01x10 - I Had to Save Her.

[bunniefuu]

KARRI: We had the whole kayak packed,
planning to spend the day on the water.

So we were just enjoying it.

Relaxing.

We really didn't have a sense,

that anything could happen
that we couldn't deal with.

[theme music playing]

NARRATOR: The Florida Keys.

A string of more than 800 tropical
islands stretching

for over 120 miles off the
southern coast of Florida.

Its mild climate, scenic beauty
and diverse wildlife have helped

it become known as a
recreational paradise for both

tourists and locals like
Karri Larson, who fell in love

with the Keys the day she arrived.

I'm from Michigan.
In 2006 I came down here on vacation.

My daughter was in college, and I called
the second day here and said I'm moving.

I'm a chronic helper.
I want to solve everybody's problems.

Right out of college, I went to work in a
level three men's prison,

and after a year of
being a corrections officer,

I became a counselor in a mental unit.

I got to the point where I felt
like these people should have

been helped sooner, and I started working
with battered and abused kids.

And I'd go home and I...
It was hard.

You know, you'd have to process it,

you'd have to understand what you
could change and what you couldn't.

Just every day, after
I got home from work,

I would just go for a walk and,
and have to reset myself because

if you keep that piling up inside you,

by the time you get to work the next day
you're not going to help.

NARRATOR: For Karri, the perfect remedy
for the stresses of work is kayaking,

embarking on day
long excursions throughout

the Keys with her
boyfriend Michael Hinojosa.

Kayaking was our ability
to get away from our daily grind,

get away from people. Because of the
design of the Florida Keys,

and the shallow waters, and the thousands
of uninhabited islands,

we love the adventure part of it, going
to a new destination almost every time.

That excitement of discover,
of coming around the bend of an

uninhabited island that
you'd never seen before,

and not knowing what you were
going to find around the corner.

It might be a shipwreck, it might be
dolphins,

it might be American bald eagles.

KARRI: We would go out and find an area
that was comfortable to stay in,

and then we'd get out
sandwiches and have lunch,

and there's so many mangrove islands
where you can tuck into,

that nobody even knows you're in there,
and we would spend the whole day out.

NARRATOR: It's October 2010.
Life is coming together for Karri.

Her daughter is getting married
that spring,

whilst she and Michael just moved into
a new waterfront home together.

We'd been moving all day, we
were pretty tired, but at the same time,

we felt like we deserved a break,
and it was a beautiful, perfect evening,

and we were excited about all the kayaking
we were going to be doing,

so we really just couldn't
wait to get our first trip in.

We were going to put our
kayak in right behind our house,

but since we had limited time,
it was already evening,

and sun was setting in two or three
hours, uh,

we decided to throw the kayak
in the back of my truck and

drive to a nearby dock on the same island
where we lived on,

called Big Pine Key.

Half of the island is
covered in protected forestry.

So that's what we wanted to see.

We didn't want to be
looking at homes like ours.

We wanted to see the side of
the island that was natural.

So we drove down to the boat dock,
we put our kayak in, and off we went.

I don't know.

We thought we were really
safe because we knew that area.

We were going in areas we'd gone before.

MICHAEL: It is a beautiful day.
The sun is setting.

Maybe about two hours before sunset,

so we knew if we hurried, we could get
out there and

get a couple of hours of
kayaking in before the sun set.

So I slowly paddled us around the island,

out to an area where we could
actually see the Gulf of Mexico,

see uninhabited islands, kind of
took us away from civilization.

The shallow waters of the
Florida Keys and the mangroves

together create these nurseries.

The mangroves provide a
protective area for small fish

and other small sea creatures
to breed and survive and

grow large enough to protect themselves
against the larger fish,

and sharks that are nearby.

KARRI: So we had come up upon
this mangrove island,

where we were going to kayak through,
and we realized how low the tide was,

and that you had to have high tide in
order to get through this area.

So we stopped.

MICHAEL: Water was flat calm.

We could look clear, we could look down
and see hundreds of fish,

small sharks swimming around.

At that moment, um, we were
very relaxed, um,

we were just enjoying ourselves,
enjoying the perfection of the moment.

Enjoying nature, enjoying
the clear water,

and being able to see
everything that swam by us.

We couldn't see another person.
We couldn't see a boat.

It was just she and I and nature,
which was what we were sh**ting for.

When off in the distance I saw a giant
silver fish jump out of the water,

I'm talking four or five foot long,

a really big silver fish, I'd
never seen a fish of that size

jump out of the water.

