Deaf Hunter Crawls From Forest After Accident

VIDEO: Deaf hunter crawls out of woods, survives serious leg injury after deer stand falls.



GREENVILLE, N.C. - Reporter interview with Joe, who is Deaf, tells his story of falling out of a tree and breaking his leg during a solo hunting trip. It took him 12 hours to crawl from the forest and another several to find aid.



Joe Liuzza got home alive, just barely. Through grit and determination, he was able to win his battle against nature and pull himself and his mangled leg out of a swamp following a hunting-related accident near Robersonville that turned into a 14-hour ordeal.

Liuzza, 47, was home temporarily from the hospital on Dec. 13 and feeling a little more relaxed as he recounted the details of his harrowing experience.



It was easy to see in his features and by the steel cage wrapped around his right lower leg, rods poking through the skin to hold the disconnected portions of his bones in place that he had been through a struggle that he and his wife, Delia, owner of The Tipsy Teapot in Greenville, would never forget.



She served as her husband's sign-language interpreter because Joe is Deaf... Read more: http://www.goupstate.com/article/20130107/WIRE/130109796

Dispatcher Hailed Hero For Helping Deaf Woman's Mother

VIDEO: NASHVILLE, TN - A Clarksville woman is grateful to a 911 dispatcher who got help to her Deaf mother Monday night. Lisa Prichard lives in Clarksville and was home when her mother texted her that something was wrong.



Prichard was able to video call her mother Joy Gournaris, 68, at Gournaris' Antioch home. "She was confused, she didn't understand what was going on and was getting ready to pass out," Prichard said.



Prichard knew if she tried to drive to her mother's home from Clarksville it would take her an hour. She was also concerned because it appeared her mother was having a stroke and every second counted.

Prichard kept her mother on video phone and called 911 from her Clarksville home. Clarksville's 911 center transferred her to Nashville where 911 Dispatcher Lori Bentley took over the phone call.



"While, I'm communicating with sign language with my mother I was talking to the dispatcher," Prichard said. "I had to really be calm and think about what I was saying. I wanted to cry and scream, but I stayed calm for my mother."



The video relay system Gournaris uses has a 911 emergency component that allows her to make emergency calls... Read more: http://www.wkrn.com/story/20538233/operator-praised-for-helping-woman-get-help-to-deaf-mother