A hike into Zion National Park this summer turned into a rescue mission when three friends from Binghamton University came to the aid of an injured woman.
John Jozkowski ’11 was in Utah, to study desert tortoises, when friends Audrey Cerchiara ’11 and Benjamin Farrer, a PhD student in political science at Binghamton, paid him a visit.
It was a typical August weekend at Zion, with nature enthusiasts exploring the 229 square-mile park. Cerchiara, Farrer, Jozkowski and his housemate, Jose Lopez, were hiking when they heard a man shouting.
Behind them was Wenge Zhu, an associate professor of Technology and Operations Management at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, calling for help. His wife, Wen Lin, had fallen in the river and suffered a serious cut under her knee.
“The wound was deep enough you could almost see the bone, and she was bleeding profusely,” Zhu said.
“Mr. Zhu caught John’s attention first, he was shouting and waving, but I didn’t hear him over the sound of the water,” Farrer said. “I noticed that John turned around, and when he started walking toward Mr. Zhu we all followed.”
The hikers were in the park’s Virgin River Narrows, an area difficult to navigate. After hearing how injured Lin was, the hikers assessed the terrain and made a decision.
“The canyon walls were too close together and too high, and the water was too fast, so it would have taken longer for the emergency services to get to us than for us to get to them,” Farrer said.
Their solution turned out to be a result of their Binghamton experience.
Continue on to the full story at Binghamton University Magazine
–By Tiffany Moustakas, a junior majoring in English.