How a Last-Minute Change of Plans Saved a Woman Trapped in Mud for Three Days

Two Minnesota friends had no idea they were about to save someone’s life, but a string of last-minute decisions put them in exactly the right place.

Adam Sandbeck and Mike Gravalin were out riding UTVs, something they’d done plenty of times before. But this time, they rode together instead of taking separate vehicles, picked an unfamiliar trail instead of their usual route, and slowed down to navigate a muddy stretch instead of speeding through it.

That’s when they came across 68-year-old Kathryn Woessner, who had been trapped in a mud hole for three days after her vehicle got stuck on the remote trail. She’d gotten out to check on things and slipped into mud she later described as feeling like quicksand. By the time the two men found her, only her face, one hand, and a knee were visible above the surface.

“She uttered up to us, ‘Help me,'” Gravalin said. “That’s when we transitioned our former thoughts to, this is a rescue mission.”

They pulled her out and called 911. Paramedics reached her within about 15 minutes and got her to a hospital.

Sandbeck said he’d never been on that trail before in his life, and looking back on the chain of small decisions that led them there, he doesn’t see it as luck. “We changed everything how we do everything, for some reason,” he said. “It had to be God, it had to be.”