HONOLULU (KITV) – A man is recovering after being trapped in a remote forest in Hawaii and stuck in a 15-foot ravine.
The 41-year-old man did not have any food and resorted to using a tank top to soak up water to drink.
Ian Goodsell’s family has more questions than answers but at this point, they are grateful that he is alive.
“My understanding is he was actually on a land where he was caretaking. And I’m not sure if he was clearing a trail or what happened,” said Alta Goodsell, Ian Goodsell’s ex-wife.
Ian Goodsell’s brother, Garrett Goodsell, said his brother was “probably collecting fruit or hiking.”
His family said he was crossing an old bridge in a forest off Kamaili Road when it collapsed underneath him.
“He fell into a ravine about 15 feet deep and was in there for three nights,” Garrett Goodsell said.
Ian Goodsell survived for days without food and used a tank top to try and soak up water to drink.
“I still don’t know any of the details. I know that he said he had numerous seizures while he was down there. He has epilepsy medicine he takes every day and didn’t have access to that so he was there having seizures. I know it rained a lot, thankfully it was before the hurricane,” Alta Goodsell said.
Last Wednesday, someone heard Ian Goodsell yelling for help and alerted the authorities.
Firefighters responded and sounded sirens to let him know that they were there.
“They started getting that call back, started hearing a person calling back, and they were able to follow his voice. And started moving their way into the bushes. Thick grass, I guess it was an old road, it was pretty overgrown,” Hawaii Fire Department Deputy Fire Chief Daniel Volpe said.
About 600 feet from the road, they found Ian Goodsell who was injured, but alive.
“He had just enough energy to tell them that he had been down there for three nights and he had been having seizures down there. They had to intubate him when he got into the hospital because basically, his body just shut down. They put him on a ventilator. He was like that for a week,” Garrett Goodsell said.
Ian Goodsell is now off the ventilator but is still struggling to speak.
“The ER nurse described it as having full body wounds, full body bruising, and acute liver damage from severe dehydration. He had really bad pneumonia, and he was having a hard time breathing on his own,” Garrett Goodsell said.
Volpe said he hopes others can learn from this experience.
“If you’re gonna go hiking, and this wasn’t necessarily a hiking trail, and even more so if you’re gonna go out there, make sure you stick to the trails, as much as possible, don’t hike alone, make sure you let people know where you’re going and kind of when you expect to be back,” he said.
A GoFundMe has been created to help with Ian Goodsell’s road to recovery.
“He has two young boys and I think he just held on to the idea of them not knowing that their dad died in a ditch. I think that he just held on to the love for his children and that kept him alive long enough to find someone to save him,” Garrett Goodsell said.
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