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Man Rescued After Being Trapped Underneath Tree For 7 Days

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- A miracle rescue. A Maryland man missing for seven days is found alive, trapped underneath a tree not far from a busy highway.

Christie Ileto explains how rescuers found him and freed him.

The same dispatch crew who got the call Monday got the missing person's report last Monday. They quickly pieced together that this was the same person.

Seven days with no food or water. Larry Shaddy was trapped under a tree limb until a passerby spotted the 66-year-old veteran struggling to survive and flagged down help.

Dispatch: "Possible missing person from seven days ago."

A flurry of emergency calls quickly followed.

Dispatch: "Patient is conscious, setting up a rescue operation now."

Dispatch: "Patient had been extricated from under the tree."

"For whatever reason, the gentleman was walking off the roadway, must have slipped, fell 10 to 15 feet down this steep incline and underneath this tree. It's incredible that someone could survive like that in that position for about a week," said Mark Brady, Prince George's County Fire Department.

Rescue crews say the veteran was found just half a block from the home he was living at.

Imelda Clark runs the veterans home and says Shaddy went missing days after he learned he had lung cancer.

"He could not sleep at night. Larry had gone for walks many times, so that would be the last place you'd expect him to be... in the woods," she said.

But the wooded area sits next to a busy road that many walk to get home.

"No, I pass here every day from Monday to Friday and I've never seen that," said Richard Oiosse.

But it's the fact Shaddy was able to survive so long that has many in disbelief.

Fire crews say it's good they rescued him when they did because Tuesday's temperatures will be far worse.

Shaddy was taken to a nearby hospital, dehydrated with injuries to his lower body, and is expected to survive.

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