YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. — A woman from Washington state suffered burns to more than 90% of her body when she tried to rescue her dog from a hot spring at Yellowstone National Park, authorities said.
Laiha Slayton, 20, was moving to Ohio with her father, Woodraw Slayton, and two Shih Tzu dogs, Chevy and Rusty, to begin a new job as a dental assistant, EastIdahoNews reported.
They decided to stop at Yellowstone, according to the website.
“They were only two hours away and felt stupid not to go take a look,” Kamilla Slayton, Laiha Slayton’s sister, told EastIdahoNews.
As the Slaytons exited their car near Maiden’s Grave Hot Spring, close to the Firehole River, the dogs jumped out, The Washington Post reported.
“There was a leak from (a nearby) geyser into a stream. Rusty burned his foot on it and started freaking out,” Kamilla Slayton told EastIdahoNews. “Dad tried to get Chevy and the next thing you know, Rusty is in the geyser and my dad sees my sister jump in to save him.”
The temperature of Maiden’s Grave Hot Spring is 200 degrees, the national park said in a news release.
Woodraw Slayton pulled his daughter out of the spring and drove to West Yellowstone in Montana for help, according to EastIdahoNews. Laiha Slayton was taken to the burn center at Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center after she received some initial treatment from park rangers and fire officials, CNN reported. Laiha Slayton was listed in critical condition, according to EastIdahoNews.
Rusty was pulled out of the spring but later died, park officials said in a news release.
Kamilla Slayton said her sister was put into a medically induced coma, and according to an Instagram post, added that her third-degree burns are “from the neck down.” She said her sister’s plans “are completely gone.”
“My family is hurt. My brother passed away in September 2020 and when my mom got the call from my dad that my sister had been flown to the hospital, there are no words to describe that feeling,” Kamilla Slayton told EastIdahoNews. “I can’t imagine what my dad went through pulling her out of that so quick and hearing her screams when it happened.”
The family has started a GoFundMe page to cover medical expenses.
Yellowstone National Park, which has had more than 4 million visitors in recent years, urged visitors to keep control of their pets and to exercise caution around Yellowstone’s famously hot features.
In September, a 19-year-old park concessions worker from Rhode Island was burned at Old Faithful, EastIdahoNews reported. That woman suffered second- and third-degree burns on 5% of her body, the park said at the time.
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