A woman was rescued after spending seven long hours upside down in a crevice between two boulders after getting stuck trying to retrieve her phone in Australia’s Hunter Valley.
The woman slipped into a 3-metre crevasse between two boulders earlier this month, but ended up hanging upside down by her feet and unable to get out, the New South Wales Ambulance said in a news release. Hunter Valley is located north of Sydney in New South Wales.
Her friends tried in vain to free her and after she hung upside down for more than an hour, her friends called Triple Zero, Australia’s emergency number.
NSW Ambulance responded with a team to remove heavy boulders to create a ‘safe entry point’, the release said.
“A hardwood frame was carefully constructed to ensure stability while rescuers worked,” the agency said. “The team was faced with the challenge of guiding the patient through a tight S-bend within an hour. It took teamwork and a specialized Tirfor winch to move a huge boulder weighing 500 kg (1,100 lbs).”
NSW Ambulance shared photos showing the woman’s bare feet sticking out from the small opening in the boulders and emergency workers removing the giant rocks to reach her.
NSW Ambulance specialist rescue paramedic Peter Watts said in his 10 years as a rescue paramedic: “I had never come across a job like this before, it was challenging but incredibly rewarding.”
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation named the woman as 23-year-old Matilda Campbell and reported that she remained calm and cooperative despite her ordeal.
“She was such a trooper,” Watts told the outlet. “I would have been beside myself if I was stuck in a situation like that, but when we were there she was calm, she was collected, anything we asked her to do she could do to help us get her out. ”
In total, crews had to remove seven boulders weighing between 80 and 500 kilograms (176 lbs to 1,100 lbs), the outlet reported.
The woman was finally released safely after being held captive for seven hours – and escaped with only minor scrapes and bruises.
Ultimately, however, she was unable to retrieve her phone.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
