Paraglider hangs upside-down in tree for three daysMarch 07, 2007 Article from: “The Australian”
AN Italian paraglider was recovering in hospital yesterday after crashing in high winds into amountain forest - and hanging upside-down in a tree for three days. Antonio Montagno, 47, crashed last Thursday after launching himself from a height of 820m on Monte Mignaio near Florence. He was found on Sunday at a height of 1240m in the Vallombrosa forest, dangling upside-down at the top of a giant beech tree, with his right leg trapped in the tangled ropes of his glider. Yesterday, Mr Montagno, an experienced paraglider, was in intensive care at Careggi hospital in Florence, suffering from hypothermia, dehydration and kidney failure. Doctors operated on the badly damaged muscle tissue of his leg and said they were confident he would survive.
Carlo Nozzoli, the head doctor at Careggi hospital, said Mr Montagno had been found just in time. "People can survive three to four days without eating, but not without drinking," he said.
Mr Montagno, a Sicilian microbiologist, lives in Tuscany with his wife Antonella and their four-year-old twins, Elisa and Davide. Ms Montagno said when she heard her husband was missing, she vowed to "punch him on the nose when they find him, to make sure he doesn't frighten me like this ever again". When she saw him grimacing in pain on the way to the hospital she had "simply given thanks that he was still alive".
"The twins will see their father again, and that is all that matters," she said.
Ms Montagno had told friends: "He's probably stuck up a tree somewhere, but he's still alive, I just know it."
Mr Montagno's brother Sebastiano said: "When he gets out of hospital I'm going to tell him to give up gliding and get a mountain bike. I don't suppose for a moment he'll pay the slightest attention."
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by Bill Cummings » Tue Aug 02, 2016 7:33 pm 