It wasn't jumping
up and down, it was flying.

We saw it in the distance,
and we heard it jump twice.

So Mike said, you look to the left,
I'll look to the right.

One of us will see it jump out of the
water. And just as I turned...

The water breaks, and a
giant silver fish torpedoes out

of the water and hit Karri in her
ribcage right here,

so hard that it
knocked her out of the boat.

There's not that many
giant silver fish in the ocean,

and the only type of giant silver fish
that it could have been,

because we were in
the mangroves, is a barracuda.

NARRATOR: The barracuda, a
large predatory fish found in

tropical and subtropical
oceans around the world.

Its prominent, razor sharp teet
and snake-like appearance make

it one of the most
fearsome fish in the ocean.

Incredibly swift and powerful swimmers,
barracuda can grow up to six feet long,

weighing almost 100 pounds.

Doctor Camila Caceres is a
marine biologist who dedicates

her life to researching some of the most
dangerous animals in the ocean.

Barracudas definitely are not
interested in eating a human,

are not particularly
attracted to human blood because

our blood is not as oily as a fish.

It is pretty rare to see
a barracuda jumping out of

the water with no sort of
stimuli or anything else,

but barracudas are ambush predators,
which means they kind of sit and wait,

and when there's pretty nearby,
they swim really fast.

You could compare it
to a cheetah on land, uh,

where they're not able to keep
up that speed for a long time,

but in short distances,
they're able to quickly ambush.

And it's estimated that barracudas
can swim up to



So if you're ever in the water,
snorkeling or diving,

you can see a barracuda 20 feet away,

and within a second they
can be right next to your face.

It was as if she got hit
by a motorcycle.

The way her body left my vision.
Her being in front of me one second,

to absolutely being
gone within a split second.

It lifted me out of the kayak and
tossed me about five foot away.

The fact that barracudas
are able to swim so fast,

when they attack they swim with a force,

and they can ambush you or kind of feel
like you're getting tackled,

that is the power
behind their swimming ability.

KARRI: Mike was screaming
at me, get back in the kayak,

get back in the kayak.
And I go to stand up...

And instantly I can see she's bleeding
and there's a giant hole in her ribcage.

[howling]

ANDREW: I was hearing 'em,
I could more or less see

the outline of their body off the moon.

It was so quick that it was just,
"Oh, you're biting me."

At that point I needed to assert
my dominance.

Most people would say, well why
did you do that?

And it's like, what would you have done?

NARRATOR: Longmont, Colorado,

less than an hour from
Rocky Mountain National Park.

It's the perfect blend of small town charm
and natural beauty.

Andrew Dickehage, a computer technician,
has lived here his entire life.

ANDREW: Longmont's a, is a family town.

I mean, it's just, it's, it's a nice
area to be.

You know your family's...
You know, safe.

I mean, I could honestly
just let my, my son go outside,

and you know, running around,
and I'm not worried about anyone.

You know, it's just a,
it's an easy place to live.

NARRATOR: It's October 2013. As an
employee of a large tech company,

that services clients two time zones away,

Andrew's workday begins
at a grueling 5:00 AM.

But being the father of a two year old son
is more than enough motivation.

ANDREW: Becoming a father helped
me understand the value of life,

and it helped me
realize what was important.

Making that kid smile.

Knowing that my son was okay,
he had a full belly,

and knowing that he was warm every night
was only thing that mattered to me.

NARRATOR: Unfortunately the night before,

Andrew's car breaks down
and he's left with no way

to get to work that morning.

If I stayed home from work,

all I could see was just me taking food
out of my son's mouth.

My main goal was to
just get myself to work,

and at that point I didn't
have anyone to take me to work.

There weren't any buses
running at 3:00 in the morning.

So that meant I needed to walk
the six miles to get to work.

It was brisk, it was
cold throughout the walk.

As the lights went away,
it felt like it got colder.

NARRATOR: It's around 4:00 in the morning.

Andrew's been walking for close
to an hour on a small road that

crosses through a number of
open fields in wooded areas.

You can't see
anything in front of you.

You, you, you can't
see the lines on the road,

that big white line, that's not there.

The only way that I knew that I
was walking the direction that

I needed to is because I can
see a very little small shine of

a horizon over the top of the tree line,

and I could feel where the
pavement was,

and where, the where the dirt was.
It's dark.

After a while, you know,
the flashlight has to come out,

and all you can see is, is just starlight.

