Runners rescue man impaled on splintered tree stump – Alton Telegraph

On the morning of Saturday, July 13, Cindy Eiseler and three of her friends were running along the Lansing River Trail by Michigan State University in Lansing, Michigan, when they heard a voice calling for help from the woods nearby.

“We heard a man’s voice crying out, ‘I need help, I need help!’” Eiseler told Runner’s World. “It stopped us dead in our tracks, not knowing exactly where the man’s voice was coming from.”

The group did not want to venture into the woods alone, so they called 911 and assured the man that help was on the way. While they waited, another group of runners came by. Eiseler and her friends explained the situation and two male runners in the group went into the woods to check out what was going on.

They discovered that a man, a 37-year-old whose name was not released, had fallen from a tree onto a splintered tree trunk the night before, impaling his shoulder and trapping him to the ground. He had been there for 14 hours.

The Michigan State University Police Department confirmed the incident in a statement to Runner’s World, but could not comment on why the man was in the tree.

“He was pretty roughed up. He had a big hole in his arm. You could see the bone,” Victoria Mikko, a runner with the second group, said to the Lansing State Journal. Mikko, a medical assistant, tended to the man until an ambulance arrived. Had the fall nicked an artery, the man may have bled out and died, she said.

According to Eiseler, the experience made her realize the risks of blocking out sounds while running and the importance of staying alert at all times.

“Listening to music or using training devices may cause distractions and make you not pay attention to your surroundings,” she said.

“Thankfully, that early morning there was little traffic and no one was listening to their music.”

The man was transported by the East Lansing Fire Department to a local hospital for treatment, according to the Michigan State University Police Department’s statement. After the incident, Eiseler said medics told her that the man would have a long recovery, due to multiple fractures, but that ultimately, he would be OK.