Newlywed survives fall into dormant volcano on Caribbean island

Newlyweds from Indianapolis are recovering at a Florida hospital this morning after a near-death experience on their honeymoon. 

The tropical island of St. Kitts seemed like the perfect choice for a honeymoon to Clay and Acaimie Chastain. The couple was hiking on a dormant volcano when Clay found a rope leading down into the crater. As he headed in, his wife stayed up top.

Suddenly, Clay plunged more than 50 feet. 

"I was holding onto the ropes, kind of walking down backwards like you would a ladder," Clay recalled. "Next thing I notice, I'm sitting on the ground with my head between my knees and vomiting up blood, and there's blood all down my shirt. I think that a rope snapped and I fell. But we're not entirely certain because I don't remember falling at all."

When his wife reached him, Clay had no idea where he was.

"He was incredibly lethargic and he had no sense of balance," Acaimie said. "He was like an intoxicated person, basically, is the best way to describe it."

She had to push, pull and coax her husband out of the volcano and down the mountain: "I was completely freaked out because I knew we were entirely alone."

After nearly four hours, Acaimie was finally about to get cell service and call for help, reports correspondent Jamie Yuccas.

"I think was just by God's grace that we were able to make it all the way down, we were able to make it safety, that I was able to get the ambulance there," she said.

Clay Chastain sustained a serious head injury. The couple's family raised nearly $36,000 to transport him back to a hospital in the States.

"He had a fracture at the base of the skull in the temporal bone," said Dr. Maxine Hamilton, of the Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale. "This is a very serious injury. Fortunately the fracture was where the bones did not actually become displaced; they stayed together."

Doctors expect he'll make a full recovery. And the newlyweds say when they return to Indianapolis, they'll enjoy the rest of their honeymoon on the couch.