Naturally when you're walking through,
you're going to hear things.

You're going to hear the crickets,

there's rabbits, there's
all kinds of stuff out there.

They're not all big animals.

But there was a noise
that started to get closer.

[rustling]

And I was near a brush area, so I mean,
it did make me a little uneasy.

Started to shine my flashlight at it,

and before I could even make contact with
the light on the brush...

[barks]

It made a lunge at me.

[growling]

He latched on to my face
and he got a hold of me, uh,

from the bottom of my cheek
to the bottom of my jaw.

[growling]

And there was a tension in the ligaments
that I've never felt before.

[growling]

NARRATOR: From out of the pitch dark,

something's attacking Andrew,
but he doesn't know what.

In this part of Colorado, bears coyotes,
and mountain lions are all possibilities.

It was really long and lanky,

and it didn't really have a
whole lot of meat on its body.

Until I was able to shine the flashlight,
I didn't know that it was a coyote.

NARRATOR: The coyote.

A highly adaptable species
of dog found all throughout

North America, from prairies and deserts,
to forests and even cities.

[howling]

Capable of running up to 40 miles an hour,

this pack hunter preys
primarily on small rodents,

but is known to take down larger mammals
such as deer and livestock.

Doctor Joanna Lambert is a
professor of wildlife biology,

at the University of Colorado Boulder,

and specializes in the study of
human carnivore interactions.

Coyotes, they've got 55 million
years of, of evolutionary history that

has resulted in, in a species that's a
highly effective hunter.

So they do have the
ability to take down large prey,

and they do it in
quite a coordinated fashion,

where they sort of nip and bite at the
prey, exhaust the prey essentially.

[barks]

ANDREW: That's when it bit down on my hand
and wasn't wanting to let go.

He had enough of a grip on me that I
couldn't pull my hand out,

and all he did was just tugged on my hand
as if it was a dog's chew toy.

And at that point, it was, it was too
much pain. There was too much pain.

So coyotes have the dentition,

they've got the equipment in the mouth
for tearing and ripping at flesh.

They've got great teeth,
they've got these long canines,

but more importantly, we have these teeth
right here

that we call carnassial teeth.

They move along in a
kind of razor like, shearing,

scissor like fashion.

At that point,
only thing I could think of was

taking my flashlight and hitting
him over the top of the head.

[growling]

[whimpers]

Then he fell to the ground.

After I was able to get him off of me,

if I was able to get my flashlight up
towards the brush area,

trying to, uh, see what else it was,
you know, that I was hearing.

And that's when I saw the other animals
coming around the corner.

[howling]

NARRATOR: Deep within a maze of
mangroves in the Florida Keys,

a large barracuda propels itself out of
the water and slams into Karri Larson.

Thrown from her kayak, she has
a massive hole in her ribcage.

Blood was pouring out of this
hole in her chest cavity.

KARRI: So I had to lift
myself up into the kayak,

which is difficult to do even
with all systems being perfect.

And as soon as she got back in,

she sat in her seat, and
the wound was facing me.

And I looked down,
and I saw my lung.

And I worked as an EMT for a long time,

so I, I knew there's no
reason to see your lung unless

you have the sack around it punctured.

MICHAEL: The hole was big, really big,

and my first instinct was direct pressure
'cause she was bleeding out,

and I shoved my hand into her ribcage.
The outer sack of her lung was pushing,

protruding through the hole,

so I literally pushed that back
into her ribcage,

and I could feel where the,
the fish hit her,

the rib exploded, it shattered into
shards, so I put my hand over the hole,

and I can feel the end of
the rib here on my fingertip,

and the other end of the missing rib on
the palm, edge of the palm of my hand.

So barracudas
are known for their teeth.

Um, they do have some
very obvious protruding teeth.

They can grow quite large,
and they also are able to put

a lot of pressure when they take a bite,

that allows them to catch fish that might
be larger than the size of its mouth,

so that it's able to rip
it apart into a few pieces,

and then be able to digest it.

Um, so they do have a very powerful set of
teeth that can cause a lot of damage.

KARRI: If he didn't hold his hand there,
my lung came out of my body.

She was in so much pain,
she started screaming loud.

Oh my God, Michael, my God!

And every time she screamed,

I felt air bubble up through the hole.

We're only about six miles from
where we put in,

but six miles in a kayak,
we couldn't paddle and Mike

couldn't move his hand because
if he would have taken his hand

off my side for more than a couple of
minutes, I would have died.

