Moose Droppings

NC Hunter Falls Out of Tree and Spends Night in Woods

Oct 26, 2006 @ 12:59 am by Moose

NC Hunter was airlifted out of the woods after spending the night in the woods. Dewitt Howlett fell out of his tree breaking his hip around 11am on Tuesday. His family reported him missing at 6:45 am on Wednesday and it was 2pm before he arrived at the hospital.

The family of Dewitt Howlett, 69, of 1207 Harris St. reported him missing at 6:45 Wednesday morning, according to Eden City Manager Brad Corcoran. Howlett went hunting on his 98-acre property off of Cascade Avenue near the Virginia border on Tuesday but never returned home.
About 10 sheriff’s deputies, seven Eden police officers and several friends went to the property and began searching but turned up no trace of Howlett. A second search launched before 9 a.m. found Howlett against the tree he fell from. Corcoran said Howlett was about three-fourths of a mile from the road.
Howlett left home for the hunting trip about 7 a.m. He told rescuers he fell from the deer stand Tuesday about 11 a.m.
Corcoran said it appeared to rescuers that Howlett broke his hip. Because he was dressed for winter weather, Howlett did not appear to have suffered any exposure related injuries. Corcoran said Howlett even told rescuers he got hot at points during the night.
Howlett was airlifted out of the woods because emergency medical responders ruled the terrain was too difficult to carry him out. He was being evaluated in the emergency room of Wake Forest Baptist University Medical Center just before 2 p.m. Wednesday.

We hope and pray he has a speedy recovery. We can speculate from the story that despite some bad choices ( failure to wear safety belt from the time he left the ground till he returned to the ground) he made some great choices that may have saved his life.

One - people knew where to look for him and once they discovered he was missing they alerted the authorities.
Two- He was appropriately dressed for the recent cold snap and despite the temperatures last evening getting down near freezing he was rather comfortable.

Make sure you let someone know where you’ll be and what time you should be back.

Eden Daily News