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When the stretcher with the speleologist Ottavia Piana was carried out of the narrow exit passage from the Bueno Fonteno cave, in the province of Bergamo, there was a double line of volunteer mountain and speleological rescue technicians waiting for her. They formed a rescue chain to facilitate the descent towards an open space where she was placed and assisted while waiting for the helicopter to intervene. It was a few minutes after 3 in the morning. The volunteers – 159, coming from 13 regions – worked for just over three days, alternating in 15-hour shifts inside the cave.
The last stretch was covered much faster than expected thanks to the work done in the last few days to open the narrowest passages. Ottavia Piana is injured due to the fall that occurred on Saturday, according to doctors she has some fractures in her legs and chest. For this reason, the rescuers tried to do everything as quickly as possible, without jeopardizing their safety. In these 5 videos shot by mountain and speleological rescue technicians you can observe the last stages of the rescue.
Piana was taken out of the cave shortly after 3am, on the night between Tuesday 17th and Wednesday 18th December. She was immobilized on a stretcher the entire time, assisted by speleological doctors and nurses.
At the end of the recovery all the volunteer technicians who had intervened in the last three days were happy with the outcome of the rescue and exhausted. Many moved from the Civil Protection base camp to the exit of the cave to carry the stretcher the last few metres, before Ottavia Piana’s journey to the hospital.
Piana was taken to a tent set up in an open space in the small valley leading to the Bueno Fonteno cave. There she waited to be hooked up to the helicopter rescue winch together with a rescuer.
The helicopter transported her to the Papa Giovanni XXIII hospital in Bergamo where she will be subjected to tests and checks to understand the severity of her injuries. Piana was conscious throughout her recovery.
– Read also: How did the rescuers take the injured speleologist out of the cave
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