FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (WHDH) – An Indiana man fell into a dormant volcano while he and his wife were hiking in the Caribbean during their honeymoon.
Clay Chastain survived a terrifying fall in St. Kitts and is at Broward Health Medical Center talking about his experience.
“Yeah we’re gonna be more cautious in the future if we do anything like this,” he said. “I got knocked unconscious at first but then my memory goes in and out of things I remember after the fall.”
Clay and his wife Acaimie planned to hike into Mount Liamuiga’s crater basin.
Acaimie only made it about 15 to 20 feet down because she’s not a fan of heights and Clay continued on by himself.
His wife then heard a snap, which the couple believed to be his rope, and she knew something was wrong.
“I listened really closely and I heard what sounded like Clay saying help just really faintly,” she said. “At that point in time I started freaking out, I started praying right away because I had no idea what was going on.”
Acaimie helped hoist her husband out, but they had to hike for hours to find help.
Clay stayed in a St. Kitts hospital until he was flown to Fort Lauderdale where he is still feeling the effects of the fall.
“Every now and then I’ll get headaches,” he said. “I still can’t hear out of my right ear, my right ear has been deaf ever since I fell.”
He is grateful to be alive and for his wife.
“I can sand up, and I can move my feet to walk but I have no sense of direction and no balance in the fact that I had to lean on her most of the way down,” he said. “The fact that she was able to keep going and support me through that is nothing short of a miracle.”
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