Heather 0:02 My husband asked the little tour guides. He's like, how often do you guys check these things? And the guy goes, hahaha, well, you know, and that was it.

Caitlin Van Mol 0:11 Heather gladden and her husband Ryan have been together for more than 15 years and raised four children together in Sonoma County, California.

Heather 0:21 I met Ryan at a salon that I worked in, I'm a nail tech and he came in to get a haircut. And we met he was 23. And I was 26. Oh, wow. I had asked my co worker about him. And she gave him my number. And then we started talking like the Friday after Thanksgiving of oh five. And we've been together ever since. A

Caitlin Van Mol 0:44 couple of bonded over being thrill seekers, who found a love of vacationing at sea.

Heather 0:49 Our first cruise was for my 30th birthday, and we had a blast and we went on quite a few others, I'd say like three or four. They would

Caitlin Van Mol 0:59 always go with friends or take their family with them on the cruises. Heather is the mother of four kids. But in 2016, they finally got to go just as a couple.

Heather 1:12 That was our first cruise after being together for 11 years. We figured Oh, we'll go do one by ourselves. And this one I just happened to get off of I think Costco travel because we normally we normally

Caitlin Van Mol 1:26 see no they did.

Heather 1:27 Yes, Costco travel has amazing trips. You can get cruises. You can get Disneyland packages. You can get all kinds of vacation packages off the Costco travel. Wow.

Caitlin Van Mol 1:38 A couple drove from Northern California where they lived down to Long Beach where the ship would depart. The first few days in Cabo San Lucas and Mazatlan were great, but they were really looking forward to Puerto Vallarta. We

Heather 1:54 were really excited to go to Puerto Vallarta is somewhere we had never gone before. And because we're avid cruisers, we don't book any excursions off the ships. We know that you can get them for like a quarter of the cost once you get off the ship. So that day, we decided that we were going to go ziplining it's a beautiful place. It's called Naga Leto Echo Park. And it's where they filmed the predator. The scene where Arnold comes out of the water and he's like in the mud. That's it's right. It's filmed right there in the park. June. Yes. Well, we got off the ship. And we there's all the little, I say hustlers, you know, they're always selling you stuff around around the port. And we got a guy, we're like, hey, we want to go ziplining. And he's like, Okay, so another couple. Their name was John and Monica and they got on the van with us.

Caitlin Van Mol 2:47 John and Monica weren't too sure about ziplining. But Heather and Brian were experienced zip liners. So they convinced the couple to come along.

Heather 2:57 And it was like a 45 minute tour, I think 45 minutes to an hour to go ziplining we didn't sign any paperwork. And we started and there was a group I think about 12 of us that were in our group that was going, Ryan and I were going fourth, third and fourth in the group. John and Monica happened to be going before us on all those zip lines. We've done three. And the fourth is zipline, we had to go up like a mountain that had a lot of stairs. And by the time we got up there everybody was winded and John and Monica, were like we're winded, you know, go ahead and go first. And we're like, okay, great, you know, this is the longest one. So the guide went across no problem. They hooked my husband up my husband when he was halfway through the line. They clicked you off and clicked me on. And the guide told us on this one, we were so high that you could see the we're above the rainforest. But if you look to your left, you could see the ocean.

Caitlin Van Mol 3:51 The trip down this zipline took Ryan about one to two minutes. And Heather took off when he was a little more than halfway down. And

Heather 4:00 because we zipline before it makes a distinct noise when it's going across. And it was chugging along and I remember looking to my left and seeing the ocean and I was like wow, you know, it's gorgeous up here. And I look ahead and my husband's just reaching the end platform. And as soon as he stepped on that platform, it went completely dead silent on me. There wasn't a sound in sight. And I knew at that moment that something wrong had gone wrong. This

Caitlin Van Mol 4:27 is live to tell the podcast where I talk to some of the bravest people who have been through the most horrifying things and lived to tell the tale. I'm Caitlin van mol

