Carolina Panthers running back Christian McCaffrey and his brothers were part of a hiking group that helped save the life of a fallen hiker over the weekend in Colorado.
According to the Panthers’ team website, McCaffrey, his brothers Dylan and Max and a pair of friends, Michael Mann and Brooke Pettet, went to hike Castle Rock outside of Denver on Saturday. While the group was climbing the hill, they saw 72-year old Dan Smoker Sr. fall onto the rocks below.
“It felt like he was in the air for 10 seconds,” Christian McCaffrey said. “I had never seen anything quite like that in my life as far as the trauma and the sound. We were in shock.”
Smoker had been hiking with his 13-year old grandson, Eli, when he fell. McCaffrey called for paramedics and Mann performed chest compressions when Smoker stopped breathing. Upon arrival at the hospital, he was diagnosed with a broken femur, broken pelvis, a broken neck, nine fractured ribs, internal bleeding and bleeding on the brain.
Though Smoker remained in the hospital in stable condition as of Tuesday, he made it off the mountain alive.
“Looking back on this whole picture, I’m very confident that this group of folks saved my dad’s life,” Smoker’s son, Dan, told the Denver Post. “We’re indebted to all of those folks.”