13-Year-Old Boy Keeps Dad Alive for More Than Two Days After Dad Is Struck by Boulder

A 13-year-old boy is being hailed a hero for saving his dad after he was struck and badly injured by a falling boulder in Idaho.

David Finlayson, 52, and his teen son, Charlie, were backpacking near Ship Island Lake – a part of Idaho known as “River of No Return Wilderness” – on Aug. 17 when the boulder came loose.

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David jumped to avoid it but got hit, sending him careening 30 feet down a mountain and briefly knocking him unconscious. He broke his back, left arm, left heel, and a gash on his left leg that exposed his bone.

“If the boulder had landed on me, I’d be dead for sure,” Finlayson, a lawyer from Salt Lake City, Utah, tells Good Morning America.

For two and a half days Charlie used his Boy Scout skills to help his dad – dressing his wounds, bringing him food, water, even sleeping bags for warmth. On occasion, Charlie would leave his dad to walk around the lake and look for help.

“He was my savior,” David tells the Idaho Statesman. “He just kind of coached me along with the pain and tried to help me not pass out. He kept talking to me all night.”

Still, David knew the two needed to do more. He wrote a note explaining the predicament and sent Charlie on a trek for help.

“I was scared I wasn’t going to find somebody,” Charlie tells GMA.

About three miles into his hike, Charlie says he stumbled on a group of men who read his note and were quick to help. David was eventually airlifted to a hospital. A sheriff’s deputy took Charlie home.

“We had a pretty solid relationship with each other before this happened,” David tells GMA, “but it’s definitely concrete now, or granite, maybe, is the way to put it.”