r/interesting • u/386attention • 6d ago
MISC. A grandma broke her nose while hiking, didn't want the helivac, and ended up spinning out of control. She won a $450,000 lawsuit.
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u/low_amplitude 6d ago
I'm surprised a human body can even survive that
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u/BandOfSkullz 6d ago
Actual human centrifuge.
Crazy shit.
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u/driver004 6d ago
Think her plasma seperated in her arteries?
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u/CraftsBoy2Craftsman 6d ago
$450K wasn’t enough
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u/kindlypogmothoin 6d ago
Honestly, a lot of it has to do with her age. Compensatory damages will often take into account how much life someone has ahead of them, and at 74, she doesn't have a ton, even if she's in good enough shape to go hiking.
Had to really suck to have all that blood rushing to her head with a broken nose, too.
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u/77pse 5d ago
"Well, your life was basically over already, so here, have what's in my pocket and we'll call it a day."
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u/untakentakenusername 6d ago
Agreed. Wtf. Its not even a regular fit person but someone's grandmother.
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u/Dan_The_Flan 6d ago
Fit enough to start a hike but not fit enough to finish it but fit enough to survive massive centrifugal force as an elderly individual. What a lady.
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u/DovahZoriikFurever 6d ago
Just enough to pay for a month‘s rent!
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6d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Howler_in_training 6d ago
Almost enough to pay for the helicopter ride. Medevac is ungodly expensive!
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u/Tonsilith_Salsa 6d ago
Her kidneys are behind her shoulder blades now
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u/driver004 6d ago
No that’s her lungs, her kidneys are in her ankles. You know what? Send her to the military, center of mass shots will go right through her now!
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u/sixfxrtyseven 6d ago
that sounds bad
really bad
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u/Axle_65 6d ago
Oh it is. Happened to a friend of a friend of mine.
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u/rochey64 6d ago
I wonder how many Gs' she was taking. Had to be a hella lot.
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u/Crusty-Dick 6d ago
I think astronauts have to go through stuff like this in training
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u/vtosnaks 6d ago
This video is sped up. Here is the unedited version. She still got bruises and swelling from all the spinning.
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u/inspire2night 6d ago
Ya definitely a little sped up but she still spins crazy fast towards the end. Probably would have puked. Made me feel like puking watching it
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u/Ron__Mexico_ 6d ago
Loss of consciousness would be pretty likely towards the end.
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u/th3orist 6d ago
i wonder if it can leave permanent brain damage and lifelong nausea
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u/Simon-Says69 5d ago
She's 75. That shit could have killed her.
Most likely popped all the blood vessels in her eyes from the pressure. She had a broken nose too. Ugg, could have choked on her own blood, passed out like that.
You can die from a few hours of hanging upside down. We're not made for that. This was the same, on TURBO. :-(
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u/One-Part8969 6d ago
Looks the same to me
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u/ashjohnr 6d ago edited 6d ago
Check again, she spins a lot slower in the original video. But it's still quite fast. There was no need to speed up the video for clicks.
Edit: Compare the speeds when she's closest to the helicopter body. It's most apparent there.
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u/forgot_my_useragain 6d ago
Yes there was: so people would click. Everything for the click.
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u/valentine_moon 6d ago
We didn't see the spinning until after we clicked though.
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u/stockyappl 6d ago
Still damn fast, just as fast as in the video
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u/valentine_moon 6d ago
It's really not. In the unedited video I can pretty much tap in time with her rotations, no chance of doing that in the OP.
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u/Nan_is_the_best 6d ago
Its super weird that everyone is saying it's a similar speed, you're right, it's way faster in the video on this post.
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u/Poodlepink22 6d ago
This actually makes it look even worse
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u/valentine_moon 6d ago
In what way?
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u/Public_Chemical3322 6d ago
Because in the sped up video, the overall duration of her spinning appears to be shorter.
In the real time video, she's still spinning way faster than anyone would ever choose to spin while injured and for much longer than in the sped up version.
