ST. GEORGE — In July, Candi Kardash will turn 62. It’s a birthday that was in doubt nearly a year ago.
As June turned to July last year, the resident of the Savannah suburb of Richmond Hill, Georgia, was on the second-to-last day of a once-in-a-lifetime trip with 34 other family members to see the sites of the West.
But the day would end with Kardash needing to be the first person to be rescued by the then-new Utah Department of Public Safety Southern Utah helicopter rescue team as well as a joint effort of the Washington County Search and Rescue with the Hurricane Valley Fire District.
After 10 months and three surgeries, Kardash is still recovering and still requires a walker. But she contacted St. George News for one reason: To express her gratitude for her rescuers.
“I wish to let these amazing rescuers know that I’m very grateful for their quick response in my time of need,” Kardash said. “Each one of them are heroes in my book.”
Washington County Search and Rescue hear many cries for help. But hearing a cry of thanks was music to the ears of Sgt. Darrell Cashin, who leads the team.
“Hearing the gratitude and thankfulness of someone we rescue is why we all do search and rescue,” Cashin told St. George News. “It lets us all know that what we did made a difference in someone’s life. We are humbled and encouraged to continue helping those in need.”
Last July 1, Kardash and members of her extended family were on an all-terrain vehicle tour through the outlying areas of Zion National Park when they came upon Toquerville Falls.
Kardash said the guides told her it was OK to jump off the waterfall, so Kardash took the leap. But like many local waterfalls, the water below was more shallow than it looked and the grandmother landed with a thud that instantly shattered and crushed her right ankle and the tibia at her left knee.
“My injuries were extremely painful,” Kardash told St. George News. “I was screaming as the pain was unbearable.”
It was a little after 10 a.m., and it would take hours for help to arrive and for Kardash to ultimately get to the hospital because of the falls’ remote location via an unpaved road and short hike 11 miles from the Toquerville Boulevard-Spring Drive turnoff. A family member needed to hike a mile just to get a cell phone signal.
While waiting for a rescue, Kardash’s family tried to help.
“My family helped to keep me as comfortable as possible. They kept me in the water as the cold water would help keep the swelling down,” she said. “My nephews tried to keep my legs stable because the waterfall’s movement made it incredibly painful.”
When the Southern Utah rescuers arrived, they tried to load her onto a truck but Kardash cried loudly in pain. She recalled one of the rescuers stopping the truck from departing:
“I remember one of the rescuers slapping his hand and the roof of the truck and ordered them to stop, ‘This isn’t going to work!’”
A helicopter was needed, but Intermountain Lifeflight was already on a call. But Cashin said at the time he knew the DPS chopper was on its first day as a second option.
The DPS helicopter flew in, but because heat and conditions made it tougher for the helicopter to lift, the co-pilot had to stay behind and a door had to be removed to reduce weight.
There was also a weight of fear on the part of Kardash.
“I had never been on a helicopter or an ambulance for that matter,” she said. “I was feeling a bit freaked out. After their reassuring words, the dirt was flying and so was I.”
The helicopter landed in a church parking lot in Toquerville to a waiting ambulance that took her to St. George Regional Hospital and her first surgery. She would celebrate July Fourth there before going back to Georgia and spending another month and a half in the hospital. She still has some recovery ahead.
But her doctor says she will recover, and he attributes it to the start Kardash had in Utah.
“My doctor told me that the surgeon in Utah set him up for success. Top-notch work,” Kardash said. “I was so blessed by the actions of the kind and professional people of Utah rescue workers.”
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