'Modern Family' star Julie Bowen clears up that viral hiker rescue story: 'I did nothing'
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Julie Bowen is setting the record straight after she went viral earlier this month for helping to rescue a hiker who fainted at the Arches National Park in Utah.
The "Modern Family" alum, 51, broke her silence on the ordeal while guest-hosting "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" Tuesday, revealing that she felt "embarrassed at how useless" she was while other members of her family helped Minnie John, who fainted and hit her head after feeling dizzy on the trail. It was notably Bowen's sister Annie Luetkemeyer, an infectious disease specialist, who stepped up.
“Everyone helped save this woman – my sister, my twins, my knifey son – and I did nothing," Bowen said in the opening monologue. "Actors have little to no value here in the real world."
John, an avid traveler, recruited her husband and son to take a trip to see a 52-foot-tall freestanding natural arch in Utah.
"I really did not read up too much about how high it is and how treacherous it is," John previously told The Bergen Record, part of the USA TODAY Network. "I felt the need to climb."
The hike took two hours but as John was nearing the top she began to feel sick.
Her husband and son encouraged her to keep walking up but instead, she sat on a rock near a bush to regain her energy. Feeling dizzy, John leaned over and held her head in her hands in between her knees and fainted. She doesn't remember her fall but remembers being awakened by a familiar voice and a doctor bandaging her nose. Another woman was giving her pretzels and peanut butter.
Bowen's sister Luetkemeyer went "all Meredith Gray" on the situation, the actress recalled on "Kimmel," while Bowen used what she knew – "yelling things I heard on episodes of 'ER.'"
"I'm like, 'code blue!' 'Crash cart!' Bowen shrugged.
Previously: 'Modern Family's Julie Bowen helps rescue woman who fainted at Arches National Park in Utah
Meanwhile, her 12-year-old twin boys, John and Gustav, ran up the trail to find John's family, while her 14-year-old son, Oliver, leant a knife he had been carrying to his aunt to help cut gauze.
As John came to, she thought she recognized Bowen.
"I was so embarrassed at how useless I had been, I said, 'yes I am. I'm Elizabeth Banks,' " Bowen joked. "Let her take the heat."
"(Bowen) took her hair tie off and posed in front of me to try to figure out who she was," John previously told The Record. "Then she said 'Modern Family' and I'm like, 'Oh my gosh, you're so beautiful!' "
Bowen joked on "Kimmel" that getting recognized by someone with an "extreme head injury" was "extremely flattering."
After the incident, John went to Moab Regional Hospital and got five stitches to her face and was treated for a fractured nose. She is now recovering back in her hometown in New Jersey.
"I praise God and give him all the glory. I thank him for sending me those angels, those good Samaritans," John said.
Contributing: Jessie Gomez, NorthJersey.com
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Modern Family' star Julie Bowen clears up hiker rescue on 'Kimmel'
