The story of a one-and-a-half-year-old girl from the United States, which happened to her in the fall of 1987, made her famous all over the country. One morning, little Jessica McClure and her other children were walking in the yard of her aunt’s house.
Her mother was keeping an eye on them. Suddenly, the woman got a phone call and went inside the house for a while. At that moment, the children were left alone in the yard for a few minutes without adult supervision.
After finishing her conversation, the woman came out and looked around and realized that her daughter was missing. In a panic, looking around the area, she heard a child’s cry coming from a deep well. That’s where she found the little girl.
Somehow the girl had fallen down a narrow well, only 20 cm wide, and was stuck at a depth of about seven meters. Before the incident, the well had been covered with a heavy stone, and how Jessica had managed to fall into it was a mystery.
The panic-stricken woman called the police and rescuers. The rescue of little Jessica lasted more than two days. The whole operation to free the child was broadcast live on an American channel. People watched in horror. The rescue team had a difficult task, because the depth and the hole in the shaft were too deep to pull the girl out.
They decided to use a drilling rig to make a parallel nine meter long hole, more than 70 cm wide. Having cut an adjacent hole, it was necessary to connect the two holes with a horizontal tunnel below where the girl was stuck.
Time dragged very slowly, and rescuers throughout the operation gave oxygen to the well, where the baby was, with her constantly talking. The girl cried and sang songs, but then, tired of the suffering, she quieted down for a while. The endless 56 hours without food and water spent in the well, ended with the rescue of the child.
The foundation named after JessicaIn the end, exhausted, hungry girl removed from the mine and handed over to the doctors. Thousands of concerned people saw the little girl with a frightened look, stained with mud and bandaged.
Concerned for the girl’s health, Americans began to send her toys, gifts and remittances. A charity fund was created in her honor, where those who wished could transfer donations. The girl’s parents decided that all funds would remain in the account until Jessica reached the age of 25.
After the rescue, it took a long time to restore the child’s health. Over the course of several years, the little girl underwent 15 surgeries.
MemoriesWhen Jessica was little, she had no idea what she was going through. When she was five years old, she saw a program on TV about the rescue of a child from a deep well and asked her mother about the little girl because she felt so sorry for her.
Only after that did her parents tell Jessica that the girl was her.Her future life was like that of an ordinary child. She graduated from high school, then got married. Two children were born into their family. When Jessica was 25 years old, she received all the savings collected by the foundation. The amount was impressive – about eight hundred thousand dollars. Jessica decided to keep the money for her children’s future education.