Hank Carlson, a 30-year-old sports fanatic and mountain climber from New Mexico, USA, found himself between a rock and a hard place when a 500kg rock came crashing down a canyon to smash his right hand and trap it against the canyon wall. A terrible accident, but the situation was made all the more serious because Hank had failed to tell anyone where he was going.

At the last minute, Hank's plans for a trip with his climbing partners had fallen through, so he decided to head out on his own to the Rock Top canyon. No one had the slightest idea where he was.

After three days of not seeing or hearing any sign of life, Hank realized he would die there if he didn't do something drastic. The course of action was horrific, but there was no other way. He would have to amputate his right hand.

Fortunately he had a small multi-tool knife with him and he had some straps that he could use to make a tourniquet to stop himself from bleeding to death. On the fourth day he found the courage to try a knife blade of the tool, and with that he managed to cut through the skin, but he soon realized that it was going to be impossible for the small blade to cut through the bones.

Finally, on the sixth day, Hank suddenly realized what he had to do. With a final burst of energy he broke both bones in his arm and freed himself.

The ordeal was not over, though. He was still a long way from help. He had to carefully strap up his right arm and then find a way of lowering himself down a 20m drop in the canyon with a rope and only his left arm, and then walk a 10 km back to his car.

Despite his ingenuity and all his efforts, he would have bled to death if it hadn't been for a very happy coincidence: the moment he got out of the canyon into the open desert a rescue helicopter just happened to be flying overhead.

In the middle of the ordeal, Carlson was sure he would die there stuck between the rock and the wall. When asked what gave him the will to survive, Carlson recalled a vision he had of a young 3-year old boy in a red shirt running across a room. The boy ran to him and they laughed together and he picked the boy up and swung him onto his shoulder. He knew that this was his future son. It was at that point, he found the determination to do something drastic to save his own life.