California mom dies after being rescued from hiking accident

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A California single mom and nurse who apparently fell approximately 100 feet while hiking died after she was left stranded in the cold for two days before being rescued, according to a fundraising page.

Cassandra Bravo went missing last week from Lone Pine after dropping off her young son off on Nov. 5. and telling her boyfriend she would be going for "a quick hike" around 3 p.m., a friend told Fox News in an email Thursday. The friend asked to remain anonymous to ensure that Bravo remains the focal point of the story.  When loved ones called the local sheriff’s office, investigators discovered her car parked at Mt. Whitney Portal, just outside of the California town, according to a GoFundMe page created by friends and family.

Family, including Bravo’s father, searched from Friday night into Saturday, when it snowed, the friend said.

"The weather there was -20 with the wind chill and when I arrived that early morning it was 14 degrees with snow on the ground," the friend recalled. "It continued to snow while we searched for her." 

Cassandra Bravo (Facebook)

Later Saturday, a search-and-rescue team found her at the bottom of “a steep slope of rock,” according to the fundraising page. 

“It appeared she had slipped and fell[.] It is approximated she fell about 100 [feet],” the page states.

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Bravo – who CBS Los Angeles reported was 34 years old – is believed to have crawled to behind a fallen tree stump to seek protection during the “two very cold nights,” the post states. She was still alive when rescuers discovered her.

“She was mumbling at the time they airlifted her out,” the page states. “Everyone was shocked she had survived that amount of time outside in the cold in nothing but a tank top and leggings.”

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Bravo was rushed to a nearby trauma center, but ultimately could not be saved.

She "died as the helicopter was touching down at the hospital," the friend said. 

"[S]he was just going for a quick 45 minute hike and had a terrible accident. My friend was one of the strongest and smartest people I know," he wrote. "It was nothing less than a miracle that she survived as long as she did. I know that during those terrifying days when she laid there alone, it was the thought of her children that kept her going. "

The fundraising page describes her as a mother of a 10-year-old son and a 7-year-old daughter, and a nurse at Loma Linda Medical Center.

Her son, identified by CBS Los Angeles as Jonathan, told the outlet his mother “meant everything” to him.

“I got to hug her and tell her I loved her and tell her goodbye,” the boy said. “It just sucks that she saved so many lives just for hers to be taken. … It’s not right.”

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