[growling]

NARRATOR: Ambushed on a
desolate road at night,

Andrew repels a coyote attack.
But the coyote isn't alone.

[growling]

As soon as I hit the,
the initial coyote on the head

with the flashlight, that's
when the other two, you know,

saw the aggression from me and,
and started to attack me.

It was overwhelming.

I figured that hitting the first one,
it would have been done, but it wasn't.

All it did was just make it worse.

[growling]

NARRATOR: Andrew is now under attack by
three coyotes, a pack.

This is a species that has
evolved this kind of pattern,

this behavioral pattern of increased
hunting success

when you're in a pack.

If coyotes are in a pack, they
have the ability to bring down

quite large prey, including, uh,
hooved animals like white tailed deer,

and even humans.

But overall, given the number of humans,
and given the number of coyotes,

it's still a very rare phenomenon.

Why would a group of
coyotes attack a human,

is a bit of a mystery.

[growling]

ANDREW: At that point, it was just...

bear in mind that it's,
it's 3:00, 4:00 in the morning,

and the only thing I can really see is a
general outline of the animal and,

and just the shimmer
of the light of the eyes.

Humans, we are not as well
equipped as coyotes are at night.

They can see better.

They, they have
eye shine, this reflective,

iridescent set of cells in the
back of the retina that serve to

capture light and then
bounce that light back out,

so that then the optic nerve
ultimately is picking up on the,

the light information.

So they see a lot better.

ANDREW: All I could think
about was I needed both hands.

I couldn't do anything
with the flashlight.

Imagine like having three or
four people just in your face.

So I dropped the flashlight
and I just put my hands up.

At first, I wasn't
even trying to hurt them,

'cause I know that
wildlife is territorial.

And I, you know, I'm just trying to get
away from where it started,

and they're essentially just
kicking up off of my waistline,

trying to get up and higher.

By far in a way
the most vulnerable aspect of

any vertebrate is the neck and the head.

That's where the
brain is, that's where eyes,

that's where the very anatomy of, of
respiration is taking place.

So ultimately in
bringing down a prey species,

they want to go for
that region of the body.

The only thing that I
really could do was keep myself

from falling down and making sure that
they didn't get behind me.

After a while, it really started to hurt.

There were gashes on my arms,
they were essentially just

opening up the wounds more.

One tactic that coyotes use is just
to get lots of little bites,

and the prey starts bleeding out.

ANDREW: Really all I could
process at that moment was,

keep one foot in the dirt,
and one foot on the pavement,

I don't want to lose any kind of advantage
that I had in this situation.

But when the
adrenaline started to wear off,

I did start to get tired
and the pain started to set in.

It was starting to get to the point where
I felt like I had no control

of the situation, and that they were
starting to get the upper hand.

[growling]

NARRATOR: After being struck
by a barracuda while kayaking,

Karri Larson's lung and
ribs are badly damaged.

She bleeds heavily from the gaping wound
and desperately needs help.

KARRI: Mike got the
phone out of the dry bag.

We always left it off cause we
didn't want anybody calling us.

MICHAEL: When it came on, I called 911.

WOMAN [over phone]: 911.

MICHAEL [over phone]: Uh, yes, I've got an
emergency. Um, I'm in a kayak.

My girlfriend's been hit by a flying fish,

and she's bleeding substantial,
substantially.

And I explained to her that I was using
one hand to keep Karri alive and

there was no way that I could paddle this
boat anywhere,

that they needed to come to me.

She instantly transferred me to
coastguard, which is a huge problem,

because coastguard guys
aren't from the Keys.

KARRI: We have thousands
of islands in the Keys.

Little teeny mangrove islands
that most people don't even see.

You know, you go down the highway and you
might see something off in a distance,

but nobody really knows what's out there.

So the coastguard didn't understand
which island we were by.

MICHAEL: So all these guys from somewhere
else were talking to me.

I'm telling the guy from
coastguard where I am,

and the mistake I feel like I
made was I named

an uninhabited island in front of me.

It's called Cutoe Key,

C-U-T-O-E.

Well, there's an island that's
connected to the highway that is

inhabited called Cudjoe Key.

So him not being a local,
automatically thought I meant Cudjoe Key.

So all searches and rescue went to Cudjoe
Key, which was the wrong island.

It wasn't too far away, but
ten miles makes a big difference

when you're bleeding to death.

