‘Miracles do happen,” said Julia Eller, mother of Amanda Eller, the 35-year-old yoga instructor and physical therapist who was found alive Friday after surviving 17 days in the rugged forest above Makawao.
During an emotional news conference at Maui Memorial Medical Center, where the younger woman was being treated for a broken lower leg and infection due to severe sunburn on her lower extremities, Eller’s mother recounted how her daughter survived by eating strawberry guava fruit and drinking stream water.
Eller got lost May 8 while hiking within the Makawao Forest Reserve, an expansive wilderness area with areas of dense forest, steep ascents and rugged terrain. In an interview with the New York Times, Eller said she lost her way after briefly leaving the trail and spent the rest of the day and night traveling in the wrong direction trying to make it back to her car.
Eller said that at times she felt like giving up, “but the only option I had was life or death.”
“I heard this voice that said, ‘If you want to live, keep going,’” she said. “And as soon as I would doubt my intuition and try to go another way than where it was telling me, something would stop me, a branch would fall on me, I’d stub my toe, or I’d trip. So I was like, ‘OK, there is only one way to go.’”
Eller’s situation grew more dire over the coming days when she fell 20 feet off a cliff, fracturing her leg and tearing the meniscus in one of her knees, and lost her shoes in a flash flood.
Julia Eller said her daughter’s training as a physical therapist enabled her to treat the injury, which in turn allowed her to continue foraging for food.
In the New York Times interview, Eller said she spent a night in a wild boar’s den and others on muddy ground covered in ferns and leaves.
“She was doing what she could to stay warm. Once the sun sets on the mountain, the temperature really starts to drop,” Julia Eller said.
The lost hiker took whatever sustenance she could, including unidentified plants and moths that landed on her body. There were multiple days when she decided against drinking any water because it was too muddy, according to search coordinator Sarah Haynes. It probably kept her from getting leptospirosis, a potentially deadly bacterial disease.
Despite her efforts, Eller grew weaker as the ordeal stretched into its second and third weeks and she started crawling instead of walking.
The day before her rescue, Eller made it to an area above a precarious cliff and waterfall near a spot known as Bamboo Forest. Unable to advance, she lingered for a day and a half, essentially resigning herself to a miracle. Her faith was rewarded the next day when she spotted a helicopter.
“I looked up and they were right on top of me,” she said. “I was like, ‘Oh my God,’ and I just broke down and started bawling.”
Rescue workers had been combing the thickly wooded 1.5-mile radius around Eller’s car. But on a whim, the searchers in the helicopter on Friday decided to go farther, about 7 miles away from the central search area by air — the equivalent of 30 miles walking in rough conditions, said Javier Canetellops, a search coordinator who was in the helicopter.
“Because of her physical condition — she had no shoes, she had an injury, she had watched her body fat melt away and she knew she didn’t have the physical strength to walk all the way back in the direction she came — she was at a standstill,” said Julia Eller.
“It was critical at that point that we found her,” she said. “Miracles do happen.”
Many others joined her Saturday in shedding tears of joy at her daughter’s rescue. It started early in the morning when a team of jubilant but still emotional friends, family and acquaintances began breaking down a base camp that had been used for search operations in the Makawao Forest Reserve.
It continued with tears and hugs at the Maui hospital.
“She looks amazing,” said Dr. Zora Bulatovic, Eller’s physician. “Boy, what she’s been through you would never be able to tell. She is beautiful, amazing and she is doing very well.”
Bulatovic said the woman would have to be hospitalized for a few more days while her infection is treated.
“I can’t believe what she did with that kind of fracture,” the doctor added.
Eller’s mother, embraced by friends who joined in the search, said family members and Amanda’s boyfriend stayed up late Friday night talking and enjoying the moment.
“We were up at all hours of the night working on getting the jungle out of her hair,” she said, smiling. “We were up until 3 a.m. loving each other. There were tears of joy and lots of love.”
Julia Eller, who came to Maui with her husband, John, from Maryland, repeatedly expressed gratitude to those who rallied around their daughter.
“The community was tremendous. There was worldwide support.”
Hundreds of community members had joined in the search, continuing the effort far after the time authorities had given up. They also launched a Gofundme page that raised some $75,000 to help pay for the helicopter flights, among other things.
While Amanda Eller was not at the press conference, she did release a video earlier in the day on Facebook tearfully praising all those who helped her.
“Seeing the way that the community of Maui came together … just under the idea of helping one person make it out of the woods alive … (it) just warms my heart. And just seeing the power of prayer and the power of love when everybody combines their efforts is incredible. It could move mountains,” she said.
Prior to her disappearance, Eller was captured on surveillance video shopping at Haiku Market and mailing a Mother’s Day gift at the Haiku Post Office.
Her white Toyota Rav4 was found in the parking lot of the Makawao Forest Reserve, where she was known to hike, and she was reported missing the following morning.
Julia Eller was asked if she ever gave up hope.
“There were moments of despair,” she said. “I’m only human, but I felt in my heart that my daughter was alive.
“She’s a real warrior, and I have no doubt that if anyone was going to survive an ordeal like this, it would be her.”
The New York Times contributed to this report.
