A 19-year-old woman was rushed to a hospital Monday after rescue workers pulled her from a frigid stream in an hour-long rescue near the University of Southern Maine campus.
Gorham Fire Chief Robert Lefebvre said the woman, who was unidentified, fell through the ice on Tommy’s Brook while hiking with friends about 3 p.m. The incident occurred about a quarter of a mile into the woods behind Dickey Wood Hall, a university dormitory nicknamed “The Towers.”
Robert Caswell, a University of Southern Maine spokesman, said Tuesday the woman is a university student and lives in Wood Hall.
Lefebvre said her lower extremities were wet. She was able to pull herself up onto a log in the freezing brook water. Two members of Gorham’s cold-water rescue team wearing wetsuits went into the stream to rescue her.
Lefebvre said the woman was placed in a stretcher, which he called a Stokes basket, that is typically utilized in search and rescue operations. Rescue workers had to rig up a pulley system to hoist her up a steep ravine before being transported. The rescue took about 60 minutes.
“It was a team effort,” Lefebvre said.
Caswell said the woman had been hiking with two friends, who are also university students. Caswell said the two were unable to reach her and called police on a cell phone. The initial report indicated she had fallen into a pond. But a dispatcher was able to pinpoint the location of the cell call by utilizing the global positioning system, Lefebvre said.
The air temperature was about 20 degrees and the area is heavily wooded. Lefebvre said the woman suffered from hypothermia but didn’t appear to have other injuries. She was rushed to Maine Medical Center in Portland.
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