Ricky Gilmore, 49, shows the pair of pants he was wearing when he dragged himself four miles down a road for three days last week near Tocito, N.M. after a man and woman he met while he was hitchhiking... (Associated Press) 
 
 Tattered and dirty, Ricky Gilmore's blue jeans tell part of the story. A paraplegic man who says he was stranded in the New Mexico desert without his wheelchair dragged himself about four miles down a dirt road over three days before a motorist stopped to help him. It was early evening and Gilmore had nothing _ no wheelchair, no food, no water, no coat _ to help him endure the flat desert scrubland. I ache and I'm just in the first stages of healing," he said Tuesday at the Northern Navajo Medical Center in Shiprock, N.M. 
 
 Gilmore, 49, is being treated for acute kidney failure from dehydration, a sprained wrist and a blood infection. On the third afternoon, a man in a blue pickup truck stopped and called for help. 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 going without food and water. He also had a body temperature of 94 when he first received treatment normal is 98.6. It was cold that night," he said. "I mean, I'm in a wheelchair. They should have that respect for people who have a disability. "It was dark and I was shivering and the wind was blowing so I just crawled to a bush and dug in right there. After spending a second night at the side of the road, Gilmore said he woke up sore and thirsty and didn't want to move. "I don't think I would have made it another night," he said. "I could have easily gave up and said `Forget it,' but I said `I'm not going to freeze out here' and I just kept on going," said Gilmore, who lives by himself and lost the use of his legs in a car crash years ago. The Shiprock Police Department is working on a pending police report filed by Gilmore on Thursday. Gilmore said he was dropped in the desert by a couple in a white truck whom he met while he was hitchhiking. I did the same thing all day and I only got about two miles," he said. His plan is simple for when he gets released from the hospital: "Go home and pray, take inventory and just get a good night sleep in my own bed and heal."
– A paraplegic man is recovering after being dumped on a desolate road in the New Mexico desert without his wheelchair. Ricky Gilmore says he spent three days dragging himself four miles down the road after a couple he met while hitchhiking tossed him out of their vehicle when he declined to share his alcohol, the AP reports. The 49-year-old is being treated for kidney failure from dehydration, a blood infection, and a sprained wrist. Gilmore, who lost the use of his legs in a car crash 19 years ago, says three cars passed him during the first two days of his ordeal but they didn't stop when he waved. A vehicle finally stopped on the third day, and Gilmore says he doesn't believe he could have survived a third night in the desert. Cops are searching for the couple who left him in the desert. "I just got on the devil's ride," Gilmore tells the Farmington Daily Times. "I just want to heal up and go home and change my life around and keep going."