Real Survival Stories - Vineyard Misadventure: Long Crawl Out

Episode Date: September 2, 2026

In 2017, Noah Messenger is a teenager working in the lush and luxurious environs of the Maryhill Winery in Washington State. One late sunny afternoon, while happy guests sip the local produce, Noah takes a stroll after his shift. A single misstep changes everything. Within moments he’ll be semi-paralysed, with no phone, no food and no water. All his hopes of survival rest on his colleagues coming to look for him. But as the hours slip by, is help even on its way?… A Noiser podcast production. Hosted by John Hopkins. Written by Heléna Lewis | Produced by Ed Baranski | Assistant Producer: Luke Lonergan | Production Assistant: Chris McDonald | Exec produced by Joel Duddell | Sound Supervisor: Matt Peaty | Sound design by Jacob Booth | Assembly edit by Rob Plummer | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering: Cian Ryan-Morgan. For ad-free listening, bonus material and early access to new episodes, join Noiser+. Click the subscription banner at the top of the feed to get started. Or go to noiser.com/subscriptions If you have an amazing survival story of your own that you’d like to put forward for the show, let us know. Drop us an email at [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's around noon on Tuesday the 16th of May 2017. In Northwest America, Maryhill Winery Purches in dusty, ochre-colored hills, overlooking the mighty Columbia River, which marks the border between Washington State and Oregon. Acres of orchards and vineyards encircle the winery, the luscious ranks of leafy green plants bright as emeralds against the parched and rugged landscape. On the terrace of the bistro and tasting room, visitors soak up the sunshine and sip the local produce as they gaze out of the panoramic views. Below them, the great vines and fruit trees sprawl outwards towards a rocky cliffside, where the land suddenly falls away towards the river below. And here, caught in the crags at the top of the precipice, is a mobile phone.

At first glance, there is no sign of its owner. But then a hoarse, pained shout, echoes of the rock face. About 50 feet below, 18-year-old Noah Messenger lies stranded on a steep, scree-laden slope. His body is battered, his legs, leaden and unresponsive. He can barely move. Pain scintillates along his synapses as he takes a deep breath and bellows another desperate call for help. The sound reverberates across the low. landscape, but there is no answer.

I was just yelling, listening, yelling, listening, and then as the hours drug on, it got less and less hopeful. Despite being so close to the winery, nobody can hear Noah's shouts. Help is torturously near at hand, but remains just out of his reach. And as time passes, a niggling sense of unease builds into a dread-inducing certainty. no one is trying to find him. And if rescue isn't going to come to him, he will have to go to it. But stranded, injured, and unable to move his legs, that looks like an impossible task.

There's no way that people have been looking for me and haven't heard me screaming at the top of my lungs. By this time, it's setting into me. This is potentially a life and death situation. Not just potentially, this is likely a life and death situation. Ever wondered what you would do when disaster strikes. If your life depended on your next decision, could you make the right choice? Welcome to real survival stories. These are the astonishing tales of ordinary people thrown into extraordinary situations.

People suddenly forced to fight for their lives. In this episode, we meet Noah Messinger. In 2017, the 18-year-old Vineyard employee is just like many other young adults, making the most of his newfound independence and looking forward to a bright future. But then one single misstep changes everything, a simple twist of fate with devastating consequences. I consciously knew it was going to be bad. I was like, okay, this is definitely breaking bones. I felt my back just like snapped first. It was just intense alarm. I could just feel the immediate snap. Instantly semi-paralyzed and caught on a rocky escarpment with no phone,

no food and no water, all his hopes of survival rest on his colleagues coming to look for him. But as the hours slip by with no sign of rescue, it becomes increasingly clear that Noah's only remaining option is to try to drag himself to safety, one slow, painful inch at a time. I was accepting of the fact that I was going to die. It was an inevitability. I was pretty much just going through the motions of trying to do something instead of just laying there and dying. At that point, it seemed to me expected death. I'm John Hopkins. From the Noiser Podcast Network, this is real survival stories. It's just after 5pm on Monday the 15th of May 2017 near the Oregon-Washington state border.

Nestled against a backdrop of scrub-covered hills, the prestigious Mary Hill winery occupies a prime spot, with sweeping views of the Columbia River and surrounding vineyards. With guests dotted around the wineries bar and open terrace, last orders are being taken, before the staff can begin closing down to head home for the night. But out in the grounds, 18-year-old Noah Messenger has just finished his shift. With summer approaching, his responsibilities and work patterns have recently changed, and he switched from working in the cellars to doing landscaping and other outdoor jobs. Though he now finishes a little earlier than many of his colleagues, Noah can't leave yet.

