The terrifying ordeal of a bushwalker who was left hanging upside between boulders for hours after she tried to retrieve a dropped mobile phone is a chilling reminder of just how vulnerable people can be out in Australia’s remote and rugged country.
Fortunately, the 23-year-old woman, named by media as Matilda Campbell, was with friends who were able to summon emergency help when the unthinkable happened. She had been hiking at Laguna, near Cessnock in the NSW Hunter Valley, earlier this month when she dropped her mobile phone while taking photos.
It appears that while trying to retrieve the device, the woman slipped and fell, and was left hanging by her feet while stuck in a three-meter crevice between two huge boulders.
With no phone reception and unable to call for help herself, her friends called Triple Zero (000) after unsuccessful attempts to free her by which time she had already been hanging by her feet upside down for over an hour.
Even when emergency help arrived, it took several hours for the rescue to be completed.
NSW Ambulance said Specialist Rescue Paramedic, Peter Watts, worked with a multidisciplinary team to remove several heavy boulders to create a safe access point. With care, a hardwood frame was built to ensure stability while rescuers worked.
With both feet now accessible, the team faced the challenge of navigating the patient out through a tight ‘S’ bend over the course of an hour. It took teamwork and a specialised Tirfor winch to move a massive 500kg boulder.
“In my 10 years as a rescue paramedic I had never encountered a job quite like this, it was challenging but incredibly rewarding,” Mr Watts said. “Every agency had a role, and we all worked incredibly well together to achieve a good outcome for the patient.”
NSW Ambulance said the patient was safely freed seven hours after her ordeal began, with only minor scratches and bruises. Incidentally, she was unable to retrieve her phone
Of course, this horrific ordeal is certainly not the first – and won’t probably won’t be the last – of phone retrieval attempts putting people in sticky situations.
Back in 2016, for example, a 20-year-old man became trapped in a pit toilet in Norway after he made the terrible mistake of climbing inside in an attempt to recover a dropped mobile phone.
Cato Berntsen Larsen had to be rescued by firemen from an outdoor public toilet in the small town of Drammen, outside Oslo.
“First we tried to get the phone with a stick but that didn’t work,” he told local news agency VG. “So I jumped in!”
Mr Larsen was quickly overcome by nausea and vomiting as he desperately tried to pull himself out of the tank, which is only emptied once a year.
He was eventually rescued by the fire brigade … but his phone remained where he dropped it.