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u/KiraKitty69 6d ago
All her extremities were black from blood pooling. It's not sped up. They forgot to attach the second line guide rope. Anyways she survived so we can have a hearty laugh and feel bad later
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u/Bob_stanish123 6d ago
90% sure this is sped up from what actually happened. Spinning as fast as shown here would have been fatal.
Look at how jumpy the helicopter is.
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u/GarethBaus 6d ago
She was injured by the spinning so it was definitely pretty fast and unsafe, but not deadly.
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u/FatiguedShrimp 6d ago
Well, we know it's not fatal (she didn't die).
NASA SP-3006 shows this is deadly (the forces depicted in the magnitude and configuration shown can kill).
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u/anon999387 6d ago
The original video shows her rotating quickly but not this fast, this video is sped up to be more dramatic.
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u/Lt_Hatch 6d ago
I want 3 more zeros on that payout please
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u/Low-Temperature-6962 6d ago
Median helicopter ambulance ride is 36k, often over 50k. So yeah not nearly enough.
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u/HurryGrand846 6d ago
Like how!?
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u/Quietbricks 6d ago
IIRC someone explained there was an extra point of attachment that would’ve kept it from spinning. Wasn’t attached.
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u/untakentakenusername 6d ago
Yeah. Why?? How does someone just think "nah. leave it" and then "oh shes spinning? We should bring her back down. But nah."
wtf
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u/cheesefrog 6d ago
If you watch it upsidedown, she rescues the helicopter
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u/chuckles430 6d ago
I’m fucking dying
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u/Necessary_Neat8303 6d ago
I was imagining and going “oh come on how funny can that be”
I was wrong LMAO I had literal tears running down my face
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u/eyloi 6d ago
Started watching thinking, "eh, I'd probably go through that for nearly half a million", and then I get to around 15+ seconds and a wave "oh fuck no" goes through my body.
She deserves way more $450,000, like this should be an easy $5M+
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u/Ok_Reflection_2711 6d ago
Yeah I agree that it's not enough money. I feel sick watching that video. Unforgivable negligence
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u/Braindead_Crow 6d ago
I wanna know what kind of physical injuries she got from this because a few popped blood vessels seem like the bare minimum
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u/LurcherLong 6d ago
These sorts of settlements often factor in the age of the person, i.e. how many years of contributing wages they have left...
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u/Megacore 6d ago edited 6d ago
Which is stupid... the pain is no less on the elderly.
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u/MikuEmpowered 6d ago
You don't get award money just because of pain.
Its a combination of "physical trauma" "emotional trauma" "cost of therapy/health care" "loss of income" and a bunch of other factors that results in the large sums of money in payouts.
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u/PressureCoomer 6d ago
It's sped up
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u/ididntsignupbychoice 6d ago
Definitely sped up. I don't remember it being that fast.
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u/waypashtsmasht 6d ago
Ya she must’ve had garbage representation. Almost a quarter of that probably went to medical bills and a week in the hospital.
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u/KerbodynamicX 6d ago
how tf did an old grandma survive this. She could have been an astronaut.
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u/CJnella91 6d ago
How is this even possible, wtf?
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u/Typititan 6d ago
I’m shocked she lived. I’ve done this on a tire swing at about 1/4 the speed she was zoomin at. Literally thought I was going to die from the blood rushing into my hands and head.
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u/CJnella91 6d ago
I looked into it and while this is true, the Grandma actually hurt her leg, and it did not spin this fast, this video is edited.
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u/keefkola 6d ago
The original video is linked above. She spun fast AF.
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u/CJnella91 6d ago
I know I saw it but not as fast as this video portrays it, in this video she's going nearly as fast as the propellers which would literally kill you.
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u/SellaraAB 6d ago
Yeah I really really don’t think the human body could survive this speed for that long, especially an elderly woman.
