Two years ago today, 19-year-old Dylan Dunney fell off a cliff at Thacher Park in Voorheesville. He was not expected to survive.

But because of the immense emergency and medical response, he did.

Recently, he went back to the overlook at Thacher Park for the first time since the fall.

“I don’t remember anything from that day,” he said. “It is very tough.”

It was after a night of drinking that Dunney and a friend went to the overlook at dawn to shoot this video of the sunrise. After he shot the video, Dunney jumped over the safety barrier to take another, but lost his footing and fell off the cliff.

“I was drunk and that had a lot to do with my decision making at that point,” Dunney said.

Dunney had plummeted 150 feet off the cliff and then rolled 400 more feet down rocky, steep terrain. He hit a steel barrier, which prevented him from continuing down the mountain.

Dunney’s friend immediately called for help.

Albany County Sheriff Captain Dennis Wood was one of the first down the mountain to reach Dunney.

“Initially, he was talking to us,” Wood said. “But throughout the process of getting him from the bottom to the top, his condition deteriorated rapidly, which resulted in the more advanced treatment, which we’ve never done at the bottom of a cliff.”

Getting him up the mountain alive was risky, and so was the dangerous four-hour rescue. Moving the life-saving gear up and down the extremely steep terrain while providing emergency care put responders' lives in jeopardy as well.

Dunney spent weeks in critical condition with a traumatic brain injury, a damaged spinal cord, collapsed lungs and broken bones. After multiple surgeries, he started to slowly heal.

He credits all of the medical professionals for his amazing recovery, from the surgeons and doctors to the rehab therapists to those who were first on the scene.

“The first responders, everything about them was just fantastic,” he said. “They saved my life.”

Capt. Wood said he hadn’t heard anything about Dunney since the rescue. So without them knowing, Spectrum News 1 arranged for Dunney and Wood to meet for the first time since the fall.

“So what was it like when you rescued me?” Dunney asked.

“It was a rough day, a very rough day,” Wood replied.

As Dunney continues to heal, he feels he was given a gift he won’t take for granted: a second chance at life. He hopes to go back to college. He says he wanted to share his story so people can learn from his mistake, especially the dangers of underage drinking.