MICHAEL [over phone]: She's bleeding more
all of a sudden.

It's getting worse man, hurry.

MAN [over phone]: Yes, yes sir.

In my mind, I'm imagining in about


coastguard helicopter is
going to come hovering up and

take this incredible
situation out of my hands,

and that's what I was expecting,
that's what Karri was expecting.

And it didn't happen.
Instead, more calls to 911.

More time passing.
More blood.

It took so long that my hand literally
fell asleep, I couldn't feel my hand.

KARRI: So he'd have to
put his hand in the water,

switch hands, and when he switched hands
and put his right hand on my left side,

I could hear the gurgling, and I knew that
meant I had a punctured lung,

and after a while, you know,
the sharks are swimming by us,

we're chumming the water.

I'm in a sit atop kayak,
so I'm chumming the water.

And I was sobbing, and I tried
not to scream.

As time went on,
I just believed no one can survive this.

She's just going to bleed
out right here, right now.

Every minute,
every minute that went by,

the chances of me living were going down.

[growling]

NARRATOR: While walking to
work in the early morning hours

Andrew is attacked by a pack of coyotes.

ANDREW: They were very quick and they
were agile,

and it was just constant lunging, jumping,

biting for my face
and for, and for my throat.

The whole time, as I'm
fighting these coyotes,

I'm backing up with one foot in the dirt
and one foot in the pavement.

They were driving me back,
trying to make a point.

They would yelp and make that sound and

it would just ring in my ears,
and that was so incredibly loud.

[yipping]

Animals that have
evolved to hunt in groups are

aware of signals coming in of what other
animals are doing in the pack.

To put it into human terms,

whether we're thinking about
football players on, you know,

on a field, you know,
just having an awareness of,

you know, so-and-so is over there,

and he's running, but I've got to go here,
and you kind of check in, right?

Coyotes will absolutely engage in that
kind of behavior as well.

NARRATOR: Rapidly losing ground
and running out of options,

Andrew's thoughts go
to his young son at home.

And after a while, I,
I started to think about DJ.

It was just, what is gonna happen?

At first I wasn't
even trying to harm them,

but then they actually started to get me,

and that's when I started to
react more or less for myself

rather than just for the coyotes.

I had a fighting position...

Hands up, closer to
my face, and I would push.

I would push off to the side,
I was always swinging outward.

NARRATOR: Andrew's new strategy reflects

the neurological
changes he's experiencing.

What happens in that
initial attack is that kind of

primitive limbic brain sends
signals throughout the rest of

the body to get sugar into your blood,

open up all the vessels, but then just as
that limbic system

is beginning to tamp down,

other parts of Andrew's brain
would have been kicking in,

especially his frontal lobes,

the part of the brain that allows for
calmer kind of processing and

thinking and planning.

What have I got to do?
Oh, this is more dangerous than I thought.

How am I going to fend
off this coordinated attack?

I, I started to get aggressive and
once they got a hold of me,

I would actually
throw them against the ground,

and it just wasn't stopping.

It was just, what is going to happen?

Oh my God.

NARRATOR: It's been 45 minutes
since a large barracuda collided

with Karri, blowing a hole in her ribcage.

Despite repeated calls to 911,
help has yet to arrive.

Coastguard still
can't figure out where we are.

Everyone was so
frustrated because there was

just this breakdown in communication, this
breakdown in the ability to come to us.

And during this frustrating back and
forth, I'm getting worse.

I can feel there's fluid, my lung
is filling up.

MAN [over phone]: Yes,
how are you doing Mike?

MICHAEL [over phone]: I'm not doing good.
We're not seeing any help.

MAN [over phone]: We're
trying to get out to you.

[screams]

MICHAEL [over phone]: Dude, it's getting
worse man, hurry. I need pain meds.

[screams]

On a scale from one to ten, what is
your pain level?

This, this was 50.

[screams]

Oh my God, Michael, oh my God!

NARRATOR: As time passes,
Karri's chances of survival decrease.

With a sucking chest wound,

you have a 5% chance to live
after the first hour.

It was coming up upon an hour.

And no one was even to me.

Send anybody. I don't care who you send.
Just send somebody.

Karri gets on the
phone with them and tells them,

"Look, I used to be a paramedic.
If you don't get here soon,

I don't know what you're going to find."

NARRATOR: Desperate to
find the stranded kayakers,

the coastguard enlists help from other
boaters who might be in the area.

