A man who’d been trapped in a “mangled” wrecked truck for six days was rescued Tuesday after he was found by two men scouting for fishing holes.
Matthew Reum, 27, crashed a 2016 Dodge Ram truck into Salt Creek, under a bridge off of Interstate 94 near Portage, Indiana, on Dec. 20, according to Indiana state police. Reum was pinned inside the vehicle and drank rainwater to survive, police said.
Mario Garcia and Nivardo Delatorre happened upon the truck while searching for places to fish along Salt Creek. Garcia told reporters Tuesday that the truck was “mangled” when they found it, and Reum had scratches.
“I looked inside and moved the white airbag and there was a body in there,” Garcia said. “I went to touch it and he turned around, and that just, it almost killed me there because it was kind of shocking, but he was alive and he was very happy to see us. Like, he was really like, I’ve never seen a relief like that.”
Delatorre said he and Garcia fish often, but it was the first time he’d been in that area.
Reum, a welder who lives in Mishawaka, Indiana, remained hospitalized in critical condition Thursday. ABC News reports that he had surgery to amputate part of his leg on Wednesday. Reum has several broken bones, according to a GoFundMe for him.
“No matter how tough things get, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, sometimes in the least expected way,” Reum said in a statement released by Memorial Hospital in South Bend on Wednesday.