Julie Bowen of Modern Family and her sister help in rescuing a hiker who fainted in a National Park last week.
Julie Bowen Luetkemeyer, 51, from Baltimore, Maryland, is an American actress, best known for playing Claire Dunphy on the TV comedy series Modern Family (2010–2015).
Julie, with her sister Doctor Annie Luetkemeyer, helped a hiker named Minnie John last week after she fainted and hit her head on a rock while climbing to see the Delicate Arch landmark at Utah’s Arches National Park.
In a three-part Facebook post detailing the encounter, Minnie explained how she heard a “familiar voice” who kept asking questions while a doctor, Julie’s sister Doctor Annie, cleaned up the injury.
She, her husband Shaji, and their son, Brandon, from New Jersey, had gone to Utah to see the Delicate Arch. The attraction, which is 46 feet high and 32 feet wide, is the largest free-standing arch in the national park and one of the most popular sights.
Minnie said that as they neared the trail’s end, she started feeling lightheaded and dizzy. She decided to let her family go ahead without her on the hike. She sat on the rock and while the two were out of sight, Minnie fainted and hit her nose on the rock.
“All I remember is sitting there with my head in my hands secure on the rock, next thing I hear someone with a familiar voice kept asking me questions,” Minnie wrote on the post. “I wondered if I might be watching TV.”
“My eyes were closed and they said I will be fine and they were cleaning my face and bandaging me up,” she said. “I heard that familiar voice saying I am going to be okay, a doctor is cleaning me up.”
“They lifted me up as I opened my eyes and set me back on that rock, that face looked so familiar again and I asked her again if I knew her or was she famous and the doctor said yes,” Minnie continued.
“As my eyes started to focus more, she smiled and took her hair tie off and shook her hair for me to figure out,” she said. “Her sister the doctor asked me to guess and I told her I just hit my head, I can’t remember. She said smiling “Modern Family” and I said of course!”
Minnie told CNN that Julie, Doctor Annie, and a guide were also hiking to see the Delicate Arch.
“The guide saw me fall forward,” then Julie, her sister, and the guide ran to her and found she’d broken her nose and the skin around her nose.
Fellow hikers ran up the trail to inform Minnie’s family of the situation so they could come and take her off the trail.
Minnie, who is diabetic, had low blood sugar, was severely dehydrated, and had forgotten to eat since breakfast.
She said that Doctor Annie, an infectious disease specialist, was able to take care of her right away, cleaning her wound and providing her with electrolytes, medicine, and pretzels.
“I had no strength in my feet, Julie and Annie got both my arms, lifted me up, and put me on the same rock I’d fallen off,” Minnie said. “My eyes came into focus and I saw Julie in front of me as Annie was still talking to me.”
Once she was seated, Julie and Doctor Annie used her phone to call her family and alert them of what happened. As they waited for the return of her family, she asked for a group photo.
“I said, “Can I take a picture?” and Julie said, “Of course,” and gave me a big hug and we took a picture,” she said. “They were so down to earth, so genuine, so sweet: Not at all how you might expect a big actor or a big doctor to be – which they are. They were just so humble, so loving.”
Fifteen minutes later, Shaji and Brandon returned from the arch.
“They were so frantic, had I fallen sideways or backwards, I would have split my head,” she said,
She went to Moab Regional Hospital, where she had to have five stitches for her fractured nose. She said doctors there told her many hikers don’t realize how difficult the trail is, especially given the heat, and will often go ill-prepared.
Minnie gushed over the people who helped her on the trail that day.
“Such wonderful men and women, selflessly giving of themselves, God bless them!” Minnie said.
“I knew I’d never meet them again but I appreciated and admired the human part of what they did — selfless, not selfish,” she said. “We tend to forget the daily kindnesses we encounter. We’re blind to everything around us and don’t imagine that people will be so good, kind, and caring.”
“I praise God for all the doctors and nurses we have in our lives! They truly are superheroes! And those celebrities are awesome human beings too! Love you Julie and Annie and now I have become famous for one minute for my antics!” she added.
In a brief phone conversation with CNN, Doctor Annie confirmed that she and her sister rescued the hiker.
Julie Bowen’s Modern Family role brought her six nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, which she won in 2011 and 2012. She appeared in all 11 seasons of “Modern Family”.
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