After 18 hellish hours in canal, woman was ‘about to give up,’ Arizona rescuers say
A woman spent 18 hours fighting to save herself and her dog from a canal near Yuma before a train conductor alerted authorities, Arizona rescuers reported.
“Her body told the story of her constant fight,” Sgt. Juan Salcido with the Wellton Police Department told KSAZ, praising her “will to survive.”
“She had abrasions to her arms and legs,” Salcido told the station. “She had a sunburn. She looked exhausted to the point she couldn’t stand on her two feet.”
The woman told rescuers she went into the canal after her dog fell in at about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 7, but was unable to get out, the Yuma County Sheriff’s Department, which assisted in the rescue, said in a video.
She clung to a tree while hanging onto her 55-pound dog in the swift current for 18 hours and told rescuers she was “about to give up,” Salcido told KSAZ.
Just after noon Wednesday, June 8, a conductor on a passing train spotted the woman and notified 911, Yuma County deputies said in the video.
Wellton police and Yuma County deputies responded, rescuing the woman and her dog.
The strap being used to pull the woman and dog out broke, but a sheriff’s detective used his K-9 partner’s long leash to lasso the woman, the video shows.
The woman and her dog were taken to medical facilities, the video said. Neither appeared to be seriously injured in the ordeal.
“A great example of two agencies working together to achieve a common goal,” Wellton police wrote on Facebook.
This story was originally published June 12, 2022 at 10:35 AM with the headline "After 18 hellish hours in canal, woman was ‘about to give up,’ Arizona rescuers say."