CANYON HORROR
A TEEN boy fell nearly 100ft fall into the Grand Canyon after moving so tourists could snap photos.
Wyatt Kauffman slipped off a cliff near Bright Angel Point trail while on a trip with his mother visiting national parks.
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The lad suffered nine broken vertebrae, a collapsed lung, ruptured spleen, a concussion and a broken hand in the horror fall.
After it took rescuers two hours to reach him in the treacherous canyon, he was airlifted to hospital in Las Vegas.
He told local Phoenix news KPNX: "I was up on the ledge and was moving out of the way so other people could take a picture.
"I squatted down and was holding on to a rock. I only had one hand on it."
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Wyatt said he didn't have a good grip on the rock soon fell backwards.
He said: "'I just remember somewhat waking up and being in the back of an ambulance and a helicopter and getting on a plane and getting here [the hospital]."
The boy's father was in their native North Dakota when he received a phone call.
Brian Kauffman said: "We're extremely grateful for the work of everyone. Two hours is an eternity in a situation like that.
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"We're just lucky we're bringing our kid home in a car in the front seat instead of in a box."
The dad posted photos of his son on Facebook captioned: "He's out! Still in a fair amount of pain, but he's out!"
One of the nurses reportedly made the teen a shirt reading "I survived" as a keepsake.
Wyatt has since been discharged and is on the way back to his North Dakota home.
The Grand Canyon National Park Search and Rescue team respond to hundreds of calls each year for a variety of injuries.
In June this year, a man plunged 4,000ft to his death from the famous Grand Canyon Skywalk.
Despite search and rescue teams attempting to reach the man, he died of his injuries after the horrific plunge.
A Freedom of Information request revealed that the park has the highest number of missing people in the nation.
At least six people have died and more than 50 have gone missing in the park within the last five years.
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The most common cause of death at the Grand Canyon is heat stroke, lightning strikes, drowning, suicides, and accidental falls.
In 2019, a tourist fell to his death at the Grand Canyon after getting too close to the edge while taking photos.
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