Injured man crawls for 16 hours to get help
June 20, 2009 - 5:25 PM
Wendy Victora
Daily News

A man who fell from the roof of his isolated summer home spent 16 hours crawling up a hill and into his house to call for help.

Today, Mike Donigan is being released from the Columbus, Ga., hospital where he has been recovering for three weeks. During the fall, he broke at least four vertebrae, his pelvis in two places and his right wrist. He also dislocated his clavicle and sprained his ankle.

He said he almost quit during the ordeal, which started at 5 p.m. on a Saturday evening and ended at 9 the next morning.

"I thought about my wife and kids, my mom and dad, and thought, ‘Well, need to press on,' " said the 57-year-old retired Navy pilot. "Asked for a little help from my higher power to press on, and I did."

Donigan, who lives in Fort Walton Beach, was working on his summer home in Pine Mountain, Ga., when the accident happened.

He said he and his wife, Debra, had talked about which projects would be safe for him to work on alone. Those projects did not include him working on the roof, he admitted.

But he had finished up some other chores and decided to paint a window on the second floor. He put on a safety harness and was working on the metal roof when some hornets started to bother him.

He unhooked himself and went inside to take a bath, when he realized he had left a radio on the roof. When he stepped back out on the roof, the hornets attacked him and he knocked over a bucket of water.

"You can't walk on a metal roof when it's wet," he said. "It's like ice."

Donigan said he learned the importance of a controlled crash landing during his pilot training, so he went off the roof in a sitting position with his legs stretched out. The property next to that side of the house slopes off drastically.

He hit the ground, flipped sideways and knew immediately that his right wrist was broken. When he rolled from side to side, he could feel his pelvis grinding.

He began to crawl on his left side, using his elbow and his right heel to slowly push his way up the hill. It took him four hours to travel 100 feet.

"I crawled over rocks, sticks, whatever was lying in my way," he said.

About 9 p.m., he finally reached the landing, but eight steps still separated him from help.

"When I got around to the landing, I wasn't sure if I could do it anymore," he said. "I thought about my wife and kids. I rolled over on my back. Pushed with my heels. Got to the top of the approach."

He had hoped he would be able to get saved that night, but when he tried to crawl up the steps he nearly passed out from the pain. A neighbor walked by, but Donigan just couldn't call to him.

The temperature was starting to drop so he managed to wrap himself in plastic to keep the mosquitoes away and some body heat in. Since he had been about to take a bath, he was wearing very little clothing and remembers shivering all night.

When the pain got too bad, he rocked to one side. He also pushed his feet out and squeezed his muscles together to try to prevent blood clots.

As he lay there, he figured out another way to approach the steps. About 7 a.m., he started to creep up the steps.

By wiggling his neck and shoulders up and using his left hand, he could move slightly upward. He also pushed his feet together to raise his pelvis in the air.

Two hours later, he reached the door and managed to open it and crawl inside. He had left a cell phone on a low table inside the door in case he ever got hurt.

Donigan called 911 first and his employer - Lockheed Martin - second, to let them know he wouldn't be in for "a few days."

He joked that he was old enough to know better than to go up on a roof alone. But what the ordeal really taught him was the power of the human will.

"You can do almost anything if you put your mind to it," he said.


http://www.nwfdailynews.com/news/thought-18340-help-hours.html

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