Modern Family’s Julie Bowen opens up about rescuing injured woman on hike

The actor helped come to the aid of an injured hiker earlier this month in Utah

Julie Bowen has revealed that she recently came to the aid of a woman who suffered serious injuries on a hike.

The Modern Family actor was in Arches National Park, Utah earlier this month when she helped to rescue hiker Minnie John.

John had started to feel ill on the hike and pulled back while her family carried on. Later, John fainted and hit her head on a rock.

Bowen, together with her sister - who is a doctor - found John and were able to offer help.

Speaking about the moment on Jimmy Kimmel Live in her opening monologue as guest host yesterday (18th August), Bowen joked “it was so gross” before opening up about her sister’s ability to help in the situation.

“My sister is a doctor, her name is Annie, she’s an infectious disease specialist”, said Bowen. “Highly overqualified and more than capable of applying a little roadside hiker first aid”.

“So she goes all Meredith Grey right away and starts applying pressure and doing doctor stuff. And I brought all my professional expertise to the table by yelling things that I’d heard on episodes of ‘E.R.’”

She went on to joke that her three children, who were on the hike with her, were more helpful than she was, describing how her twin boys ran on to find John’s family while her other child helped to cut bandages.

When John came round, she recognised Bowen but couldn’t place her. Bowen explained: “I was so embarrassed by how useless I had been that I said ’yes, I am… I’m Elizabeth Banks!’ Let her take the heat.”

Writing about her experiences on Facebook, John recalled the moment she recognise Bowen.

“I asked her again if I knew her or was she famous and the doctor said yes,” John recalled. “As my eyes started to focus more, she smiled and took her hair tie off and shook her hair for me to figure out. Her sister the doctor asked me to guess and I told her I just hit my head, I can’t remember. She said smiling ‘Modern Family’ and I said of course! I told her she was so beautiful.

“She introduced me to her sister Annie, the doctor, and she is of course Julie Bowen! They explained to me that the guide who was with the them, saw me fall forward splat on my face. My glasses broke my fall flat down, hitting my head on the flat rock breaking my skin on various areas near my nose. They had everything to clean up my wounds and set me up.”

She added: “...Such wonderful men and women, selflessly giving of themselves!”