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An Australian Woman Trying to Rescue Her Phone Gets Stuck Between Boulders
And she was upside down.
Many people say they can’t live without their phones. But one Australian woman’s attempt to save hers left her fighting to get back to her life.
Earlier this month, Matilda Campbell was with her friends in the Hunter Valley, a wine region about 150 miles north of Sydney, when her phone fell between boulders. She tried to retrieve it but slippedand got stuck between two boulders — eventually finding herself upside down.
Her friends tried to help her but were unsuccessful and called an emergency help line, according to a Facebook post by emergency responders. By the time the paramedics got to Ms. Campbell, she had been hanging by her feet for more than an hour.
The rescuers said they had to remove several large boulders to create a safe access point and build a hardwood frame to ensure stability. They then used a Tirfor winch, a traction and lifting device with a continuous wire rope, to move a boulder weighing 500 kilograms (more than 1,100 pounds).
About seven hours after her initial fall, Ms. Campbell was safely rescued, only suffering minor scratches and bruises.
“In my 10 years as a rescue paramedic I had never encountered a job quite like this,” Peter Watts, a New South Wales ambulance specialist rescue paramedic, said in the post. “It was challenging but incredibly rewarding.”
But not everything could be saved, the rescuers said, noting one important loss: She was unable to retrieve her phone.
Ms. Campbell acknowledged the harrowing slip and fall in her own Facebook post, calling herself accident prone. “No more rock exploration for me for a while!” she wrote last week.
The Hunter Valley is one of Australia’s most established wine regions. Famed for its verdant landscapes and plentiful vineyards, visitors flock there around the year for wine tours, fruit-picking and nature hikes.
In a later Facebook post, Ms. Campbell shared her gratitude for the friends who called for help and the team that rescued her.
“I’m forever thankful,” she wrote, “as most likely I would not be here today.”
Let this be a lesson.
