CBS4 Photographer Saves The Day By Making Splint For Injured Reporter

(CBS4) - Reporter Michael Abeyta is a trail runner with several road races and a couple marathons to his credit. But neither running credentials nor press credentials are a guarantee against unexpected injury.

Fortunately, a new member of the CBS4 team had the perfect solution.

Michael was exploring a live shot location Saturday at Matthew Winters Park in Golden when the muddy embankment gave way and he slid into a gulley. Michael suffered a badly sprained ankle.

He was alone at the time, looking for fallen tree to visually reference during his 5 o'clock live shot about power outages in the metro area.

Mike said he struggled out to get out of the gulley, but eventually did, and then crawled back to his news vehicle.

That's when CBS4 Photographer Danyelle Wyrosdick pulled up. She had been assigned to assist Michael with his live shot.

"I called him up, (and asked) "Where are you at?" Wyrosdick recalled. "Mike said, 'I really hurt myself.'"

Danyelle has been on the job at CBS4 for three weeks. She said she's had some sort of surprise every day at work.

But never one like this.

"He was in pain," she said. He was also covered in mud and expected to be on air in 20 minutes.

"It just switched in my head," Danyelle said. "I looked and I have a plastic bag. I filled it with snow and said, 'Put this on your ankle.' I was in first aid mode."

She used paper towels, small rope and gauze from both their first aid kits to create padding around Mike's swollen ankle. Then, in perhaps the most resourceful move of all, took two metal chopsticks from Mike's cutlery set to manufacture a splint.

"He could put weight on it," Danyelle said of the ankle.

Her work, together with some anti-inflammatory pain meds, had Mike standing in front of the camera at 5 p.m.

"We successfully did our live shot even though (producers) Rayla and Rachel gave us an out," Mike added. "So thank you to Dany for saving my bacon."

Danyelle is 1st Aid and CPR certified after working as a lifeguard as a teenager and continually updating her training. She keeps her knowledge and supplies handy for her backpacking trips into the wilderness where sprained and twisted ankles are a definite possibility.

But using that expertise to rescue a live shot? That's a first.

"I just said to myself, 'You know, he's in some pain, let's fix it,'" Danyelle explained. "So I fixed it."

We at CBS4 are thankful she was there.