Heather 4:46 it felt like I was falling for a good 3045 seconds I probably wasn't but that's what it felt like. Honestly, I am one of my biggest fears in life is death like not not for me but for my children. Like the pain Have them or my husband. In that moment, I was most calm and at peace with everything. And I think it was because I knew well, I thought there was no way I was going to survive that how high up I was where I was by just thought like, well, this is, you know, at least it's peaceful, you know. And I mean, I really didn't think about my kids, I Sorry, just talking about it. This makes me It was the strangest thing that I was at the most peace I've ever been with, with death in my life, because I didn't think I was gonna make it. And next thing, you know, there's like, a hard like Fudd. And I was like, I didn't know what to do. At that point. Like, I opened up my eyes. And I, I was like, I expected to be like, on the ground, I wasn't sure. I was in the V of a tree branch. It branches like that. And so my handlebars got criss crossed in it. And at that point, I just started screaming, I didn't make a single sound until the moment that I was in the tree, and I was stuck. And there was dogs in the middle of the jungle wherever I had landed. And they were underneath me and they were barking like crazy. And the next thing, I'm just screaming, help help. And I'm just screaming as loud as I can. And one of the guys from the ziplining company comes running around, down underneath me, I can see him running down a mountain. And he looks up and he sees me and he just turns ghost white and runs the other direction. And he's yelling in Spanish go to lay like run, run like hurry. At that point, my husband showed up out of nowhere, like underneath me, I don't even know where he came from. I just all of a sudden he was the next person I saw. Ryan

Caitlin Van Mol 6:44 saw her fall and ran through the jungle towards her screams.

Heather 6:49 And at that point, he tried to calm me down my leg, my left. Shin had a huge gash on it. And it was already swollen. My butt had gotten sliced and I was dripping blood. And he was freaking out at that point about that. And he just kind of asked me if I was okay.

Caitlin Van Mol 7:05 Not sure how did you stay calm enough?

Heather 7:07 I wasn't. He just kept talking to me. And I just I was just like, please get me down. He's like, I can't do anything. We have to wait like, you know, and he needed help and, and I was just afraid I was gonna fall the last 40 feet and get really hurt. There was nothing underneath my feet. There was nothing near me at all that I could get to besides letting my handlebars go. That was my my biggest fear he and so he convinced me that I was going to be fine. And that he was going to get me down. So then the guys come over with a ladder and it's not tall enough to get me out of the tree. And so my husband's like, okay, so they're all talking and they realized they had to loosen the tension off the other side of the zip line where I had come from. So I could wiggle my handlebars out and drop down for them to catch me. So

Caitlin Van Mol 7:53 you had to like move the handlebars and then they You just fell.

Heather 7:57 I dropped. Yeah, they had my husband in the guys, they were out down there. They had like, I don't know if it was a blanket or what but they they're the ones that caught me. I mean, I had to wiggle those handlebars to get out of how tight I was in that tree branch. And at that point, they tried to carry me out I lost my shoes, they were gone. Because it was a really hot day, like the sweat off of them. And they were holding my wounds on my legs. So I walked out of the jungle barefoot it I did not want anybody to carry me or the adrenaline at that point was still going so bad. They sat me down.

Caitlin Van Mol 8:32 This was the first time Heather was able to fully assess her bruises and cable burns. On

Heather 8:39 my inner right thigh there was probably a two inch one that was probably an inch wide and about two inches long. That was you know, just pink flesh like bloody pink flesh. And then on both of the backs of my size was like a rope and quickly brushed over my leg and had the little scabs everywhere, like rash. The insides of my knee, I on my right knee again, it was like probably like a one inch by one inch. And it was just completely down into like, you can see almost the fatty nests in my skin. The harness, literally, I was completely black between my legs and around my belly where the harness had gotten me. And I guess in one of our groups, there was a guy, his sister was a doctor. So she came over and started to assess me. And she asked them to get the first aid kit. They brought over to first aid kits and she goes I refuse to use anything on you because they're all expired. She's like nothing in here. I can clean your wounds with she's like, I don't feel safe. So at that point, we were waiting for an ambulance to come and they just kept asking me if I wanted shots of tequila. And I was like I don't want to drink. I want help. I heard you know, Monica and John at this point when I'm waiting for for an ambulance, Monica and John come down to the spot we're at. And they, they were like a mother and father figure to Ryan and I that day, she kept me so calm. And John kept Brian so calm. And they followed us to the hospitals.

Caitlin Van Mol 10:18 Ryan went to get their belongings from their lockers, then Heather was loaded into an ambulance and taken to a nearby clinic.

Heather 10:26 And they took me into this little room and nobody spoke English. I was freezing cold. And now they put me in X rays, and did a bunch of X rays of me. And then they put me in another room all by myself. And they kept telling me I needed to go in for surgery. And I was like, I don't I there's nothing wrong with me. I don't need to go in for surgery. And I just kept telling them, I want my husband, I want my husband, I want my husband. And Monica came in at that point. And she's like, what's going on? And so they said something about, she has internal bleeding. And I was like, no, no, I don't have I just want to get back to the ship.