He is carpooling with his housemates who also work at the winery and they won't be done for another hour. Whilst he waits, Noah decides to go for a quick walk to the nearby cliffs. There's this excellent viewpoint. You have to just go through the orchards and it's overlooking like some orchards down on the bottom of the cliffs and then the Columbia River, which is a huge river. Yeah, it's a canyon. It's just a beautiful area. So that's where I decided to go just kind of kill some time. Before setting off, Noah informs one of his colleagues about his plan. I went into the winery and I told one of the coworkers that I was carpooling with that I would be down on the orchards and I potentially might fall asleep.

So make sure to yell if they don't see me by the cars when they leave. I have a very clear memory of that. He took his earphone out. He listened. And he seemingly understood, he nodded, and went back to work. After that, Noah heads into the orchards, making for the familiar lookout spot on the cliffs. Though he's only worked at the winery for a matter of months, he's taken to it quickly. With some money in his pocket, Noah is enjoying a degree of freedom and independence for the first time in his life. It's something he values highly after growing up with nine siblings in what he describes as an extremely conservative Christian household, we was homeschooled.

There's definitely positive aspects to homeschooling. You can work at your own pace. There's potential for even greater learning in a shorter period. For me, my family did it through strictly religious reasons, which I found extremely frustrating, especially throughout my teenage years. There wasn't a lot that I can look back on and be like, that was something that I did that was like a nice estate throughout that time. You know, there was fun days, perhaps.

sometimes with friends, but it was a difficult time for me growing up in that environment. I never saw eye to eye with family, so I was kind of always a little bit ostracized. Relations with his stepfather were particularly strained. He increasingly took control and just kind of delved us into a very ultra-extreme conservative household. was very, very comfortable with physical punishment. He was very inclined to make me tough, to put it simply. And I've been very comfortable with discomfort throughout my life or grown to be very comfortable with discomfort just through exposure.

Desperate to gain his independence at the age of just 17, Noah took the plunge and moved out, cutting ties with most of his family. I very much was itching to be an adult throughout my childhood and teenage years. I literally pat at my stuff and just put it in my car and left. I mean, not the best for me, but I've grown a lot from it, and I think it's sheaves me a lot as a person in a lot of positive ways. Less than a year after moving out, Noah has made the most of his newfound freedom by securing a job at the winery and building a thriving social life.

Life was fun at that point. I was able to finally live freely in a way that I had never been able to experience throughout essentially my life before. I was just a 17 and 18 year old enjoying himself finally living a little bit more freely than he'd ever been able to. It's around 5.30 p.m. Upon reaching the edge of the cliffs, Noah scrambles down a narrow path, leading to a small ledge three or four feet below. Here, he pauses to take in the stunning view. The cliffs fall away sharply towards a steep slope,

covered in shale and scree. At its base lie various vineyards and orchards, and on the other side of them, the serpentine splendor of the Columbia River, winking in the sunlight. There's this cool little outlay that you could just sit and look over the cliff, and I'd grown up, climbing trees,

being very comfortable with danger, I suppose, and it was unwise of me. Obviously, looking back, it's not like I'm making an excuse for being so close to the cliffside, but more of a clear picture of the mindset that might have led up to that. After a few minutes, Noah reaches into his pockets and checks his phone. Though there's no signal out here, it indicates he still has half an hour before he needs to be back for the carpool. Plenty of time for a little more exploring. He scans the crags ahead, his eyes lighting on another vantage point he hasn't yet investigated. Slipping his phone back into his shorts, Noah sets out across a narrow, shale-strewn path,

the loose rocks crunching beneath his feet. In the skies above, a hawk screeches. Confident in his abilities, he picks his way along the sloping path, eyes fixed firmly on the the way ahead. And then his foot lands just a fraction too close to the edge. It's a tiny movement in the wrong direction, but it has enormous consequences. My foot just slipped and, you know, it was the simplest of slips, nothing dramatic or anything, but I was in a dumb spot and I slipped and my foot fell backwards and it was like everything went into slow motion. There was nothing I could do. I knew I was falling. Hello, Greg Jenner here. I'm the host of You're Dead to Me, the BBC comedy show that takes history seriously.

