A Pennsylvania family is thanking their lucky stars after their 22-year-old son has recovered from being struck by a tree that collapsed while he was hiking near Porcupine Falls in Wyoming earlier this summer.
Will Dusinberre was working at a ranch in Wyoming when he and some friends made the trek to Porcupine Falls on their day off. Instead of it being a peaceful summer hike, it turned into a nightmare when Dusinberre and his friends were struck by a tree as it collapsed.
“I don’t remember much from that day or even the day before really,” Dusinberre said Monday afternoon. “I just remember hiking out with my buddies and that we had stopped to swim and relax for a little bit.”
Dusinberre is hazy on the details of the day but has heard more of the timeline from witnesses and his friends that were there.
“Somebody yelled ‘Tree,’ and turned around and I was already hit,” Dusinberre said. “I didn’t have time to move.”
One of Dusinberre’s friends who wasn’t injured ran to the top of the trail looking for help. That run would’ve been about seventh-tenths of a mile, and he was shouting for help the entire way.
Fortunately, he managed to catch Michelle and Jesse Rystrom before they drove away. Michelle is an emergency nurse, and Jesse is a firefighter paramedic.
“We thought we heard somebody yell help,” Michelle said. “A young kid was running up the trail and was saying that a tree had fallen and one of his friends (was) bleeding from his head.”
Without thinking, the Rystroms sprang into action, sprinting down the trail to help the victims.
“Your adrenaline kind of just kicks in, and your mom mode kicks in, and you just start taking care of the kids,” Michelle said.
Both Rystroms said it was impeccable timing for them to be in the right position to help.
“Everything lined out just to help them because there was nobody else in the parking lot that was there,” Jesse said. “We almost weren’t even going to be there that day but the weather was cold so we stopped there.”
“You’re in the right place at the right time that’s for sure,” Michelle said.
With the Rystroms’ help, Dusinberre was eventually transported to St. Vincent’s Healthcare in Billings, where his parents had frantically traveled from Pennsylvania to be with their son.
“It wasn’t until we arrived that we found out how serious the injury was,” said Dusinberre’s mother Louise Dusinberre. “It was horrific. Will was unrecognizable.”
That shocking condition of their son left Louise numb.
“My emotions were just put on hold because you’re just full in that fight or flight,” Louise said. “It’s been the fight of our lifetime for a month and a half.”
That fight has included several surgeries, hours of rehab and plenty of dark days. Somehow, Will has remained positive the entire time.
“It’s allowed me to appreciate all the things I have in the moment and the things I can get back to eventually,” Will said.
Among those things is playing the guitar and singing. Will has managed to do that early in the rehab, donning an eye patch and missing teeth from the incident. It’s a sight and sound his mother is grateful for.
“It was just a lot of heroes and angels right where they needed to be,” Louise said.
Will is expected to make a full recovery and plans to get started with his senior year of college in the spring. Even he understands how fortunate he is that the Rystroms and others were there to help.
“I wouldn’t be here without them,” Will said. “But the fact that they were even there in the first place is just kind of a miracle.”
