‘LOST MY GRIP’

Teen Survives Terrifying 100-Foot Fall at the Grand Canyon

He said he was trying to get out of the way so others could take photos when disaster struck.

A teenager from North Dakota miraculously survived falling almost 100 feet off a cliff at the Grand Canyon while on a family vacation last week. Wyatt Kauffman, 14, was at the Bright Angel Point at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon on Tuesday. “I was up on the ledge and was moving out of the way so other people could take a picture,” he told KPNX. He added that he squatted down and held onto a rock. “I only had one hand on it,” Kauffman said. “It wasn’t that good of a grip. It was kinda pushing me back. I lost my grip and started to fall back.” It took nearly 40 emergency personnel two hours to reach him, and he was then flown to a hospital in Las Vegas for treatment to multiple injuries including a nine broken vertebrae, a ruptured spleen, and a collapsed lung. His father, Brian Kauffman, said the family was lucky to be bringing home their child in a car “instead of in a box.”