The mother of a young Rhode Island woman who suffered second-degree and third-degree burns last week at Yellowstone National Park said her daughter is continuing to recover in an Idaho ICU.
Mary Neely-Boie told NBC 10 that her 19-year-old daughter, Leora, had been hiking with friends last Thursday in an area near the Old Faithful geyser when, at some point, Leora separated from the group when it began to get cold and attempted to return to her car alone.
"She took a wrong turn and her phone died," Neely-Boie said in an interview outside her Foster area home. "It was getting dark. She got lost.”
With no phone, no flashlight and no one else around, Neely-Boie said her daughter ended up wandering off-trail and into a hydrothermal area.
"When she stepped down, the ground beneath her cracked and she fell," said Neely-Boie.
Leora’s mom said while the pocket her daughter fell into wasn’t deep, it was filled with scalding water. The National Park Service previously said the victim suffered second-degree and third-degree burns to 5% of her body.
“Her hands got the worst of it," said Neely-Boie. “Somehow, she got up and started running. She didn’t know where she was going because it was pitch black.”
Seriously wounded in the darkness, Neely-Boie said her daughter turned to prayer.
"She said she called out to Jesus to save her," the mother said. “And then, by a miracle, she found a road. And somebody found her on the road.”
According to Neely-Boie, Leora was found by a park ranger who called for an ambulance. She was later transported via helicopter to a burn center and rushed into surgery.
Neely-Boie said she had been able to speak to her daughter and doctors briefly on the phone, but so far, the full extent of Leora’s injuries remains unclear.
“I don’t really know until they take the bandages off," she said. “It’s going to be a road to healing and recovery.”
Leora had been working in housekeeping at Yellowstone since August, her mother said.
Neely-Boie said she hopes her daughter’s tragic experience may become a lesson to other hikers.
“It was a mistake that could’ve cost her life," she said. "And I’m so grateful that she’s still here.”
In a press release, the National Park Service said the incident remains under investigation.