When a man goes missing for 14 days in the wilderness, the majority of which were spent without food and water, most people wouldn’t expect a good outcome. In fact, most of the members of Wolfe County Search and Rescue, the Kentucky crew looking for Scott Hern, believed they were on a recovery mission—not a rescue mission.
That all changed when the Ohio-based 48-year-old was miraculously found alive last weekend on the final day of searching — exactly two weeks after he went missing. And one of his rescuers is crediting divine intervention.
“I am not a very religious person, but, yesterday morning, I woke up and said a prayer for Scott Hern and his family,” crew member Eric Wolterman said in a statement shared by the search and rescue team. “To be honest, praying isn’t something that I do too often. We were working on this operation since Tuesday, and most of the team went into the day pretty much with the thought that this was going to be a recovery mission. So I said a prayer knowing the family would probably be getting some very sad news that day.”
After 12 days of searching the Red River Gorge area of Kentucky, the search and rescue team did not have much hope. The terrain was incredibly rough and dangerous, and their search had already covered hundreds of miles. That’s when members of the crew spotted footprints not far from Bell Falls, an area they knew Mr. Hern had an interest in visiting according to his journal.
“My team spent hours bushwhacking in our search area, we struggled up a creek and found a few footprints in the mud. We stopped to regroup, and one of the people on the team heard a very faint noise,” Mr. Wolterman recalled. “We paused, and we shouted, ‘Who is that?’ Thinking it was another search team. I then heard ‘Help!” We took off in the direction. As we got closer, asked what his name was and he ‘Scott Hern.’ I have never moved faster uphill in my entire life.”
While finding Mr. Hern was a long shot, finding him alive was a true miracle. Not only was he severely dehydrated, but he also couldn’t walk due to injuries on his feet. Thankfully, with the help of the Kentucky State Police, the crew was able to get him airlifted to the nearest hospital for medical treatment.
“It is truly a miracle that Mr. Hern was found after 14 days and 12 days without any food or water,” the crew said in a statement. “We were persistent in our search, but hope was fading.”
Now, just days later, Mr. Hern is on the road to recovery. His family even shared a picture of him back on his feet in the hospital with the help of a walker and a big smile on his face.
“When you have a win like this, after 14 days, that one will stick,” said John May, who serves as chief of the Wolfe County Search & Rescue team. “I promise you, there will not be a person involved that won’t remember that. You know the rest of their life.”
“You are safe, we are going to get you out of here,” a search team member told him. https://t.co/ye79P9lp7c
— FOX 56 News (WDKY) (@FOX56News) July 22, 2024
–
Marissa Mayer is a writer and editor with more than 10 years of professional experience. Her work has been featured in Christian Post, The Daily Signal, and Intellectual Takeout. Mayer has a B.A. in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing from Arizona State University.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.