''He's alive,'' said Alan Bell's mother, Edna Bell. ''That's two magic words to his dad and me.''
Mr. Bell was in serious condition in the intensive-care unit of University of Kentucky Medical Center, suffering from exposure and dehydration, said spokeswoman Mary Margaret Colliver.
He had been biking through the forest Sunday near the Bath-Menifee county line when a branch caught his arm and he fell head-first from the bike, his mother said Friday.
He hit his head, but rode 3 more miles before falling after becoming numb on his left side.
''He said he never could get up again after that,'' she said. That was Sunday afternoon. He lay there until he was found Friday morning by two men hunting for mushrooms. He had just eaten a nutrition bar and had drunk water before the accident. But after hitting his head, he vomited, she said.
As the week wore on, he tried to drink water but was unable to swallow. He swished water in his mouth to keep it from drying out, his mother said.
He heard the men looking for mushrooms Friday morning and called for help. They called for an ambulance and he was airlifted by helicopter to UK.
His mother said his face is red from the sun, and a toe was frost-bitten, but doctors expect it to heal. He has trouble focusing, but doctors told the family that should be temporary.
Mr. Bell told his mother he never gave up hope of being found until Friday morning.
'' 'When I woke up this morning, I felt like, if somebody didn't find me today, it would be my last day,' '' she said he told her. ''And God sent those two men.''
''He's talking a mile a minute, even though he's really hoarse from the dryness,'' she said. And he's cracking jokes.
He asked nurses not to remove any more blood, telling them they had enough to fill a blood bank, she said.
Mr. Bell's discovery Friday ended nearly a week of worry for his parents.
His boss at DHL Express had called the Bells' house Tuesday morning and said he had not shown up the night before. Missing work was unusual for him, Mrs. Bell said.
She wasn't worried until that phone call, because her son visited his parents' Williamstown home about once a week. So she wasn't expecting him until Sunday.
''I thought of every bad scenario that could be this week,'' she said.
The worrying ended about 8:30 a.m. Friday, when a state forestry official called and told her Mr. Bell had been found alive at about 8 a.m.
Mrs. Bell said she always told her son, even as a boy, not to go anywhere alone.
He had intended to ride with two other people, she said, but they canceled at the last minute. He decided to ride anyway.
Much to Mrs. Bell's amazement, her son already is talking about riding again.
But this time, he's going to buy a cellular phone.
''He learned his lesson,'' she said.
