A 13-year-old boy falls nearly 100ft at Grand Canyon’s north rim. Here's what happened next...

A 13-year-old boy, from North Dakota, fell down 100ft from a ledge at the Grand Canyon’s north rim when he was visiting the tourist place during a family trip. However, miraculously the boy survived the fall.

In two hours, emergency crews rescued Wyatt Kauffman after he fell off the cliff on Tuesday and plunged almost 100 ft (30 meters) at the Bright Angel Point trail, said authorities.

The officials airlifted Wyatt to a Las Vegas hospital for treatment of a ruptured spleen, a concussion, a collapsed lung, nine broken vertebrae, a dislocated finger and a broken hand.

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“I was up on the ledge and was moving out of the way so other people could take a picture,” said Wyatt, while speaking to Phoenix television station KPNX.

“I squatted down and was holding onto a rock. I only had one hand on it. It wasn’t that good of a grip. It was kind of pushing me back. I lost my grip and started to fall back," he added.

Rescue crews moved down the cliff and helped the injured boy get out of the canyon in a basket.

“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” to the hospital, stated Kauffman, who lives in Casselton, North Dakota.

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Miraculous escape

A national park service search and rescue team established a rope rescue down to the narrow and steep trail and brought the boy back safely to the rim.

“Team members implemented a high-angle technical rope rescue and were able to safely extract him,” said the national park Service in a statement.

For further care, Wyatt was then taken to a pediatric trauma centre. Father of the boy, Brian Kauffman was in North Dakota when he was informed about the fall and rescue of his son.

“We’re extremely grateful for the work of everyone. Two hours is an eternity in a situation like that,” Brian Kauffman stated.

He stated that Wyatt and his mother had gone on a trip to visit national parks when the Grand Canyon fall incident took place.

Brian Kauffman said that the hospital discharged his son on Saturday. “We’re just lucky we’re bringing our kid home in a car in the front seat instead of in a box,” said Brian Kauffman, while speaking to KPNX.

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“I can say with great confidence that they put to use advanced medical skills in an austere environment that are rarely executed in most other places,” stated Meghan Smith, Grand Canyon national park’s preventive search and rescue supervisor.

“It’s clear that their training and hard work paid off, leading to a smooth, timely operation that will no doubt lead to better outcomes for this patient,” she further said.

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