Rescuing a woman trapped for a day in a 20 meter deep well

On the morning of January 3, Mr. Nguyen Xuan Duy in Ea Ngai commune, Krong Buk district, went to visit his garden and suddenly heard a cry for help coming from the well. When he approached the garden, he discovered someone in distress and reported it to the authorities.

After more than 5 minutes, the commune police officers, militia, and local people arrived at the scene and determined that the victim was a woman. Senior Lieutenant Nguyen Duc Ky, a commune police officer, directly climbed down the well with a rope. The group of people above tied an iron basket to the rope and lowered it down so that Ky could help pull the victim up.

"I just went down the well and saw her crying. Her two legs were broken and she couldn't move. I had to carry her in a basket," Mr. Ky recalled, adding that the rescue process took about 30 minutes. The woman was then transferred to Buon Ho General Hospital in poor health.

The victim said she was Ngo Thi Hang, who moved from Phu Yen to Dak Lak with her husband to rent a room and pick coffee for hire. After the harvest season ended, yesterday morning she went out alone to glean coffee beans to earn extra income. At around 10am, while looking for the remaining coffee beans in the harvested fields, she slipped and fell into an abandoned well (the owner had placed a few tree branches on the surface of the well) with no water, 20m deep and more than a meter wide.

The fall left the victim seriously injured, lying in the well with little air and cold weather. Not having a phone, Ms. Hang was unable to notify her family when the accident happened.

"Fortunately the garden owner discovered it in time, otherwise his life would have been in danger," said Lieutenant Ky, adding that authorities are investigating the reason why the victim has been missing for nearly a day but has not received any news from relatives.

The Central Highlands provinces have many wells for irrigation. These structures are often uncovered, so accidents are possible. Recently, there have been a number of cases of people falling into wells in the area.