Paraplegic crawls three days to safety in New Mexico desert

A paraplegic man stranded in the New Mexico desert without his wheelchair dragged himself about 6.5 kilometres down a dirt road over three days before a motorist stopped to help him.

Tattered and dirty, Ricky Gilmore's blue jeans tell part of the story. His body tells the rest - the skin on his left leg and buttocks is shredded, his wrist is sprained and his kidneys are in bad shape from lack of food and water.

"Ah man, I'm just a big mess. I ache and I'm just in the first stages of healing," he said on Tuesday from his hospital bed at the Northern Navajo Medical Centre in Shiprock, New Mexico.

Gilmore, 49, is being treated for acute kidney failure from dehydration, a sprained wrist and a blood infection. He spent two days in intensive care and it could be at least another week before he can go home.

Gilmore, who lost the use of his legs in a car crash years ago, was found along a seldom-travelled road on the Navajo Nation about 16 kilometres from his home in Newcomb.

He said he was dropped in the desert by a couple in a white truck whom he had met while hitchhiking. Gilmore, who lives alone, had invited them home for steak and they later went for what he thought was going to be a joyride.

But when he declined to share his alcohol with them, Gilmore said the man grabbed him by his feet and threw him out of the truck while parked along the desolate road.