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Man Carries Injured Hiker More Than 2 Miles to Safety

Dan Reardon helped rescue an injured man while hiking in Malibu on New Year's Day, Dina Zaky said.
Dina Zaky/Facebook

January 02, 2016, 6:05 PM

 -- A couple on a New Year's Day hike in Malibu, California, came across a man with an injured leg and ended up helping him get more than two miles to safety.

Dan Reardon and Dina Zaky were about half-way into their hike to Escondido Falls -- about two and a half miles -- when they ran into a group of people that included a man who appeared to be injured, Zaky told ABC News today.

The injured man, Mark Martinez, had rolled down a hill on his way down the trail, according to his wife, Lucero Martinez, who was on the trail, too.

Reardon is the CEO of a United Kingdom-based fitness company and was formerly an emergency doctor in the UK, Zaky told ABC News, so he had "experience dealing in emergency care," and he asked the group if they needed help getting down.

The group said they were fine, but it was getting late and starting to get dark, Zaky said.

"We knew it was going to take a while to get back," Zaky said, so Reardon offered to carry the injured man, Mark Martinez, down on his back.

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Zaky, meanwhile, ran back to the main road.

"There's no cell service on the trail. So even if we tried to call someone for help, there's just no service," she said. "So I went running all the way back to the main road. I still didn't have any cell service, so I went running up to the first house I could find, screaming ... trying to get someone's attention."

Zaky found a phone to use and called the police, she said, but by the time emergency responders arrived, Reardon had already carried Martinez all the way to the main road. Zaky estimated Reardon carried him about 2.3 miles.

"He was in a lot of pain, and if Dan didn't really help him get to the main road, I don't know what would've happened," Zaky said. "We're really happy that we were able to help him."

Mark Martinez suffered a broken fibula and a broken ankle, his wife Lucero Martinez told ABC News. Once Reardon carried him to safety, Lucero Martinez took her husband to the hospital where he was given a temporary cast.

And Lucero Martinez says she's so grateful to Reardon for his selfless assistance.

"It was like an angel sent from God," she said. "Out of nowhere, he comes and offers to lend a hand by carrying him 2.3 miles. It was just amazing. I'm grateful. There's no words to explain how I feel towards this guy. It was amazing what he did."