Elderly man rescued after overnight stay in ditch
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RUTHERFORD, Tenn. — An all-out rescue took place Tuesday in Rutherford after authorities say they received a call about a man stranded overnight in a ditch. “He’d been there all night,” Gibson County Fire Chief Bryan Cathey told WBBJ Tuesday. “He said he was in a ditch, water up to the doors, and he couldn’t get out.” Authorities from Rutherford and nearby Kenton quickly found 77-year-old Tom Daugherty. “I just took a gravel road because they didn’t have a detour sign or anything, and I wound up here,” Daugherty said. Dispatchers used cell phone data to help locate Daugherty. “911 was able to ping his cell phone and get us in a general area,” Cathey said. “He had gone probably a mile to mile and a half off the road, back out in a field, across railroad track and had run off in a deep drainage ditch.” Once the man’s general location was established, it took rescuers only about 10 minutes to find him. “I kind of thought that might be where he may be,” Gibson County volunteer firefighter Danny Parker said. “My partner, Nick Taylor, and I went back through the middle of the field, and there he was.” Parker said Daugherty is lucky things weren’t worse. “He’s very fortunate to stay all night and through the hot and everything — very lucky,” Parker said. “It feels very good to help. I’m glad we found him.” After the rescue, the fire station took Daugherty to get something to eat at a nearby restaurant. He said he planned on taking a nap and continuing his trip to Reelfoot Lake.
