Elderly woman survives two weeks in woods

? A woman in her seventies has astounded doctors by surviving nearly two weeks in the thick woods of Eastern Oregon’s rugged Wallowa Mountains.

Doctors said Doris Anderson was hours from death when found Thursday, with a body temperature that had dropped to 90 degrees.

Lost on a hunting trip, the grandmother of seven was lightly clothed and had no supplies or survival gear as overnight temperatures dropped into the 30s during her ordeal.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said her emergency room doctor, Dr. Steve DeLashmutt. “For being out in the mountains for a couple of weeks she was in pretty good shape, amazingly good shape.”

Family members gave her age as 77 Friday but the hospital admissions office and the Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles list it as 76.

Anderson was listed in critical but stable condition Friday night. She was extremely dehydrated, cold and incoherent when she arrived at St. Elizabeth Health Services in Baker City after being found by two law enforcement officers. DeLashmutt said Anderson may have sustained herself with water from a nearby creek. Her hip was injured but not broken, he said.

Family members said Friday evening that she has talked to them but has revealed no details of her ordeal. She is expected to be hospitalized for about a week.

“My mother is so much stronger than I ever thought she was,” said one of her daughters, Barbara Moore