Every 15 minutes, they were putting
out boater in distress calls,

hoping for a volunteer
who could get to us.

So at this point, we're at the mercy of
whoever answers the 911 call.

NARRATOR: Fortunately
one of those listening was

Kevin Freestone, a local
volunteer emergency responder.

He had been listening to all this
emergency talk on his radio,

so he started asking questions, like,
"Why, why haven't you rescued them yet?"

Well, they put him on the phone with me.

There's three bubble
sticks right in front of me.

We talked for one minute,
he knew right where I was.

I told him what marker I was looking at,

and he said, I was fishing there
yesterday, I'll be right there.

[sirens blaring]

NARRATOR: Kevin picks up
a team of paramedics and

races to find Mike and Karri.

KARRI: I was shaking horribly, and I
can't feel my legs and

I can't feel my arms.

And the convulsions are so bad.
And all I could...

All I could think of at that point was,

I have to live because I have a daughter.
And she was getting married in June,

and I had to walk her down the aisle. I
cannot leave my daughter. I won't.

And I kept thinking about
what she looked like and

just kept seeing her face
in my mind over and over.

And I kept focusing on that,

and making myself live.

And all of a sudden in the distance,
we heard a boat.

KEVIN: It was very shallow,
very low tides,

all the water was, you know,
the sand was out of the sandbars

and birds were
walking around, it was crazy.

He brought the paramedics with him, on a


I, uh, I wound up
my boat to a very high speed,

it was kind of crazy for me to do this,
but there was no other way in,

and we had a sand flat to go across,

and when I went across the
flats at high speed like that,

I did blow an engine going to rescue her.

I didn't stop the boat, I
kept going with a blown engine,

rattling and knocking,
the alarm was going off.

We slid in right beside her,
and it was very shallow water.

This guy's a hero.

He had burned up one
of his $8,000 engines,

racing up to us with
the engine at full tilt.

Uh, he didn't care.
He didn't care.

He pulled up right next to us,

and ran aground, and then
his boat sunk in the muck,

the same muck that I tried to stand in.

NARRATOR: After all their waiting, help
arrives, but now the rescuers are stuck.

I started to think, how
are we going to get out of here?

I'm stuck in the mud with a blown engine.

NARRATOR: On a dark
remote road in Colorado,

Andrew fights a pack of attacking coyotes,

then just as one lunges at him,
he manages to catch it mid-air.

[sighs]

I hate talking about it.

NARRATOR: Out of options, he
squeezes the coyote's neck with

his last bit of strength.

[whimpering]

When I, when I had a hold of it and I
squeezed, it was not a good feeling.

Probably startled me
just as much as it startled

everything else in the situation.

After I hurt the, the last one, um,
I could feel them backing off.

They were obviously jumping on me less,

they were starting to create more
distance,

they were backing off further.
Eventually they stopped.

These animals
are adapted to assessing

very quickly whether the
benefits outweigh the costs.

And at, at a certain point,
that calculus shifted.

At that point, I felt like I had an upper
hand in the situation,

and I didn't want to lose it.

So my thought was
getting my flashlight back.

NARRATOR: Andrew grabs his flashlight
and assesses the damage.

After I saw how bad I was,

and how bloody I was, the
first thought was,

I'm not going to let
my son see me like this.

NARRATOR: The coyotes
disappear back into the night.

Alone, bleeding and out of options,

Andrew starts to walk the remaining
three miles to his office.

As I'm walking down the road,

it's still super dark and I'm starting
to see a light coming up at my feet.

I spin around and I
notice that there was a car,

and I thought that this
was all over and it was done.

And I started flinging my flashlight.

I actually got kind of happy.

And, you know, started to
get a little bit relieved and

as the vehicle got closer,
I realized it was a cop,

I could see the shimmer of
his sheriff department sticker.

As he got closer, he didn't slow down,
he went right past me.

I was already just, you know, defeated,

and I went down to my knees
and I collapsed.

At that moment it wasn't about me,

it was about my son because
if I'm not around,

then who's going to fend for him?
So at that moment, it was just like,

you gotta stand up, and you just
gotta keep going, you're not that far,

but it was, it felt like ten mile
walk after that,

and as I'm walking down the road,

I had something leaking
from my hand constantly.

It was cold, it made my body colder.

I didn't want to walk anymore,
it was to a point where,

every step I took was me telling myself,
left foot in front, right foot in front.

If I stopped thinking that,
I would stop moving.