Every episode, I pair up a top historian with a fantastic comedian, and we have a lovely, funny, fascinating chat about a different subject from world history. And in this new series, we're beginning with an epic voyage through the story of Homer, the Iliad and The Odyssey. And that's with Kyle Smith Bino joining us. And then we'll be learning about Francis Galton and the racist discredited pseudoscience of eugenics with Desiree Birch. will meet many medieval saints in their bone boxes with Rachel Parris. So if that sounds like your sort of thing, listen to You're Dead to Me wherever you get your podcast. Thank you. Bye. In a split second, Noah is in free fall, grasping desperately at the empty air as he hurtles towards the ground.

Seconds later, his tailbone smashes into the rock of the cliff face. The impact instantly catapulting him backwards into a second longer fall. consciously knew it was going to be bad. I was like, okay, this is definitely breaking bones, but I was able to tuck my head in and kind of like let myself somewhat relax. I knew not to like tense up. So I kind of tucked my head in and relaxed. And I think that may have saved my life because if my head would have slapped back, it almost certainly would have killed me. The sky above Noah spirals as he plummets earthwards, powerless to stop what's coming. He slams into the ground with a sickening, bone-splintering crash.

I felt my back just like snap first. I was on so much adrenaline. I wouldn't have called it pain, but it was just like intense alarm. I could just feel that, you know, immediate snap. Dazed, Noah gasps for breath. heart banging against his ribcage, his senses reeling from the force of the collision. Slowly, the initial shock of impact fades, and he starts to process his surroundings. He has landed about 50 feet below his starting point, partway down the steep, rocky slope

at the base of the cliffs. One wrong move, and he could end up sliding all the way to the orchards and vineyards at the bottom. But there is a much greater concern. Noah can't move his legs. He stares down towards them, taking in their awkward, unnatural angles. My legs were all like to the side. I didn't feel like they were there and it was shocking. So immediately I kind of had this like burst of adrenaline and I was like trying to move my legs into a more straight position

because that was like alarming to me seeing them like that. Driven by shock and adrenaline, Noah struggles into a semi-seated position. so he can reach towards his legs, pain radiating through his body. I've dealt with so much pain throughout my life. You know, the pain wasn't making me unable to function in the same way it may for other people. Noah grimaces as he maneuvers his legs. He is relieved to find that even though he cannot move them independently,

he can at least still vaguely feel his hands upon them. After straightening them out as much as possible, he sinks backwards, exhausted by the effort. It's obvious he has sustained some major injuries in the fall. Although he has no way of knowing exactly how severe they are at this stage, trying to move anywhere would be folly. Immediately after, I mean, I knew not to try to move. I knew not to try to do anything other than just wait for help. I reminded myself that I told that co-worker that I would be down on the cliffside.

So I was like, okay, we're good. They're not going to go home without me. They know I'm down here. I was going to mention it. I made sure to tell him that. So all I have to do is wait here for maybe half an hour or so, and they'll be coming down here to look for me. Confident that help is near at hand, Noah waits,

watching the color of the sky change as sunset approaches. There is nothing else he can do. Despite the relative proximity of the winery, he's still too far away for anyone to hear him shouting. Plus, at some point during his fall, his phone fell out of his pocket, meaning he has absolutely no way of contacting help. I do look back on the time and wonder

if I would have just searched around for the phone that would have been probably so much better than my situation that I ended up in because you can still make an emergency call on a phone that doesn't have service. I wish in hindsight that I would have just spent that initial effort maybe crawling around on the top of it, looking for where my phone would have landed. For now, all Noah can do is wait for his co-workers to find him.

It was scary, yes, but it wasn't like writhing in pain or anything like that. Although I knew the situation was horrible, I was comfortable with the fact that my coworkers would be there, Soon I was safe. I wasn't afraid for my life at that point or anything like that. I was like, okay, I'm going to be found. I just need to wait for someone to pass by. Occasionally, he yells out, hoping to attract the attention of anyone searching the nearby cliffs.

The rest of the time he waits, straining his ears for any indication of footsteps or voices. The half-hour mark comes and goes, and there is no sign of rescue. As time passes, Noah's yells become more urgent, and dread grows in his gut. Maybe an hour and a half or so later, I realized, okay, they're not looking for me. They had to have gone home by now. They must have assumed I got a ride or something like that. If they were looking for me in that general area, they would have heard me or I would have hurt them. It's a sickening realization.

