A 23-year-old woman feared for her life for seven grueling hours after getting trapped between two massive boulders while trying to retrieve her phone in the Hunter Valley region of New South Wales, Australia earlier this month.
Matilda Campbell was walking with friends on private property in the small town of Laguna, located approximately 75 miles from Sydney when she dropped her device into a narrow gap between the rocks.
Adding to her suffering, the traveler slipped headfirst into the 10-foot crevice and became lodged upside down, with rescue personnel finding only the soles of her feet visible through a small, four-inch gap.
“This was one of the most challenging rescues I’ve encountered in my 10 years,” Peter Watts, Ambulance Specialist Rescue Paramedic, told reporters, explaining how the “S” position the woman had been stuck in made it impossible for them to pull her out directly.
A 23-year-old woman was trapped upside down for seven hours in Australia after she slipped into a crevice trying to recover her iPhone
Due to the remote location and lack of mobile signal, Campbell’s friends had to make the difficult decision of leaving her behind to look for help.
A task force composed of emergency services of the police, fire, and ambulance departments rushed to the scene led by Watts, navigating through a 164-foot bush track inaccessible to regular vehicles.
“We had to approach the situation with extreme caution,“ Watts added, explaining how the victim had been stuck could mean many of her bones may have been broken. Sudden movements could’ve easily caused her condition to worsen.
The team built a wooden frame around the area to stabilize it and spent the next seven hours carefully removing six large boulders that were compressing the woman, including shifting a 1,100-pound rock using a winch.
Despite being compressed for several hours, the traveler sustained only minor injuries and was successfully rescued and taken into a hospital
Throughout the ordeal, Matilda Campbell maintained a level of composure that impressed rescuers. “She was incredibly calm throughout the entire situation,“ Watts said. “Most people would’ve panicked.”
Due to the traveler’s “S”-shaped position, rescuers had to maneuver her body in a series of complex movements. After removing the rocks, her hips and legs had to be carefully moved through the small space to free her.
Being upside down for so many hours, Campbell was understandably dizzy and weak once freed as her blood had rushed to her head. Thankfully, paramedics were able to confirm that no bones were broken and that she only had minor cuts and bruises.
Matilda was taken to a hospital for observation soon after. While she survived the ordeal, her phone remained trapped in Hunter Valley.