Caitlin Van Mol 11:00 And why did they think that you had internal bleeding? I don't know. They

Heather 11:04 never said because it was such an a language barrier. Like, that's all they just kept saying is that I had internal bleeding and that I needed to stay overnight. And I I didn't know for a fact. But I felt like I never hit my stomach. I never hit images. It was more my outer limbs. And I honestly, I think it would have been way worse if I wasn't blacked out. I'm sure. Yeah, because I think me being blacked out my body was like a rag doll. Now, mind you, the ship was leaving, like at four o'clock. This happened at 1030 in the morning. And by this time, it's it's close to three o'clock or so. And the ship should be leaving and I'm still at a hospital. We have no passports because when you take a cruise, if you leave from the United States and return to the same port, you don't need a passport when going to Mexico. So I signed out ama out of the clinic, and the ambulance took me back to the cruise ship. At this point, the cruise ship was waiting for me for an hour and a half because there was four of us that were on that cruise ship that weren't accounted for. But the hospital had been in touch with the cruise line. So they knew what was going on. But

Caitlin Van Mol 12:11 the cruise line didn't want Heather to get back on the ship against medical advice.

Heather 12:16 Because Mexico is telling them I have internal bleeding. And it's three days to get back to the United States. So I had to sign a medical release on the ship saying I would not use their doctors or anything on the ship. And if anything did happen to me that they weren't at fault for it. So I got back on the ship at that point. And for the next three days, I literally had nightmares like screaming nightmares. I think it was finally that evening. I was able to get in the shower. I mean, the hospital didn't clean my wounds. I had still true, like, tree material in my in my wounds. Yeah,

Caitlin Van Mol 12:55 I feel like I got it liability. Sure. Yeah, fine. But like, you've already said you're not going to sue them. So like can I just have like a bandaid? Yeah,

Heather 13:05 no, I literally Ryan, I got in the shower. Ryan took a washcloth and he tried to clean my wounds as much as possible. Now the the clinic in Mexico only gave me Tramadol for pain, which you know, glorified ibuprofen, you know it. But that's all I got. I got nothing else. That's all they really knew it. Yeah. And I don't drink. I'm not a big drinker. But I was taking shots of tequila to sleep. Because that was and honestly I didn't sleep during the night I would go sleep on the deck by the pool where there was tons of noise. Oh, yeah. I was the only way I could sleep. I mean, I think I was still in shock. Really? I really? I didn't expect to live. I mean, when it went silent. I thought I was gone.

Caitlin Van Mol 13:52 Why do you think you survived? I

Heather 13:55 don't know. I still to this day like. So at that time, I my sister passed away when I was three months old. I had an older sister, she drowned in my grandma's swimming pool. I never got to meet her. You know, my mom always said she was my my guardian angel. I don't know how much you know what a blah, blah, blah, whatever. I'm not really true believer. But in that day, I think her up and down. Like I couldn't I mean, I don't know, if there's a purpose. I'm still here for I don't know, I think about that all the time.

Caitlin Van Mol 14:29 Heather had to make it through the three days it took to travel back to the United States. But she wasn't the only one on the ship with a medical emergency. Our

Heather 14:40 ship was really rough. And we were going really fast. And everybody could tell that there was like, you know, I wasn't in dire emergency. I mean, I'd made it through the night. Obviously, I wasn't having this massive internal bleeding like they were saying that I did. So security kept checking on us. And my husband said Hey, dude, we're going really fast. You know, it's like really rough. because oh yeah, a guy had a heart attack. We're trying to get back to Indonesia, you know, into United States water so we can get them airlifted off the flight. We're like, oh, okay, you know? Well, later on that night, we found out it was John. And he had had a heart attack from like the stress of every because he watched me fall out of the sky. And he survived. But it was just like, Holy Jesus, this whole trip turned into a nightmare. John and Monica were ahead of us on every line, except for that line. And God, you know, thank God, it was me and not them. Them being older than us, you know, would they have made it with it? You know, all of that. Ryan

Caitlin Van Mol 15:36 took the incident really hard. Seeing your wife fall from the sky, and screaming for her life and covered in blood isn't easy.

Heather 15:46 It affected him extremely, like emotionally hard. Like, he said that in those moments, because he saw the cable go right by his feet when it came on, done from the cement. And when he turned around, and I was gone, he said, Where's my wife? And the guy looked at my husband and goes, I don't know. And then he said that he could hear me screaming. And he says he ran straight down. There was no trail. He said, he just went and follow me screaming, to where to find me. But he once we got back to the ship, and he was trying to digest everything. He had to go and vent to Yeah, he called our friend that was watching our kids. So it was he had to tell somebody that night for me. It took a minute, I don't think I was ready to talk about it. After

Caitlin Van Mol 16:36 an agonizing three days on the ship, they finally reached port at Long Beach, California. And

Heather 16:43 my husband's like, do you want to go to the hospital and I was like, I didn't want to go to a hospital in LA, that's eight hours away if I needed medicals, like medical records or anything. So we drive we drove seven and a half hours all the way back to Sonoma County.