With the sky beginning to grow dark, Noah resolves to take matters into his own hands. Carefully, he shuffles onto his stomach, eyes fixed on the steep, scree-covered slope, leading towards the top of the cliffs. I mean, I was in a probably delirious state of mind, that's probably why, but I attempted to try to crawl up that slope

to try to get to the top of the cliff. Because I was like, okay, maybe if I can get to the top of the cliff, and if I'm there, I'll be much more likely to be heard and found by people maybe potentially in that orchard looking for me. Gritting his teeth, Noah starts hauling himself up the slope, using his hands and forearms to pull his body weight forwards. His legs drag behind him, and shards of broken rock dig into his skin. He gains a foot or two of ground and then another.

For a few moments, it seems his plan might just work. But then, as he crawls, his limp legs, suddenly slipped beneath him and he loses control. I start rolling down the hill and that was honestly probably the scariest point of the whole ordeal. I was actively falling with no control of my fall because I had no control of my legs and my legs were just flipping out ahead of me and I'm trying to grab at the rocks to stable myself.

It was the first time I had felt that lack of control from my body and my body working against me. Noah cries out as he tumbles down the slope, his vision blurring into a kaleidoscope of shapes and colors. He claws at the ground, grasping for anything to arrest his fall. Suddenly, his hands close around a large rock and his momentum is brought to a jarring halt. Klinging to the rock, he tries to calm his racing heart, fear cascading through his veins. As soon as that happened, That scared me, and I started yelling like crazy. And I was like, you know, yelling for help. And I was scared.

I was yelling for like another 15 to 30 minutes. At that point, it was like really starting to get dark. And I was like, okay, I mean, it's definitive now. I'm at least going to be out here through the night. And I calm myself down. I was like, okay, you just got to wait until the morning. Already the temperature is dropping fast. Noah's attempt to pull himself up the cliff

have had the unintended consequence of dragging his shorts off. In his injured state, he finds it impossible to pull them back on. Now, clad only in a t-shirt, he's in for a long, cold night, and the forecast is for rain. In the gloom, he scans the slope and spots a large bush about 15 or 20 feet away. It's not much, but it should at least give him a modicum of shelter. Cautiously, Noah drags himself towards the bush. He struggles to crawl beneath it and settles instead for curling into a ball besides it, attempting

to conserve as much body heat as possible. As the last vestiges of light fade, it isn't long before the rain arrives. Noah's one consolation is the prospect of being rescued tomorrow when surely his housemates and colleagues will realize something is wrong and come looking for him. The first night wasn't as scary as you might think. I was still sure I was so reminding myself. I'm sure, you know, I'm doing okay right now. Obviously, I'm not in a good condition, but I'm doing okay.

And they're definitely going to find me tomorrow morning. I was just like, okay, just got to, you know, tough it out through the night. Keep reminding yourself, everything's going to be fine. So yeah, the first night, a lot on my mind. You know, there's a lot I was thinking about. But it wasn't like I was hopeless by any means or even preparing for the idea of death. It was like, okay, this is just a horrible experience I'm having currently that I will be out of as soon as they find me. Hello, Greg Jenner here. I'm the host of You're Dead to Me, the BBC comedy show that takes history seriously.

Every episode, I pair up a top historian with a fantastic comedian and we have a lovely, funny, fascinating chat about a different subject from world history. And in this new series, we're beginning with an epic voyage through the story of Homer, the Iliad and The Odyssey. And that's with Kyle Smith Bino joining us. And then we'll be learning about Francis Galton and the racist discredited pseudoscience of eugenics with Desiree Birch. We'll meet many medieval saints in their bone boxes with Rachel Parris. So if that sounds like your sort of thing, listen to your dead to me wherever you get your podcast. Thank you.

Bye! It's early morning the following day. Curled up besides the bush, Noah watches as the first rays of light pierce the sky, which thankfully is now free of rain plants. Surprisingly, sleep has proved impossible. At some point in the long dark hours, Noah lost all feeling in his legs, though this could just be the effect of the cold night air. Now his only priority is to make himself as visible as possible to any rescue party.

He shuffles away from the bush to a more exposed spot. Where I felt like they would be able to see me and I was able to be heard. And I just, you know, started yelling. Yeah, I was just yelling, listening, yelling, listening. And then as the hours drug on, it got less and less hopeful. That was actually dawning on me that nobody was actually trying to find me. It's several hours later, around noon. Horse with screaming, Noah can't deny the grim truth any longer.

