Liz Klimas
Content warning: graphic photos and video below.
When a Colorado State University student broke her ankle hiking on a Wyoming mountain Aug. 11, her response was not what you might expect. Instead of crying, screaming or fainting from pain, 21-year-old Alexandra DeForest filmed a candid commentary about her situation.
Fox News reports DeForest saying she filmed herself to help calm her nerves.
“I guess it was to take my mind off of what had happened, and to give myself some peace in knowing that I was still level-headed,” DeForest told Fox News. ”Speaking out loud and my stream-of-consciousness settled me. I was talking about my loved ones and my dog. Anything to keep me from staring at my ankle. It was pretty gross.”
However gross, DeForest wasn’t shy at filming her grotesquely twisted ankle for all of YouTube to see. Since posting the video Wednesday of last week DeForest’s story has gone viral and has been called a “127-hours-style video” (a nod to Aron Ralston who was stuck while rock climbing and cut off his own arm to free himself).
In the video, DeForest has a frank dialogue with herself, beginning to show off her ankle and saying “you would think you would be better at this by now, this walking thing.
“This is me moving my foot, and it’s really gross,” she continues. “I’d show you more but if I looked at it, I might vomit on myself. And no one wants to see that … But, I don’t know first-aid for a foot that is not attached to your ankle. Um, I am doing the best I can. The good thing is I can‘t feel it so can’t be mad at that.
Fox reports DeForest saying she and a friend, Erik Henry, arrived at the mountain at 5 p.m. wanting to watch the sun set and planned on camping out. After the sun had gone down when the two were heading to a camp site, they came to a trench. DeForest explained she edged toward the trench to see if she could make the jump across it and ended up slipping and falling into it:
“I had a moment of freaking out. I looked at my ankle at it was detached. I felt blood all over me, my knees and elbows were cut, and my plan immediately was to crawl down the mountain.”Crawling proved too painful, so Henry carried DeForest before his muscles tired. Then and at DeForest’s prodding, he left his friend to summon help. It was a little after 8 p.m.It was then that DeForest recalled the camera in her bag, and created the popular video.
Among many tidbits in the video and “shout-outs”, DeForest thanks her friend Chris for encouraging her to get her fishing license, which means she won’t need to pay for search and rescue in this situation. The video ends with DeForest yelling toward Henry and her rescuers saying she’s fine and “can’t wait to hear what you have to say.”
DeForest began the semester of her senior year Monday. Even though Fox confirms she will not be going to Prague, DeForest is still seeing the good that came of her situation, noting that she and Henry are now dating each other.
Read more details of DeForest’s rescue and her thoughts on the situation as a whole here.
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