Caitlin Van Mol 16:59 What was that drive? Like? miserable? How do you how do you sit?

Heather 17:04 I couldn't it was. We have leather seats. And it was hot. And I'm my wounds are passing and it was in and it was literally one of the most miserable trips that I had had going back home. I mean, I literally, we had to stop, I think two or three times just so I can get out and like, try to put something down again, you know, try to just get comfortable because I was not comfortable at all, at all. And that was when I was wishing man I wish I would have flown flown but they probably wouldn't have even let me at that point. Yeah. And in Santa Rosa, we hit the first hospital and I literally walked in wearing my booty shorts, because I couldn't wear clothing because my wounds were oozing and sticky and just horrid. And they did a full over of me and I ended up tearing my or my MCL had a tear and I sprained my ACL on my right knee and then my shin I didn't need stitches on it. It just ended up being like a nasty cut in you know, I had a softball size lump on it from hitting a tree. And my but it wasn't as deep as they thought it was and I didn't need stitches on that either. So I mean, it would have been too late because Mexico didn't do anything with them. But at least I mean, I walked away with minimal injuries physically. I was close to July, August before I was back in functioning fully. I mean, I didn't drive for like three or four months because it was my right leg. That was an immobilizer so I was really dependent on other people for like the first three or four

Caitlin Van Mol 18:37 months after finally getting appropriate medical attention. Heather was also reunited with her kids.

Heather 18:45 I can't even explain I mean, it was it was it was the most joyous thing I mean, they were three and five and to think that you know they almost didn't have me for the for their whole entire life was just made me absolutely insane. My older two would have had me for you know, some good years but gotten the little ones were so little. I mean, my three year old wouldn't understand. There was it was definitely one of the best things seen them. Yeah, made me feel so I mean, I was I was hurt. I was on crutches. I was in an immobilizer for four months for my leg. You know, I couldn't do anything they knew I couldn't sleep. It just everything was you know, just hard for me to do anything once I got home.

Caitlin Van Mol 19:30 Yeah. And taking care of four kids. I mean, I know the two older ones were pretty self sufficient but still Yeah.

Heather 19:38 Yeah. And I you know, I'm I'm a I'm a cooker. I love to cook I love to eat I not to be able to do anything for my family killed me at that point, you know, but it was most important that I healed, you know, as much as I could. Now mentally is a total different story.

Caitlin Van Mol 19:56 Physically, she was going to be fine, but following And from that distance in believing she was going to die had a heavy impact on Heather,

Heather 20:05 it still affects me. Number one thing and my husband will say he hates it to death. I cannot do silence have to sleep with the TV on. If the power goes out and the TV goes off, it wakes me up out of a dead sleep. We were adrenaline junkies, we have quads, we've done you know, ziplining before, you know, water, ski, all of that stuff. But now, I don't even like my kids to go on ferrites I look at every bolts, every cable, everything like it's gonna snap, and what's gonna happen, and it's like, just being around it, or even heights just bring back like, oh my god, like I start to panic. I panic and panic. And it's just anything that I cannot control anymore. myself. I really freak out. Even going to Vegas, they have a thing called the high roller and it goes 550 feet up in the air and you're like in a bubble. And you know, it's like a observatory bubble. And I went in that and I literally cried the whole entire time I was up there because it was like the distance that I fell in when you're seeing it like that. It was just very like, I have no control. And I know at any moment things can change.

Caitlin Van Mol 21:14 Did you seek any help for it?

Heather 21:18 I did. I had to do therapy. Because the PTSD was just I mean, I cried, I cried. I couldn't sleep. Like I said, our youngest was three and I would be sleeping. And I'd wake up and try to get to her room thinking she was screaming, and it's myself waking me up because I'm screaming because I'm going through it all over again. on repeat. And it took a long time before I stopped having the nightmares of it. Because it was it definitely mentally messed me up. Now. The TV, like if we're watching a show in somebody's ziplining this, the sound instantly brings me back almost to that, like, you know, it just triggers that like, whole emotional thing on me every time hearing that noise.