Every step I took, it just, I felt tired,

I was, it was the fatigue was starting
to set in.

I, I, at one point I do
believe I started to cry, um,

'cause it was just so overwhelming.

NARRATOR: Battered and bloodied,
Andrew finally reaches his office.

Once I get to the
building and put my badge to

the door, I wasn't even able to do that,

and I fell to the ground,
and one of the ladies,

it was right around October, and
she initially thought that I

was playing a Halloween joke, and, uh,
she just walked right past me,

badged herself in, walked in.

Then I thought to myself, you've
got to be kidding me, this isn't over yet.

I managed to get myself up, badged myself
in, got myself through the initial door,

I collapsed at the door and that's
where, um, my supervisor found me.

NARRATOR: With his rescue boat run aground
and Karri's life in the balance,

Kevin radios his wife Lisa for backup.

I said, Lisa can you bring the
skiff out to us,

which has got shallow draft and can,
can get in there real easily.

And Lisa says, "I'm
already out looking for you."

NARRATOR: Luckily Lisa
was only minutes away.

As the paramedics were
putting the dressing on her,

a second boat pulled up, with, uh,
Kevin's wife.

She knew the waters as well as he did,

she knew he wasn't going to be able to
get that boat out

of there very easily, and so she showed
up on a flats boat,

which is designed for flat, shallow water.
We all scrambled onto that boat.

Now we're on a motorized boat,
with paramedics, great captain.

We're flying back to the marina.

And I told him, today's the
day you're going to save a life.

'Cause I knew it. I knew if he didn't
make it, nobody was coming.

NARRATOR: At the dock, an ambulance is
waiting to

transport Karri to a medevac flight,

which takes her to the
nearest trauma center in Miami.

When I got out at the dock,
all that strength just faded away,

'cause I knew I didn't need it anymore.

Her life was in someone
else's hands, and not mine.

KARRI: When we came off Kevin's boat and
they put me in the ambulance,

Mike broke down.

He knew I was gonna die.
Nobody has this happen to 'em and live.

MICHAEL: They life flighted
her in a helicopter to, uh,

Jackson Memorial in Miami,
and I, uh, I was left there on the dock.

I didn't get to say goodbye to her.

To say that I didn't think I was going to
see her again is an understatement.

NARRATOR: At Jackson Memorial Hospital
in Miami, Karri is rushed to the ER,

where a team of doctors
work to save her life.

KARRI: When I woke up
the following morning,

I was all hooked up to machines
and in excruciating pain,

and one of the first things I said is,
"Where's Mike?"

Mike kept me alive.

In my mind, I thought if he wasn't
there, I would die.

So I arrive at Jackson Memorial,

work my way up to intensive care
where they're treating Karri.

Seeing her, actually seeing her there,
with the tube running into her chest,

all kinds of breathing apparatus,
all kinds of machines around her,

beeping and blinking, um, I,
I really was shocked that she was there,

that she wasn't dead and she was there.

She couldn't really talk.
She had tubes going everywhere,

but we made an eye contact that's
just indescribable, you know.

Just both of us looking at each other,

like we can't believe we're
having this moment together.

But when I got to talk
to the nurses and doctors,

and they explained to me what
the monitors were indicating,

they were indicating that
she was super close to death,

and that she may not make it.

Everybody was like, be prepared,
this could go in the worst direction.

NARRATOR: Back in Colorado,
Andrew survives a coyote attack

and is rushed to nearby
Longmont United Hospital.

ANDREW: Once I got to the, the hospital,
their first thought was rabies,

so they were like, before they even
started cleaning me,

they were like, you're going to have to
get rabies shots.

I was not looking forward to that because
I don't care for needles,

even though I
have as many tattoos as I do,

I don't care for a three, four inch
needle going into my body.

JOANNA: Coyotes do carry rabies.

Rabies is a very frightening disease,
it's almost entirely lethal.

There may be one case of a human
surviving rabies,

but for the most part, it is utterly
lethal and it's fast acting.

NARRATOR: Doctors treat Andrew's injuries
and release him from the hospital.

He and wildlife officials retur
to the site of the attack,

hoping to determine the cause o
this extremely rare occurrence.

ANDREW: We went to where
it happened and we found

a great owl discombobulated
all over the ground.

And so it was more or less ten feet or so
from where it initially happened.

So he believed that they thought I was
hungry and I wanted their food.

[howling]

Coyotes will defend their resources,
they defend their territories.

It may have been the presence
of this sort of

partially scavenged owl that was nearby.