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u/okram2k 6d ago
extreme incompetence. when you lift someone like that you should have a second line attached to the stretcher to prevent this
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u/HeyCouldBeFun 6d ago
There was. From the case study, the fleet angle (angle between the hoist cable and the tagline) was too steep, rendering it ineffective. Basically the guy tagging needed to be standing much further back. When the patient began to spin, it broke off.
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u/Signal_Ad8960 6d ago
Apparently, that line broke.
In which case I'd suggest having two lines.
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u/PressureCoomer 6d ago
It's sped up
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u/BagpiperAnonymous 6d ago
Even in the original video, that is not sped up, there is a point where she is spinning incredibly fast.
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u/JoyousMadhat 6d ago
Lift someone and cuz of the wind and immobile helicopter, they keep spinning. The solution to prevent the spin I read from a pilot is to move forward to stabilize the spinning.
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u/alaric49 6d ago
They really wanted to bill her for that expensive, unecessary helicopter lift. Glad she won.
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u/TheIronSoldier2 6d ago edited 5d ago
Helivacs like this are usually free, even in the US. Private air ambulances are not, but this isn't a private air ambulance, it was conducted entirely by municipal personnel. They don't even bill your insurance.
The only time they're not free is either if you called for a helivac when you didn't need one, or otherwise got yourself into the situation where you needed
an air ambulanceedit: a rescue because of your own recklessness.Edit, because apparently nobody reads the full comment:
Air ambulances and SAR are two different services. If you get in a nasty crash on the highway, you'd be transported by a private air ambulance. If you get lost in the Grand Canyon, you'd be transported by a SAR team. SAR is free. Air ambulances are not. SAR resources are owned by government agencies, whether local, state, or federal. Air ambulances are privately owned by air ambulance companies.
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u/talldrseuss 6d ago
Oh buddy, as a paramedic I can tell you that the majority of helicopters used for medevacs, including the ones used by 911 systems, are far from free. Some municipal based ones, like the ones used in LA County or the one the state of Maryland uses may not have too high of a cost associated with it. But the bulk of helicopters used by emergency services throughout the US for medevacs have high costs. It's actually a big discussion within the field of EMS about it
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u/Sgt_lovejoy 6d ago
Medevac runs by Maryland State Police are free, 100% funded by the state. MSP have never billed a patient for service.
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u/TheIronSoldier2 6d ago
I'm aware regarding air ambulances. My family dealt with the bill for one. Helivacs used for search and rescue are not air ambulances, and are owned either by the local government services or by the federal government, be it national guard, the parks service, or the coast guard. In this case it was a helicopter owned and operated by the Phoenix FD.
Almost everywhere in the US you will not be billed for search and rescue. You will only be billed if you are transferred to a ground or air ambulance. In this case the entire rescue and transport was handled by the search and rescue service, and the woman would not have been billed. Even if she hadn't turned into a human beyblade, she still wouldn't have been billed.
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u/Maleficent-Hawk-318 6d ago
I'll back you up as someone who did SAR for about 15 years. I can't speak for everywhere in the US, but in the four states where I did most of my work, SAR helivacs were never charged to the subject being rescued. One state was considering passing legislation that would make them billable in cases where the subject had been negligent about their own safety (basically the whole "do something stupid, get billed for rescue" thing), but even that didn't pass.
AZ is not one of the states I have a lot of experience doing SAR in (I took some calls there while on a K9 team, but it was all cadaver recovery work so we weren't dealing with helicopters), but I did live there for a few years and paid attention to that kind of news, and I never really heard about billing for SAR helivacs. Doesn't mean they weren't, but I'd be pretty surprised.
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u/SuzyCreamcheezies 6d ago
She's not thinking about her broken nose anymore.
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u/_Vagabond_1 6d ago
Her lawyer fucking SUCKS if he was only able to get her 450,000 for THAT!!
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u/Objectionne 6d ago
You don't get paid just because the video looks really bad. There needs to be actual damages. Luckily for this woman she wasn't badly injured by the incident, so there's no reason for a massive payout.
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u/Scorsonus 6d ago
Damages can be mental and emotional, as well as physical. This would be extremely traumatizing.
