came loose," the Guardian reported.
"I had to carry my leg, and legs are very heavy when they're not connected to anything."
Parker covered over 3 kilometres in two days and ate the small rations he had bought - a protein bar and some lollies.
"I had medication. I had painkillers – Panadol and Nurofen in my pack. And I was able to put that to great use when it was needed.
"People in the club ask, 'Why would you carry 10 kilos of equipment every time you go for a walk?' This is the reason why. It's good to have it," the Guardian reported.
Orthopaedic surgeon Dr Nicola Ward told ABC the injuries would have been very painful and it would have been hard for him to move.
"I've never heard any such survival effort with two broken limbs, he's done extremely well," she told ABC.
"Essentially, with an ankle fracture like he's got, the limb is a deadweight and useless, you can't walk on it, you can't put weight through it and you need to drag it and similarly with the wrist," she said.
After Parker didn't return on time his family alerted the authorities and a search and rescue operation was mounted.
A helicopter spotted him on Tuesday and airlifted him out.
Newshub
