Rescues

One of two hikers rescued after getting lost for three days in the Trabuco Canyon area of Orange County will be released Sunday from a Mission Viejo hospital where he was treated for dehydration and multiple injuries. Nicolas Cendoya, 19, of Costa Mesa, will be discharged from Mission Hospital about noon and is expected to hold a news conference about 12:30 p.m., hospital officials said. Cendoya and his friend, Kyndall Jack, became lost in the canyon on Easter Sunday. Cendoya was found by searchers on Wednesday night, while Jack was rescued on a steep hillside on Thursday.

Nicolas Cendoya, the 19-year-old college student rescued last week after getting lost while hiking with a friend in the Trabuco Canyon area of Orange County, on Sunday offered his first detailed public account of the ordeal that nearly cost the two their lives.   Cendoya said he and friend Kyndall Jack, 18, quickly realized they were in trouble as night began falling during a lengthy and poorly planned Easter Sunday hike. By then their water bottle was nearly empty and he was shirtless and drenched in sweat from an arduous climb.

Nicolas Cendoya, the 19-year-old college student rescued last week after getting lost while hiking with a friend in the Trabuco Canyon area of Orange County, on Sunday offered his first detailed public account of the ordeal that nearly cost the two their lives. Cendoya said he and Kyndall Jack, 18, realized they were in trouble as night began falling during a lengthy and poorly planned Easter Sunday hike in the Santa Ana Mountains. By then their water bottle was nearly empty, and he was shirtless and drenched in sweat from an arduous climb.

In a message posted on his Facebook page Thursday night, one of the hikers who went missing for days in Orange County's Trabuco Canyon thanked the dozens of searchers who scoured the rugged terrain and "didnt give up" on the pair. Nicolas Cendoya, 19, remains hospitalized at Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, but said in the message he's "not in as much pain. " He was pulled from Trabuco Canyon on Wednesday night; his friend, Kyndall Jack, 18, wasn't found until late Thursday  morning.

One of the two hikers pulled from a brushy canyon wall in Orange County's canyon lands released a photo of himself in his Mission Viejo hospital room and said he looks forward to the day he can give his hiking companion a “big hug.” “There are so many people to thank,” Nicolas Cendoya wrote in a message released by Mission Hospital. “I want to thank all those who never stopped trying to find me and Kyndall.” The two teenage hikers who were lost for days in the Trabuco Canyon area remained hospitalized late Friday but are showing signs of improvement.

Two hikers who were hospitalized in critical condition after being found in the rugged terrain of Orange County's Trabuco Canyon are continuing to show signs of improvement, but a reserve deputy who fell during the rescue remains in serious condition. Nicolas Cendoya, 19, remains hospitalized in serious but stable condition at Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, but is “progressing well,” said Tamara Sharp, the director of marketing and communications. He is expected to remain hospitalized over the weekend.

The teenage hiker rescued from Trabuco Canyon on Wednesday night after being missing since Easter told authorities he thought his friend had already been rescued. Nicholas Cendoya, 19, was found confused and dehydrated about half a mile from where he and his hiking companian, Kyndall Jack, 18, had parked their vehicles on Sunday. He was alone and authorities intensified their search Thursday for Jack, who remains missing. When Cendoya was found, he thought Jack had also been saved, said the girl's father, Russ Jack.

In the search for a teenage hiker lost in Orange County's backcountry, things were beginning to look grim. It had been five days since she went missing. The terrain, steep ravines with 10-foot-high brush, hindered rescue efforts and thwarted helicopters armed with infrared cameras. When searchers found her companion, dehydrated and exhausted, he said they'd become separated and he hadn't seen her recently. But on Thursday, Kyndall Jack's voice secured her rescue. The 18-year-old's frantic screams from a cliff in the Trabuco Canyon area caught the attention of a search team and led to a protracted and dramatic rescue.

The emergency room doctor who treated rescued hiker Nicholas Cendoya said late Wednesday that the 19-year-old was in serious but not life-threatening condition. Dr. Matthew  Kaplan was the physician on duty at Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo when Cendoya arrived there by helicopter. Television news footage showed Cendoya walking off the helicopter before being helped onto a hospital gurney. Kaplan said Cendoya was admitted to the hospital's trauma unit but declined to say for what type of injury or trauma.

This post has been corrected, as noted below. It was Kyndall Jack's screams that ultimately led to her rescue , officials said Thursday. The 18-year-old, who had been missing in Orange County's Trabuco Canyon since Easter Sunday, was airlifted off a rugged hillside Thursday morning and transported to UCI Medical Center in Orange, officials said. Rescuers reached the woman Thursday morning after a hiker alerted rescue teams of the sounds of a woman screaming near Falls Canyon.