On October 14, 1987, 18-month-old Jessica McClure Morales fell into a well in her relative’s backyard in Midland, Texas, USA. For the next 56 hours, rescuers raced against time to rescue the girl from the mouth of the well 20 cm wide and nearly 7 m deep.
The story attracted worldwide interest and became the subject of a 1989 ABC television series titled Everyone’s Baby: The Rescue of Jessica McClure.
The plan the rescue team drew up was similar to that of most other rescues of people trapped in wells. They would drill a hole parallel to the well where Jessica fell, and then dig a horizontal tunnel leading to her location.
A mining engineer was dispatched to help oversee and coordinate the rescue effort. Authorities used waterjet cutting technology, which was relatively new at the time, to cut through the rock.
Jessica McClure Morales is rescued from a well in Midland, Texas, USA, October 16, 1987. Photo: AP.
45 hours after Jessica crashed, the adjacent pit and horizontal tunnel were completed. During the drilling process, rescuers could hear Jessica humming the song “Winnie the Pooh”.
The challenge for rescuers now is to find the right person to drop into the new borehole and find a way to reach Jessica. Initially, a volunteer named Ron Short volunteered to go down the hole. He was born without a collarbone and can shrink his body to maneuver in tight spaces.
The rescue team considered his offer, but ultimately chose firefighter Robert O’Donnell to carry out the task. O’Donnell has a small build and long arms, making it easy for him to maneuver in tight spaces.
When he was released into the pit, O’Donnell lay on his back, managed to crawl through the narrow horizontal tunnel, then looked up and saw Jessica trapped directly above. Using a reporter’s camera stand, O’Donnell managed to drag Jessica to the bottom of the pit. After more than an hour of struggling, O’Donnell finally successfully rescued Jessica and brought her to the surface on October 16, 1987.
Doctors at the time feared that they would have to amputate the girl’s foot because her leg was stuck for 58 hours in the head-up position, making it impossible for blood to circulate. They decided to try hyperbaric therapy to avoid complete amputation. In the end, the surgeon had to amputate only one toe due to gangrene.
Jessica has a scar on her forehead from rubbing her head against the well wall. Even so, she doesn’t have any memories of the accident.
More recently, in India, Rahul Sahu, a 10-year-old boy with hearing loss, fell into a 24 meter deep borehole while playing near his home in Pihrid village, Janjgir-Champa district, Chhattisgarh state, on June 10, 2022. .
Indian authorities mobilized more than 500 people from the National Disaster Response Force, state rescue forces and the army to rescue the boy. The rescue operation was hampered by bad weather, rocky terrain and the presence of venomous snakes and scorpions at the scene.
Sahu sustains life during the time of being trapped thanks to oxygen transmitted from the ground, and bananas brought down by rescuers.
Sahu after being rescued on the night of June 14, 2022. Photo: Hindu.
Rescuers used excavators and robots to drill a 21-meter-deep hole parallel to the hole where Sahu was trapped, then dug a nearly 5m-long tunnel to reach the boy’s location. The rescue effort ended after 104 hours, the boy was brought to the ground at dawn on June 14 in a state of consciousness, causing many people to cheer and celebrate.
But not all rescue efforts were successful. Rayan Aourram, 5, falls into a well in the village of Ighra in Chefchaouen province, northern Morocco, on February 1, 2022. The family discovered the baby was trapped after hearing sobs and Rayan kept crying “help me up”.
The mouth of the well is only 45 cm wide, making it impossible for rescuers to get down to rescue the boy. Efforts to widen the well’s mouth are too risky because this area is mainly sandy soil, mixed with many rocks, causing high risk of landslides, so the authorities decided to use 5 excavators to excavate along the hillside parallel to the road. well to find a way to save the boy.
There are many reasons people believe in miracles during the rescue. On February 3, the camera was lowered into the well by rescuers and showed that Rayan was moving weakly. Rescuers also delivered oxygen and water to the baby.
After 4 days and 5 nights of hard work with all possible interventions, rescuers reached Rayan under a 32 m deep well, but he died. Thousands of condolences have been sent to Ryan’s family after efforts to rescue him failed.
King of Morocco Mohammed VI phoned Rayan’s parents to express his condolences. “I want to say to Rayan’s family and the people of Morocco that we share your pain,” French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on Facebook.
Rescue workers carry Rayan to an ambulance on February 5, 2022 after a rescue operation in the village of Ighra, Chefchaouen province, northern Morocco. Photo: Archyde.com.
In January 2019, the rescue of two-year-old boy Julen Rosello, in the city of Totalan, Malaga province, southern Spain, also attracted attention across the country.
Rosello disappeared on January 13 while playing at a relative’s house. At that time, Vicky, her mother, was calling the burger restaurant where she worked to ask for a leave of absence, and Jose, covering her, was preparing food and gathering firewood.
They then discovered that Rosello had fallen into a hole 107 meters deep, about 25 to 30 centimeters in diameter. A businessman who wanted to search for groundwater in the area had drilled the hole since December 2018, but was not allowed by the government.
When the child fell into the pit, Jose initially heard the boy crying but soon, he no longer saw any reaction from the bottom of the pit. Nearby passers-by heard their screams and quickly called for help.
An immediate rescue operation was launched, involving more than 100 firefighters, police and experts.
The ground around the area where Rosello fell is very unstable and experts determined that any operation must be done with great care to avoid landslides. Initial attempts to reach Rosello were unsuccessful, as the hole was partially blocked by rocks at a depth of 71 m.
Authorities brought a 75-ton pile drill along with other heavy machinery to the scene to dig parallel to the hole Rosello was stuck in. They also had to use explosives because they couldn’t dig through rocky terrain.
The time of rescue is getting longer and longer, making relatives and all followers extremely impatient and sad.
Spanish authorities have received offers from dozens of international organizations to cooperate in the search, including Swedish company Stockholm Precision Tools AB, which helped rescue 33 miners trapped for 69 days. in northern Chile in 2010.
At one o’clock in the morning on January 26, rescuers approached Rosello but could not save her life. An autopsy revealed the boy suffered “severe head trauma” from the fall and died instantly.