It became some very, very
instinctive need to thwart

a potential competitor, to get rid of,
you know, any incoming individuals.

NARRATOR: Wildlife officials
track and eliminate the coyotes

responsible for the attack.

None of the animals
tested positive for rabies.

JOANNA: It's important to k*ll
an animal that has attacked in

that way when the attack is unprovoked,
and this was clearly an unprovoked attack.

If an animal is emboldened
enough and aggressive enough

that it has actually attacked a human,
those animals are destroyed.

NARRATOR: Coyotes'
boldness can be the result of

bad human behavior, like feeding them.

Absolutely under no
circumstances ever feed a coyote,

and we do know that people will
hand-feed coyotes or put, uh,

you know, food out onto their
back step because they want to

bring coyotes in to see.

That is not a good idea.
Under any circumstances.

If you do encounter a, a
coyote the best thing to do

is first of all, not run.
And then second of all, haze that animal.

And what I mean by that is, to
do whatever you can to kind of

frighten off that animal.

Get big, put your arms up in
whatever way. Yell.

Make it unpleasant for
that coyote to approach you.

ANDREW: After I spoke
with the wildlife officer,

and went to the site, he took me
home and my son was more or

less just like, "What happened to you?"

He said hi to me, but it
wasn't the same kind of hi.

It was, it was him, like just trying to
process it in his head.

He was too young to even try
to comprehend what happened,

and I didn't necessarily
go into detail with him,

but I told him that I did
have to make decisions that

I wasn't happy with, and
it made me, made me who I am.

It made me a stronger individual.
It made me appreciate life more.

Coyotes, they're, they're a wild animal,
and, you know, they're territorial.

They do these things naturally
because they need to protect their own.

I definitely have a much stronger
appreciation for, for wildlife,

and I have a higher
respect for, for animals now.

NARRATOR: Back in Miami, Karri is out of
surgery, but far from healed.

Mike is by her side
to support her recovery.

So I spent that first night in the,
in a chair next to her bed.

Somehow I got it in my
head that I, I had to be there.

Word got out that Mike wasn't going
to be taken out at visiting hours.

He pretty much had a standard pass.

I spent nine nights in that chair,
and I stayed until they released her.

The last day I was there was the first
time I met the surgeon.

He said that when the fish hit me,

because their teeth are jagged
and have points on the edges,

it completely crushed the one rib.
My lung was punctured immediately.

It was a four hour surgery.

He said that he had never
seen a wound like that before.

This is like a b*ttlefield wound.

NARRATOR: Despite the
severity of Karri's injuries,

Doctor Caceres believes the barracuda
that hit her, never intended harm.

CAMILA: Fish jumping out of the water into
the air is quite common.

Usually they do this is an
anti-predator response,

so if a predator is swimming at them,

their last ditch effort is
to kind of just spring out of

the water so they can have an
extra two seconds to get away.

Given that the fish jumped out of water,

it's more likely that they're
trying to just avoid a predator

instead of attacking something
that is not usually their food.

A whole human is just much too large
to be considered a prey for a barracuda.

NARRATOR: It seems this tragic collision
was a highly unlikely case

of being in the wrong
place at the wrong time.

It is very rare to be in a kayak and
see a barracuda jump out of the water,

and so for that to happen
is really quite rare and

it's really lucky that
she was able to survive it.

NARRATOR: Though Karri lived,

the incident had a profound
impact on both her and Michael.

There's a lot of baggage that comes
with something like this.

I am done kayaking, I'm done
with ocean vessels, you know.

Going out to sea is not for me.

What is important to me
now is just living every day.

Making the most of every day.

Trying to get out there in the sunshine
and breathe the fresh air.

Just within the last couple of years,
I've started kayaking on my own.

However, before I go out,
I call Kevin and Lisa,

because I'm in their area, and
I know they'll come to get me.

I have my rescue set up.

I'm proud of her. I'm not surprised.
She's just the strongest person I know.

I, I would say 99% of
us would not fare as well.

It's, it's something that, uh,
she's been able to overcome,

and it's just another impressive
thing that she's done.

There was so much nerve damage that I
can't raise my arm up all the way still.

My left side is a
third weaker than my right.

There are things that
will be with me forever.

But the day my daughter got married,

I was able to pin the boutonnière on
my future son-in-law,

and I was also able to,

have her hold
my arm as I walked her up the aisle.

And...
It meant the world to me to see her happy.