HOW TO HELP
To donate to the Chattanooga Hamilton County Rescue Service go to www.chcrs.org.
Last year, Brittany Decker had spent hours climbing the Tennessee Wall in the Prentice Cooper State Forest when she fell an estimated 40 feet and crashed onto a boulder.
She cracked her skull, broke several ribs and fractured four of her vertebrae. One of them burst into multiple pieces, she said.
Life Force flew her to the hospital, where she remained for nine days while doctors performed major surgery fusing her vertebrae back together with titanium.
A year later, on Sunday, the Kennesaw, Ga., resident and her climbing friends went to the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Rescue Service in Lookout Valley to thank rescuers for her survival. Decker brought a financial donation and at least six dozen homemade cookies.
"Things could have ended very differently for me," said Decker, now 24, fully recovered and climbing again.
Brad Tipton, captain of the cave/cliff/technical unit of the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Rescue Service and the first rescuer on the scene after she fell, thanked Decker and her friends for the contribution.
"Without donations there would be no Chattanooga Hamilton County Rescue," said Tipton.
Decker's accident happened at the Tennessee Wall, known to some climbers as the T-Wall, a fiery orange sandstone cliff northwest of Chattanooga along the Tennessee River.
She started climbing the T-Wall at about 9 a.m. on February, 2014. She climbed safely all day until around 6 p.m., when she slipped, wearing no helmet.
She joked Sunday with Tipton about her rescue. He knew she was badly injured, he said, but he thought she would be OK because she was so spirited.
Lying on the boulder, Decker couldn't move and thought her friends and rescuers were holding her down. She angrily told Tipton to get off of her and insisted on walking despite debilitating injuries, said Tipton.
Tipton said he has done about 30 rescues around the Tennessee Wall since he joined the rescue service about 20 years ago at age 18.
He is one of 38 volunteers in the cave/cliff/technical unit. Tipton said he does the job because he likes climbing and because he hopes someone would help him if he had an accident.
Decker's friends called media Sunday to spread the word that Chattanooga Hamilton County Rescue Service is operated solely by donations and volunteers.
The rescue's annual budget of $50,000 purchases medical supplies and equipment to help save climbers and cavers like Decker.
Contact staff writer Yolanda Putman at yputman@timesfreepress.com or 757-6431.