If anyone were out there looking for him, they would have found him by now. By this time, it's setting into me. This is potentially a life and death situation. Not just potentially, this is likely a life and death situation. That made me so angry. That was the most angry I had been through the whole experience because I was depending on that co-worker that I had told.

I was reminding myself throughout the night, throughout the morning, and throughout, you know, that entire ordeal that I told him specifically where I'd be. It's completely unfair to have, you. any of that put on him. But during this time, I hated. He was what I was depending on. And I was like, I'm going to die now because you didn't take me seriously. Noah's anger bubbles over and his lungs strain as he screams with fury and desperation,

the cries reverberating off the cliff face. But still nobody comes. Eventually the rage is replaced by sheer exhaustion and resignation. Now, early afternoon, it's nearly 24 hours since Noah's catastrophic fall. If nobody has come to look for him so far, the chances are they're not going to. And that leaves only two choices. He can either lie here and wait for the inevitable end, or he can try to save himself. Crawling back up the cliffs is obviously out of the question.

But further down the slope, on the opposite side of the orchard, there is a small glimmer of hope. In the near distance, a train track runs parallel to the river. Noah estimates it's about 200 yards away. In his current condition, that seems brutally far. In another cruel twist, construction crews have been working on the tracks all day. But try as he might, Noah has been unable to get their attention. All of them are on tractors and have their headphones on and stuff, so I'm yelling at them and I'm trying to get their attention from up on the close side.

but the whole day nobody sees me. There is only one thing left for it. I knew I had to crawl at this point. I had to start getting down the hill further to get through the other orchards at the bottom and by that train track. That was the only goal that I could see as something that could save me at that point.

With painstaking caution, Noah starts inching his way down the slope, doing his best to avoid an uncontrolled slide all the way to the bottom. It's tough going. The loose scree digs into his skin. However, there is one advantage to the terrain. I went onto my back and I kind of just like angeled, like snowingled downhill, as carefully as possible. And because of the loose rocks, they were cutting me up,

but in a way it was helpful to have because they would kind of make little slides, little land slides that I was able to slowly move my way down the hill with. For the rest of the afternoon, Noah sliddle. Withers down the shale-strewn slope, gaining cuts and abrasions with every foot of ground he covers. It's punishing work, particularly when already weakened by lack of food and water. By the time he makes it to the bottom, where the harsh, rocky ground gives way to the softer soil of the vineyards and orchards, the sky is growing dark and he is exhausted. Though Noah has successfully overcome the first stretch of his journey,

he is now faced with another problem, a stone wall two or three feet high, which borders the orchards. Under normal circumstances, it would be child's play, but in his current state it's a major hurdle. Noah tries pulling himself up and over the barrier, but he simply can't. His only remaining option then is to go through it. He reaches for the rocks, grunting with effort as he attempts to dislodge them from the wall. At this point, and I was digging out the rock, just using my hands like a shovel. There was no being careful at that point. I needed to find help.

I was losing energy. I was losing vitality. I needed to find someone. So I needed to get through this rock barrier. And so I sat myself up, and I held myself up with one hand and then just dug the rock out with another hand. And while I was sitting up, the specific thought I had was I felt like a bobblehead on my own body. like it was like there was no structure to just like trying to sit up which he's a horrible thought as to how much more damage it could have caused to my spine noah works as darkness falls around him ignoring the pain throbbing in his lacerated hands

eventually he has dismantled enough of the wall to create a small hole just wide enough to fit his head and shoulders through he squeezes his upper body through the gap and starts pulling himself to the other side chest heaving with the effort But then, something halts his progress. One of his legs appears to be caught on the rocks, preventing him from moving further forward. Gingerly, Noah tries to wriggle free, but it's no use. He is trapped, wedged halfway through the wall. I have no function of no melee, and I can't reach my legs to reposition them to get him caught off the rock.

So essentially at that point I had to just pull myself through and I almost cut out my kneecap at that point. I cut very, very deep under my kneecap and I had to just push myself through to get to the other side and as soon as I did I passed out and that was the first time I passed out

just lost consciousness. When Noah comes around he discovers the sky is pitch black He must have been out for several hours. I knew I was dying at that point. It felt like I was losing my ability to stay conscious. So even though it was night, I attempted as much as possible to crawl myself inch by inch further towards the train track. The muscles in Noah's arms burn as he drags his battered body forwards.

