Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Found Alive
Aired December 10, 2002 - 09:23 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We have a really amazing rescue story for you now. Imagine this, spending 6 1/2 days injured, trapped inside of a freezing car, eating snow and packets of fast food hot sauce. That is what happened to Robert Ward. His car went down a raving last week in West Virginia. He had just about given up hope when he was rescued on Sunday.
Terry Likens is the man who found Robert Ward. Likens is in Huntington, West Virginia.
Terry, good morning. Thanks for being with us.
TERRY LIKENS, WARD'S RESCUER: Good morning.
KAGAN: Now, you go back. You know Robert Ward even before this rescue.
LIKENS: Yes, I've known him since high school. We went to school together.
KAGAN: And you both volunteer at the same fire department.
LIKENS: Yes.
KAGAN: Can you tell us how -- I'm sorry. Go ahead.
LIKENS: Go ahead.
I was going to say we've been here at the fire department together for about six or seven years now.
KAGAN: Can you tell us how he's doing this morning?
LIKENS: I talked to his family earlier this morning. They said he was still doing pretty good. He's still in good spirits, and now it's just a long healing process for him.
KAGAN: Absolutely. Now take us to the moment of the rescue when you discover your old friend. He'd already been missing for some time.
LIKENS: Yes, we had about given up hope on finding him, and we were the last crew this went out. There were three of us in the group, and when we just decided to stop there, that was the first ravine we came to, and we stopped there to look around, and I guess he heard us talking and heard our vehicle, so he started hollering out for help, and that's how we were able to find him. We couldn't see his car until we heard his voice to give us an exact location.
KAGAN: Because it had been covered up by snow?
LIKENS: It was also obscured by a lot of brush.
KAGAN: You have to tell us some of the examples of the amazing survival techniques that Robert used in order to keep himself alive until help came to his rescue.
LIKENS: He said that he melted snow to get water to drink, and to keep warm, he tore the headliner out of his car and kind of wrapped up in it. And also to keep warm, he burned paper and books that were in his car. He made small fires to warm up a little bit, and then put them out before they could put catch his car on fire.
KAGAN: I understand what he burned was his book on how to be an emergency medical technician.
LIKENS: Yes, that's correct. He burned most of his EMT manual.
KAGAN: How key do you think that EMT manual and his EMT training was to the fact that we was alive today?
LIKENS: I think that played a big part of it. He was trained to know what to do and how to take care of himself until help could get to him.
KAGAN: Well, he definitely helped himself, but it's obviously good to have friends like you who helped rescue him as well.
Pass our best wishes on to his and his family, OK?
LIKENS: OK.
KAGAN: Terry Likens, thank you so much. Great story.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired December 10, 2002 - 09:23 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We have a really amazing rescue story for you now. Imagine this, spending 6 1/2 days injured, trapped inside of a freezing car, eating snow and packets of fast food hot sauce. That is what happened to Robert Ward. His car went down a raving last week in West Virginia. He had just about given up hope when he was rescued on Sunday.
Terry Likens is the man who found Robert Ward. Likens is in Huntington, West Virginia.
Terry, good morning. Thanks for being with us.
TERRY LIKENS, WARD'S RESCUER: Good morning.
KAGAN: Now, you go back. You know Robert Ward even before this rescue.
LIKENS: Yes, I've known him since high school. We went to school together.
KAGAN: And you both volunteer at the same fire department.
LIKENS: Yes.
KAGAN: Can you tell us how -- I'm sorry. Go ahead.
LIKENS: Go ahead.
I was going to say we've been here at the fire department together for about six or seven years now.
KAGAN: Can you tell us how he's doing this morning?
LIKENS: I talked to his family earlier this morning. They said he was still doing pretty good. He's still in good spirits, and now it's just a long healing process for him.
KAGAN: Absolutely. Now take us to the moment of the rescue when you discover your old friend. He'd already been missing for some time.
LIKENS: Yes, we had about given up hope on finding him, and we were the last crew this went out. There were three of us in the group, and when we just decided to stop there, that was the first ravine we came to, and we stopped there to look around, and I guess he heard us talking and heard our vehicle, so he started hollering out for help, and that's how we were able to find him. We couldn't see his car until we heard his voice to give us an exact location.
KAGAN: Because it had been covered up by snow?
LIKENS: It was also obscured by a lot of brush.
KAGAN: You have to tell us some of the examples of the amazing survival techniques that Robert used in order to keep himself alive until help came to his rescue.
LIKENS: He said that he melted snow to get water to drink, and to keep warm, he tore the headliner out of his car and kind of wrapped up in it. And also to keep warm, he burned paper and books that were in his car. He made small fires to warm up a little bit, and then put them out before they could put catch his car on fire.
KAGAN: I understand what he burned was his book on how to be an emergency medical technician.
LIKENS: Yes, that's correct. He burned most of his EMT manual.
KAGAN: How key do you think that EMT manual and his EMT training was to the fact that we was alive today?
LIKENS: I think that played a big part of it. He was trained to know what to do and how to take care of himself until help could get to him.
KAGAN: Well, he definitely helped himself, but it's obviously good to have friends like you who helped rescue him as well.
Pass our best wishes on to his and his family, OK?
LIKENS: OK.
KAGAN: Terry Likens, thank you so much. Great story.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