Caitlin Van Mol 22:02 Yeah. What kind of therapy did you do? Just

Heather 22:06 went to the psychologist and we just sat and talked and she just you know, I have a I have an iffy relationship with therapists, you know. But she just tried to work through me that you know that it's once not a once in a lifetime thing. That's the wrong word. It's, you know, accidents happen all the time. It just unfortunately, luck of the draw happened to be me. I just kind of have the luck of having things that are really random happened to me, unfortunately.

Caitlin Van Mol 22:36 How about Ryan? Did he seek any help? No,

Heather 22:39 he didn't. For him. I think his his help was just seeing me heal and seeing me, like actually be there every day of his life, you know, in that he still has me that I think was like enough for him. He kind of important, you know, in compartment like how do I say that came to see that mental life? Yeah, go. That's more of his style. Okay. He'll just keep it all in and keep it to himself. And he, I mean, I'm sure he has days he probably thinks about it, but he doesn't express it very much anymore. Yeah, not like at the beginning. And he was like absolutely distraught.

Caitlin Van Mol 23:16 The gladdens didn't sign any type of release before going on the zipline, and sought legal action against the zipline company. The company said the cable didn't snap. But rather the security bolt holding the tension on the cable came loose from the ground.

Heather 23:33 My husband watched that whole line slide right by his foot and off the side of the mountain. So them saying that it didn't snap is absolutely ridiculous. Because he watched it with his eyes. And everybody said it was the loudest pop that they had heard it echoed through the canyons. And that was the pressure of that bolt coming out of that summit. As it popped. When we got back and a friend of mine on Facebook, she was like, hey, you know, you need to seek legal advice, yada, yada, yada. So we contacted a really good Accident Attorney in Santa Rosa. And we went down and met with him and on our consultation. He was like, oh, you know, they advertise on a US you know, on a cruise ship. There's advertisements of them all over the US, you know, I'm pretty sure we can do this, you know, you know you're going to be sitting pretty, I was like, okay, whatever, you know, and months went by and then found out that I had to go to Mexico to file because they do not practice in the United States. And there was just no way I was going I honestly uh, you know, unfortunately you see so many horror stories are on TV about you know, people like not coming back if you're going to you know, do something as risky as that. So I chose we chose not to do anything and the time to file expired and I just let it go.

Caitlin Van Mol 24:56 How did that feel?

Heather 24:58 I still feel crappy because something I didn't say earlier was that when my husband went to get our stuff from our lockers, the workers there were asking like new people were coming in, you know, the buses were still shipping people in because they were still putting people on zip lines. When my husband was grabbing stuff out of the locker, he heard somebody go, what happened? Why is the ambulance here? And one of the workers said, Hola, a lady Fil A jumped off the cliff. And I didn't jump off a cliff. I was clicked in, everybody witnessed that. And they still have taken no accountability and done nothing about it. Though

Caitlin Van Mol 25:34 Heather has given up on leaping from great heights. She doesn't want to hold her children back from their own experiences.

Heather 25:42 My daughter used to do competitive cheer, and we were in Vegas and she wanted to zipline down the on the Boulevard. And I couldn't even watch her. My friend took her because I was just so horrified. But I realized that I can't hold them back from being themselves because I'd be a horrible parent, you know, they've got to live to I sat in my hotel room. And it was I know it sounds funny, but we were staying at the Flamingo and the link promenade connects right next to the flamingo. That's where the zip lines in our room had this. We can watch the zip liners go by. So I watched it from in there. Oh gosh. Yeah, it was easier that way. Have

Caitlin Van Mol 26:20 you been on a cruise? Like, just the two of you? More cruises since then?

Heather 26:27 Not just us. We've gotten to resorts but we haven't gone on a cruise just as again. Yeah, we've gone either with friends or our kids. Yeah. And we've been back to Puerto Vallarta did not go back to to the facility or anything. I want to say we went back like almost a year after we were in Puerto Vallarta. And the taxi driver was telling us the story about some girl that had fallen from the zipline and we were kind of laughing because I was like oh, that's me.

Caitlin Van Mol 26:55 I think it's that's it what do you watch when you're falling asleep?

Heather 27:03 I teach him Yeah,

Caitlin Van Mol 27:04 I knew it. I knew it was like she this lady falls asleep to murder yep,

Heather 27:10 that's my my soothing might call me is is murder shows or murder documentary on Netflix. I mean, I've seen them all.

Caitlin Van Mol 27:21 This is live to tell. I'm Caitlin van mol. You can follow the show on Instagram and Tiktok at live to tell podcast. If you enjoy today's episode, please rate review and subscribe. It really helps the show. I'll see you in two weeks.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai