Paramedic survives on dirt

CROWSNEST PASS, Alberta (AP) - For one Canadian paramedic, "survival mode" entails eating dirt, warming himself with dead
beavers and fending off coyotes with a whistle.

All that while pinned under an ATV for four days and three nights in frigid temperatures.

Ken Hildebrand was riding in Alberta bush country collecting animal traps when his ATV hit a rock and rolled on his leg. He says he kept himself alive by picking at the rotting beavers and eating dirt for moisture. He says coyotes fought nearby, but he managed to keep them at bay with a whistle.

A hiker and his dog found Hildebrand in his fourth day and he was taken to a hospital. The ordeal may cost him his right foot, but one hospital official says it's amazing he survived at all.

The official says the only thing on Hildebrand's mind after the ordeal was that he'd miss his next paramedic shift.