'All We Could See Was The Soles Of Her Feet': Woman Stuck For 7 Hours After Dropping Phone In Crevice | CBC News

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An Australian woman was rescued earlier this month after getting stuck upside down, wedged between two boulders, while trying to retrieve her phone.

The Australian woman was wedged upside down between two boulders

Natalie Stechyson · CBC News

· Posted: Oct 23, 2024 11:05 AM EDT | Last Updated: 6 hours ago

In this photo shared on Facebook by New South Wales Ambulance on Oct. 21, a woman is seen dangling upside down after getting stuck in a rocky crevice in the Hunter Valley while attempting to retrieve her phone. (NSW Ambulance/Facebook)Drop your phone? Of course, pick it up.

Drop your phone down a narrow crevice between two boulders on a jagged hillside? Maybe think twice before going after it.

An Australian woman was rescued earlier this month after getting stuck upside down, wedged between two boulders while trying to retrieve her phone. According to a Facebook post by NSW Ambulance, the woman “got herself in a spot of bother” after she fell into a three-metre crevice in the Hunter Valley, a region north of Sydney known for its wineries and walking trails.

“With no phone reception and unable to call for help herself, her friends called Triple Zero [Australia’s emergency line] after unsuccessful attempts to free her — the patient was hanging by her feet upside down for over an hour by this point,” reads the statement posted on Monday.

Rescuers work to free the woman who was stuck in a rocky crevice after dropping her phone. (NSW Ambulance/Facebook)A multidisciplinary team worked to remove “several heavy boulders” to create an access point, built a hardwood frame for stability, and then had to navigate the woman out through a “tight S-bend,” the statement explains.

She was stuck for seven hours before she was eventually freed “with only minor scratches and bruises,” the statement said.

She was, however, unable to retrieve her phone.

“In my 10 years as a rescue paramedic I had never encountered a job quite like this, it was challenging but incredibly rewarding,” NSW ambulance specialist rescue paramedic Peter Watts said in the statement.

Rescuers had to remove ‘several heavy boulders’ to create an access point, built a hardwood frame for stability, and then had to navigate the woman out through a ‘tight S-bend,’ a statement by NSW Ambulance explains. (NSW Ambulance/Facebook)’You think I meant to get stuck or something?’The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) identified the woman as 23-year-old Matilda Campbell, who told the news service she dropped her phone while taking pictures and slipped while going after it. She reportedly told 7 News  Australia that she’s accident-prone and plans to take a break from bush-walking.

“All we could see was the soles of her feet,” Watts told 7 News about the rescue.

In an Instagram post last week, Campbell shared photos of her injuries, writing, “how the night started vs the next day when i was stuck for 5 hours between rocks + a fractured vertebrae.”

The photo carousel starts out showing Campbell and two friends smiling in a selfie, and ends with images of gashes and bruises on her shoulder, back, arms and hip.

In an Instagram story, Campbell shared a screenshot of a threatening, profanity-laced DM that says she “put emergency services on the line for your stupidity.”

“Damn, you think I meant to get stuck or something??” she wrote in the story.

Campbell thanked her rescuers in a comment on NSW Ambulance’s Instagram post.

“Thank you to the team who saved me. You guys are literally lifesavers … too bad about the phone though.”

In a photo posted to her Instagram, Matilda Campbell of New South Wales shows the injuries she sustained after getting stuck between two boulders while trying to retrieve her phone. (@matilda_campbell/Instagram)ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Natalie Stechyson has been a writer and editor at CBC News since 2021. She covers stories on social trends, families, gender, human interest, as well as general news. She’s worked as a journalist since 2009, with stints at the Globe and Mail and Postmedia News, among others. Before joining CBC News, she was the parents editor at HuffPost Canada, where she won a silver Canadian Online Publishing Award for her work on pregnancy loss. You can reach her at natalie.stechyson@cbc.ca.

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