But even as he inches his way deeper into the orchard, his progress is slow. his movements growing weaker. And even more worryingly, he finds he is lapsing with increasing frequency into unconsciousness. His body is shutting down. I'm crawling throughout the night, losing energy as I go.

And at this point, I didn't even think I would make it to the train tracks. And I was accepting of the fact that I was going to die. It was an inevitability that I just, you know, I was pretty much just going through the motions of trying to do something instead of just laying there and dying. It's a few hours later and still dark. With painfully slow movements, Noah tries to drag himself through the orchard, but it's a losing battle. His head is fuzzy and he's unable to stay conscious for any prolonged period of time.

Even during his more lucid moments, he's too weak to cover any serious distance. At that point, it seemed to me like I expected death. And that was sad, you know, but that was interesting too. You know, I mentioned growing up in a Christian conservative household and never seeing eye to eye on stuff like that. But that was something interesting to me at the time was it was always instilled in you. Well, at least when you're close to death, you're going to be so afraid of hell and that all this stuff that you're going to definitely turn to God and try to repent for all your ways and stuff. Through this time, it was like, God, God, or the religious version of God, was no more real to me than he'd ever been.

And hell was no more scary to me than it'd ever been just because I was about to die. That was an interesting thing to process at the time. I was accepting death, and it wasn't scary to me. It was honestly, it was sad. I was never going to see my family again. I was sad. I was never going to see my future. It felt very disheartening to be in that situation.

But it wasn't scary. It was either going to be nothing or I was about to experience something on the other side, and I was intrigued by that, honestly. Dizzy with exhaustion, lack of food, and severe dehydration. It isn't long before Noah's final reserves of strength are running dry. As the night wears on, it becomes clear he is too weak to continue any further. The blackness of night closes in.

He loses consciousness once again, and he collapses into the end. earth. It's early morning on Wednesday the 17th of May. Noah lies sprawled in the orchard, eyes closed. His breath is shallow, barely perceptible. At first sight, he appears lifeless. But then his eyelids twitch as something pulls him from the depths. A faint, droning hum. I woke up to the sound of a mower. I was born. barely conscious. I was like, you know, pushing my consciousness to the front. You could say, kind of like pushing my eyes awake, like, you know, oh my gosh, there's somebody around me.

Blerely, Noah turns his head towards the sound. There he spots a man on a ride-on lawnmower. Just a couple of orchard rows over. Noah tries to shout, but all that comes out is a weak, strangled croak. In desperation, he grabs some small stones and hurls them. towards the mower trying to make the man turn and look at him but it's no use essentially i just have to watch him mow the whole orchard beside me while i'm like trying to get his attention but i just knew okay well i can't get his attention right it does not work and he has his headphones and he's focused on his job and i can barely make any noise at this point so i just laid there and kind of watched him made myself stay conscious and just kind of washed him over the orchard it's an

agonizing weight. But eventually the driver turns his lawnmower down the avenue where Noah is lying. He sees me and he's obviously alarmed. I'm half naked out there. I think I was pretty bloody, but I definitely wasn't nearly as bloody in my back as it was in my front. So I think he assumed maybe I was drunk or something like that because he didn't seem to fully grasp the gravity of like I'm dying here. In a cracked voice, little more than a whisper, Noah tries to explain that he is in desperate need of water and help. However, it quickly becomes clear that English is not this man's first language. He is struggling to understand what Noah is telling him.

So I was like, I need help, call for help, I need help, I broke my back, get me help. And he responded with, where's your clothes? With increasing frustration and desperation, Noah tries again. to explain the only thing that matters right now, he needs urgent medical attention. The man frowned at him for a few seconds, then turns, jumps back onto his moa, and drives away. Noah stares in disbelief at his retreating form. I was terrified. I was like, okay, I finally found someone.