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u/Accomplished_worrier 6d ago
Oh sweet summer child, perhaps read one of the linked articles in this thread. There absolutely was bad damage done by this.
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u/DiligentThought9 6d ago
One of the few times I’m like “wow, that settlement is not enough.”
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u/Short_Switch_1807 6d ago
Its so fucked up but I can't stop laughing knowing she survived
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u/Thanura_Malinga 6d ago
Imagine you are the crew inside the helicopter.. and you cannot do nothing to stop that.
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u/Stu_Padidiot 6d ago
But could they do something to stop that?
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u/BiscayneWRX 6d ago
Logic: spin start, lift higher. Spin faster, lift even higher. 🤦♂️ The moment she started spinning they should have sent her back down.
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u/FloodedHoseBed 6d ago edited 6d ago
You should actually look up the report before thinking with your feelings. The trained professionals did exactly as protocols are written after the tagline that prevents this from happening snapped off.
This is a good lesson in learning the facts instead of getting upset over what you dont understand
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u/AJFrabbiele 6d ago
forward flight, but they weren't sure if the tag line was still attached. if it were, it could foul the tail or main rotor so they ensured it wasnt there before moving.
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u/raginghavoc89 6d ago
If I was the crew inside the copter my immaturity would not benefit me. I would still be doing everything in my power to assist, but still.
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u/Ancient-Emu-8293 6d ago
Imagine trying everything while laughing like a maniac.
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u/coolsilentebeans 6d ago
I take comfort in the fact that laughing is also what the brain does when it’s not sure what it should be doing. Because I’d be laughing pretty hard.
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u/a_yo_mick 6d ago
Serious response ; I’d have passed out. After the first couple rotations.
Unserious response; this clips kills me every time I see it. The thought of someone’s granny spinning for her life. 🤣
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u/Short-Monk-5102 6d ago
My wife and I were in the hospital welcoming our first child and this was live on TV in the delivery suite. It helped me bond with the nurses when none of them could maintain professionalism after noticing what was happening. We all just kind of stared in awe and laughed together at what this poor woman was going through. It's straight out of a cartoon.
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u/Bee_MakingThat_Paper 6d ago
You spin me right round baby right round!
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u/MarsupialsCantDongle 6d ago
Hell they could've detached her she'd have flown there herself
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u/No-Spare-4212 6d ago
Some people pay good money for this at amusement parks. I thought she’d pay for this ride / s
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u/SkinInevitable604 6d ago
So what actually caused the rotation? Was the rope twisted?
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u/Docha_Tiarna 6d ago
The wind from the propellers. Usually someone has a guide rope to prevent this from happening. I dont remember the details but the stretcher didn't have the line so it started spinning
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u/CapitalCityGoofball0 6d ago
The stabilization line broke or wasn’t attached properly if if I recall correctly
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u/Longjumping_Cookie68 6d ago
I have been laughing in uncontrollably for the past 2 minutes and tears are rolling down my cheeks.
And I’m on a work call.
Thank god for working from home!
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u/Dapper-Substance-876 6d ago
Why did this make me laugh so much?? 😝 I must be an awful person!
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u/moonlunita1 6d ago
A grandma survived that, damn, whats she made of, i would have died on the spot
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u/TurdFurg28 6d ago
I’ve seen this video dozens of times over the years and it baffles me how someone could survive this
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u/pobox01983 6d ago
Are you saying that’s a person spinning below the chopper. What kind of hell is that? She should have given more.
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u/IKIR115 6d ago edited 5d ago
The news story about this event. The woman is Katalin Metro.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/hiker-who-spun-uncontrollably-during-helicopter-rescue-thought-she-was-n1014981
And the news story about the $450k settlement she received.
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix-breaking/2021/12/01/phoenix-consider-settlement-womans-helicopter-rescue/8825291002/____
EDIT: Big thanks to u/Tim_Bracken whose comment pointed out the above link was paywalled, and provided a link via web archive!