The Rescue

Security guard Marco Polo searches for Mary Rose, Sheryl Putnam photo.

Monday May 3rd—A Day of Days.

Playa Hermosa, Costa Rica--The group got up early, but I was one of the last. When I walked out on the deck I was nearly blinded by brilliant light and blue skies. A big change from the rain and lightning storm the night before.I was groggy and tired but after breakfast decided to hike the imposibly steep hill. As I got the shoes on, I heard the wife Sheryl, Amy Bailey and Maryann Moorhead talking about hearing voices from over wall.

Voices carry in the hills and they thought they came from the neighborhood a half mile away. Sheryl recalled hearing a scream, maybe a call for help, but theorized it was probably kids playing. I walked the quarter mile to the bottom of the hill and then hiked back to the top. It was such an intense workout that I was soaked in sweat, my thighs burned and was winded from the short walk but extreme vertical. It's the steepest hill I've seen paved, it takes 15 minutes for the loop but so strenuous that it beats an hour on the stair-stepper. When I got back everyone was on the rail of the deck trying to figure out what was going on next door and why a security guard was pounding on the door.

The ruckus was getting louder, the security guard was yelling from the deck "Mary Rose, Mary Rose." A few minutes later the guard was at our gate asking when we last saw our neighbor. I had seen her late the afternoon before, soon more neighbors showed, with more yells over the steep hillside below, three floors up over a very steep mountain top and jungle-thick brush

The house next door, photo by Sheryl Putnam

Sheryl, Gina, Amy, Val and MA stood on the ledge of the property looking down into the house next door and the brush where the lady was thought to have disappeared. Gina grabbed Bill’s binoculars, Sheryl had my 300mm camera lens and started scanning the brush hoping to hear the missing neighbor. The girls were now convinced they’d heard the neighbor around 7:30. It was now 8:30 and blazing hot. The security guard pulled his 4-wheeler to a side road and was now 150 yards below the house. The girls were directing traffic with the binoculars to the security guard below. they stayed there for the next four hours helping direct rescue efforts.

The guard confirmed that the neighbor lady was missing. The lady’s son in law, Chicagoan John Mullins introduced himself and asked what the girls had heard. He was worried and we offered to help search. We shoved off, Bill Sharp, Dave Roberts and I walked up a half block and took a steep ridge-top trail down into the steep valley. The going was painfully slow and a misstep could send us rolling to the valley floor. We made it down to a creek bed far below, Mullins gave me his razor sharp machete, I cut brush all the way leaving vines and thorn bushes in my wake, despite the effort my legs they were thrased from the thorns.

At the bottom of the valley floor we were gassed and soaked in sweat, we kept going and scurried up a draw, the climb was a three-point, hand over hand monkey-like climb back to the top. Halfway up the draw we heard excited voices from the decks above, they’d spotted the lost lady. Roberts and Sharp drove on while I worked on cutting trail for the evacuation. Bill Sharp later told me she was twisted up a against a tree, dehydrated with a leg twisted under her body. Sharp said she was not making sense, talking about churches and nuns. They got water to her as she was severely dehydrated. Now getting the lady out was going to be a chore. I worked my way to a 25 foot cliff just below the victim to wait for the first team of rescue paramedics.

Beach paramedics were first on the scene, but didn't have ropes needed for the evacuation--Jake Putnam photo

Paramedics were on the way and I could hear a siren, I knew we needed to cut trail, so I headed back down the mountain with the machete cutting trail all the way. It took about a half hour and I was at the bottom when 3 lifeguards from the beach showed up. But one had flip flops on, woefully under equiped for the task at hand. I turned around for my second trip up the rugged, steep trail. I lead them up the path and the going was easier with the brush cut away, but still a gasser getting up to the site and were soon red-faced and visibly tired.

Back with the victim the nurse directed me back to the bottom to guide fire paramedics back to the site. Once again I cut vines and brush all the way to the road and waited another 40 minutes until another crew of paramedics arrived. They had ropes, a better stretcher and I could tell this wasn't their first mountain rescue, they were pros.

We took off, each step painful and clumsy, we made it back to the site in a quick 20-minute climb. From high above Val, Sheryl, MA Amy kept watch and relayed information to paramedics below. Dave Roberts and Bill Sharp left the scene and climbed the 200 yards back to the deck. While paramedics had Mary Rose bundled up and ready for the trip down.

Bill Sharp was 4th on the scene.

There was a lot of equipment that needed packed out, so grabbed a rope bag and a walkie-talkie and headed down the hill once again. My shoes were filled with mud and rocks, my ankles and legs had itchy scratches. Uncomfortable, hot, sweating, itching.

At the top of the cliff paramedics expertly set up a belay line and lowered the stretcher over the cliff. Mary Rose was in and out of consciousness and moaning, she would say a few words and then not a peep, then moan. Her arm was badly cut, all the skin scraped off. In the jungle this is a bad thing, the nurse was worried about infection. Poor thing, Id guess her to be about 70 or so.

Paramedics slowly lowered her down the trail with 6 firemen and 4 paramedics carrying her to safety. At the bottom they loaded her up in a modern ambulance and took her away to safety. Bill and Dave had a few cuts when they emerged at the top of the hill near our house. One of the paramedics handed me water bottle and I downed it all and needed at least two more. We saw Mary Rose off to the hospital, I caught a ride with the security guard, I hadn’t been this tired before; all told, four trips up the hill that morning, I was a dirty mess when I arrived at the house.

The neighbors thanked us profusely for helping out. The paramedics and firemen were also thankful and they were just as tired. One paramedic speculated that that Mary Rose had spent the night in the bush. The night before there was a spectacular lighting storm, it must have been a surreal sight for the poor, beat up woman. It’s a wonder she survived.

Back at the house I showered in the outdoor shower, everyone was waiting for me me so we could go into town, I looked at my watch: 1pm. We’d been at it since 8:30. After the shower we hung out at the pool, we had sandwiches and talked about the ordeal. It’s a miracle that the woman was found, she could easily died on that hillside.

Mary Rose spent a couple of days in the hospital before transfering to a hospital in Chicago. She's still fighting problems with infection but expected to recover.