Yahoo Movies Minnesota Man Rescued After Being Trapped Under Fallen Tree for 4 Days: 'He Had the Will to Live'
gofundme Jonathan Ceplecha
An Army veteran in Minnesota is lucky to be alive after he was trapped under a tree for four days.
Jonathan Ceplecha, 59, was cutting down trees near his home in Redwood Falls on Aug. 27 when one them fell on him, pinning both his legs to the ground, according to the Redwood County Sheriff’s Office.
Rescuers found Ceplecha on Monday after he had spent "over 100 hours" stuck underneath the tree, authorities said.
Officers and first responders from the Redwood Falls Fire Department took nearly two hours getting Ceplecha out before he was airlifted to a local hospital.
AP/Shutterstock Fallen tree
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Ceplecha broke both his legs when he was crushed under the tree and did not have a phone on his person to call for help, according to a GoFundMe campaign set up to raise funds for his medical bills.
He was found by his ex-wife after the family had grown concerned and the school where he teaches reported that he had missed the first day of classes, Ceplecha's son Miles said on the page.
"Throughout his isolation, Jonathan ate plants and insects within arm's reach, drank sweat and rainwater that he collected in his clothes, and covered his head in his shirt during the nights to keep the insects off as he slept," the description read.
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"He kept his sanity by breaking down every day into hours, and each hour into 5-minute segments. As someone of a heavy faith, he prayed to himself often, and tried to distract himself from panic by meditating and inventing rhythms to follow from dawn to dusk."
Ceplecha's family said that his legs are likely to be saved after undergoing surgery, though "he faces a long road to full physical recovery and his feet are still in bad condition."
"He had the will to live, and he wasn't ready to go," Redwood County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Mark Farasyn told KARE-TV. "I don't know many people who could survive an ordeal like that."
