ST. KITTS ISLAND — An Indianapolis couple is stuck in the Caribbean after a hiking accident put one of them in the hospital.
Clay and Acaimie Chastain are newlyweds and were enjoying a hike up Mount Liamuiga, a dormant volcano on the Island of St. Kitts in the Carribbean. They were by themselves since no tours were available to guide them up the mountain.
The climb took two and a half hours, but they reached the top. That’s when Clay decided to descend into the volcano’s crater lake. His wife, Acaime, stayed at the top.
“I heard a lap snap and what sounded like a huge bolder rolling down the hill,” Acaimie told WISH-TV.
She descended into the crater where she found Clay barely conscious.
“I saw the back of his head,” she said. ” He had definitely hit his head and I saw he was bleeding. I went around to the front and he had blood pooring out of his nose and onto his shirt.”
She helped Clay out of the crater and then they started the trek back down the mountain.
“He was leaning on me a lot and he was just gasping,” said Acaimie. “He just kept asking me ‘How much further? How much further?’ I knew God was going to help us and that he was going to protect us, but I told him ‘you have to help me because I can’t carry you out of here all my myself’.”
Three hours later they were able to find someone who could help and they eventually got Clay to a hospital where he was diagnosed with a brain injury. That is what is keeping the couple stranded on the island since doctors say a commercial flight would be too dangerous for him.
The only way to get Clay home now is by air ambulance, which costs $35,000 dollars. The good news is many friends and family back in Indiana have been stepping up. They started a GoFundMe page and have raised $30,000, enough for a doctor to sign off on the paper work to arrange an air ambulance to take Clay to Florida.
“It’s astounding,” Clay said. “It’s way more than I ever would have imagined. I mean some people are people that we know and some people are just people that none of us have even heard the name before and the fact that they are actually stepping out of their way helping us is incredible.”
(PHOTO: The Chastains/WISH-TV)