Why is he leaving? Does he not understand the gravity of the situation? Like, what the heck's going on? It seems once again that help is so close and yet so far. Noah's breathing is shallow as he lies on the earth helpless. But then, a few minutes later, the man returns. He holds a big bottle of water in his hand and in broken English tells Noah that help is on the way. Noah's rescuer had no mobile signal down in the orchards, so he just went further up the hill to make a call to the

emergency services. The relief is immense. The man hands over the water and after drinking his fill, Noah blacks out again too exhausted and delirious to fight any longer. When he comes to, he finds himself surrounded by medical professionals. That's when the relaxation finally had. I was like, okay, now I'm saved. And honestly, my consciousness kind of just like dissipates at that point for a few days. I mean, I have little inklings of on the helicopter, little inklings of like getting to the hospital and the initial surgeries and stuff like that. And that was, my God, that was terrifying. The tube down my throat and the intense pain that I was finally able to feel because the adrenaline was wearing off. But I was safe. You know, I had prepared for death and I was safe. So even though

I was an intense pain. I was excited, actually, to be still a while. In hospital, the true severity of Noah's injuries is revealed. His fall shattered his T-12 vertebra, a crucial juncture between the upper and lower parts of the spine. Though his desperate two-day crawl to reach help undoubtedly saved his life, it also exacerbated the injury. He is told the physical trauma to his spinal column will cause long-term.

mobility impairment. Through the hospital visit, it became very detrimental to keep hearing how this was something I was going to be dealing with for life. So that was a gigantic blow for sure. In addition to this, Noah struggles with other aspects of his hospital stay. I appreciate everyone that's come and visited me and tried to help me, or it has helped me throughout my experience. But during this time, instead of my being able to.

invite my friends and just people my age that were wanting to come visit. My family kind of made it all about them. They turned the situation into the family situation. So the entire church community kept coming into my hospital room over and over and over. And I was infuriated by hearing constantly how lucky and fortunate I was and protected I was by supernatural forces because as I survived. However, faced with a long road to recovery and a significant change in his way of life, Noah comes to the conclusion that he will need support. Having moved out of the family home at 17,

less than a year later, he finds himself back once again. A decision he says he now regrets. I was given essentially without directly it being laid out in words. It was essentially given an ultimatum to have to choose between family and that social life I had built. And at the time, I chose family, which, I mean, it's not a bad thing to choose family, but for me, it was a very bad decision. It just ended up setting me back years. On top of these emotional struggles, Noah must also learn how to live in a very different body. He uses a wheelchair as well as other mobility aids such as walkers and leg braces.

It's a difficult, more than difficult, being losing agency of your body. It feels wrong. It feels unnatural. You know, you're supposed to be able to function. And then I deal with pain, especially through the first years, I dealt with very chronic pain. I went from an extreme independence that was more than important to me to extreme dependence. In time, however, Noah does begin to adapt and find things to look forward to. Several years after the accident, he moves out into his own place once again, and finally regains his independence. Cut ties with that family.

I miss a lot of them, but I essentially had to just cut ties to keep my sanity. So I cut ties a couple years ago when I was able to finally get my own place. And my life changed. After that, my emotional state is immeasurably different. During his recovery, Noah learned that the co-worker he'd told about his planned walk to the cliffs ended up leaving work early and calling in sick the following day. Because nobody else knew where Noah had gone, they didn't know where to look for him. Noah's story is one of remarkable perseverance and fortitude in the most arduous of circumstances.

His courage and willpower have enabled him to forge a new path after the devastation of the accident. He says he is now determined to embrace a rich and rewarding life wherever it may lead him. I certainly am fortunate to have survived. And I do see serendipity within the world and within reality. I even see my experiences as very positive, although very difficult. I know I'm the person I am today because of the experiences I've had. So figuring some stuff out. But otherwise, I'm excited to live.

Honestly, I would truly say my current state of mind is happier than most. most people in much better conditions than me. Looking forward to my future, that's the other cool thing that I finally learned over time is I always had to have a clear view of exactly what my future looked like. And that's something I've grown out of, finally, just be able to appreciate the present moment and be excited for the possibilities of the future.

I'm excited to live life. Next time on real survival stories, a young fuel technician is called into action when the USA is threatened with nuclear disaster. In September 1980, 21-year-old Greg Devlin is a member of the U.S. Air Force. One night, Greg receives an emergency call from his commanding officer, informing him of a potentially catastrophic fuel leak at a nuclear missile silo near the small town of Damascus, Arkansas.

Greg and his colleagues will head to the silo to try to contain the leak. The stakes could not be higher. If the fuel spilling out of the missile ignites, it could conceivably cause the W53 warhead inside to detonate triggering a nuclear explosion right in the very heart of the USA. The small side of that W53 had the power of Hiroshima, but the black part on the back end made it 600 times as powerful,

or three times more powerful than every bomb dropped in World War II. That's next time on Real Survival Stories. Listen right now without ads and without waiting by joining Noisa Plus.