The family of 19-year-old Kathleen Bautista, who survived six days missing in bushland in Canberra's west, have spoken of their relief and ecstasy at seeing her alive.
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The teenager was found on Friday near her upturned car, which had crashed down a 15-metre embankment, landing in a creek.
Megan Bautista said she was waiting in the Canberra Hospital's emergency department when her sister was brought in.
"I felt so overwhelmed as it was painful seeing her injured and imagining what she went through, but ultimately I was overjoyed to see my sister alive," Ms Bautista said.
Severely dehydrated and with non-life threatening injuries from the car accident, Kathleen was in a stable condition as of Saturday afternoon. She was not expected to be discharged from hospital over the weekend.
Ms Bautista said while her sister was "doing very well", she needed time to recover.
"Our primary focus now is her wellbeing, which means lots of rest and care," she said.
While the full details of the ordeal are still emerging, one of the first people to find Kathleen was ranger Tim Chaseling.
Mr Chaseling, Murrumbidgee River Corridor area manager for ACT Parks and Conservation, spotted Kathleen as she raised her hand from where she lay injured in the bush, high up on an embankment opposite where he stood on Settlement Road.
"One of the young constables looked straight across the gully onto the other side and you could just see something, and then it moved. He looked at me and I looked at him and we all went, is that her?
"Then all of a sudden her arm came up. We were like, holy shit, that's her."
"I literally ran down the gully, jumped blackberries, got tripped in a couple of them, jumped the gully then went back up the other side.
"When I got to her she had her eyes closed, she was in a bad way."
Mr Chaseling said the two exchanged some words as police and SES arrived, followed by the ambulance.
"She was just about to go in the ambulance and she said, 'high fives everybody, high fives'… It was a fitting way to end what could have potentially been a catastrophic situation."
Mr Chaseling said he would never forget Kathleen's strength of spirit.
The Bautista's thanked the people of the nation's capital for their "amazing sense of community".
"On behalf of the family, we would like to thank the entire Canberra community for their support, love, positivity and hope from the moment Kat was missing til now. While the police, SES and search and rescue teams worked tirelessly to find Kat, so did the everyday people of Canberra."
