An elderly woman may have been kept alive by her dog sleeping on her chest after she and her husband got lost during a hike outside their Maine home.
Pamela Helmstadter, 72, was rescued Thursday after spending four nights in the woods in Washington County, Maine. WMTW Reports.
Her dog, a black Labrador named Lucy, was at her side when rangers located her that afternoon. according to the Portland Press Herald.
“When the K9 team located her, her dog was being very protective of her and even lay down on top of her chest,” said Sgt. Josh Beal of the Maine Warden Service.
“It seems like that’s what the dog would do at night too, to help keep her warm.”
Pamela Helmstadter, 72, was rescued Thursday after spending four nights in the woods in Washington County, Maine.
She was severely hypothermic when she was found, with a body temperature of just 90.7 degrees Fahrenheit.
Authorities say Helmstadter’s ordeal began when she and her husband, John Helmstadter, 82, went to walk their two dogs on the trail network behind their home in Alexander and got lost. according to WMTW.
That’s when Juan fell and couldn’t get up.
Since neither John nor Pamela had their cell phones at the time, Pamela went to find help on foot, but became disoriented and could not find her way home.
“She was more physically capable than him, and they made the decision for him to stay put and she would try to go get help,” Beal explained.
They then spent several days in cold, rainy weather, with temperatures reaching 27 degrees Fahrenheit on Wednesday night.
“She did very well to survive for so long,” Beal said.
Sadly, however, John did not survive the ordeal. It is not clear exactly when he died.
Pamela had been walking her dogs with her 82-year-old husband, John Helmstadter.
Search efforts began Wednesday night after a neighbor of the couple noticed that a package abandoned on the couple’s porch was still there a day later.
Authorities say Pamela also could have died if not for an observant neighbor, who alerted the Washington County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday about a package abandoned on the couple’s porch.
The unidentified neighbor said he found it strange that the package was still there a day later, and even stranger that the couple’s other dog returned to the house without them.
Search efforts began that night and officials finally found Pamela in a wooded area more than a mile from the couple’s home around 2:30 p.m. Thursday.
She was severely hypothermic when she was found, with a body temperature of just 90.7 degrees Fahrenheit.
John’s body was found about 200 meters away.
Pamela was then taken to a local hospital, where she is recovering.
She has since said she had given up hope of being found, until she heard search planes flying overhead five different times on Thursday.
Pamela was rushed to a local hospital, where she is recovering from hypothermia.
The couple’s next-door neighbor, Heather Henry-Tenan, told the Portland Press Herald that John had been sick and she rarely saw him outside the house.
She noticed that the stretch of forest the couple had been walking through was difficult to traverse.
“I was surprised to hear that he was walking with her,” Henry-Tenan said.
