Man rescued after 120-foot fall in Glacier National Park

What would’ve been a typical trip to Glacier National Park turned scary for Ken and Renae Nurse.

While the couple is from North Carolina, they visit regularly because Ken Nurse is from Montana originally. The two brought friends along for their most recent trip.

Renae Nurse told KTMF that they had just gotten to McDonald Falls and took pictures when her husband got too close to the edge. The ground gave out, sending him 120 feet down the cliff into the creek below. A bystander heard him hit the water.

“The gentleman’s daughter said, ‘Dad, there’s somebody in the water.’ And the guy was able to pull Ken out by his foot and get into the shallows,” Renae Nurse said. “And he realized he wasn’t breathing, and he started CPR. And it just so happened there was a ranger that was real close by, and he was able to radio in for an extraction.”

Because Renae Nurse was at a distance, she didn’t realize Ken had received CPR.

“He told me he gave CPR. And that’s when I really panicked, because I didn’t know at that point,” she said. “Because I’m a nurse by profession. So, we, I knew it was a really bad then.”

A Two Bear Air Rescue team arrived to pull Ken Nurse out of the water and got him to a nearby hospital, where he was on a ventilator for two days. He has since woken up but is on oxygen and had multiple cracked ribs and a compound fracture in his elbow.

“I just want everyone who helped me out to get the things they deserve,” he told KTMF. “Because I should not be here right now. I owe everyone my life, and I want that to be known.”

Ken Nurse said he’s taking recovery one step at a time, while his wife has a new set of rules for their next trip to Glacier National Park: he won’t leave the car.