MIDLAND, Texas — It was a frantic scene near Midland in 1987: A desperate mother searching for clues that her daughter was still alive as workers tried to save the life of a toddler who fell into an old water well.
Eighteen-month-old Jessica McClure fell 22 feet down the dark shaft while playing in her aunt’s backyard. The opening was only 8 inches wide – far too small for rescuers to enter.
There was no easy solution to pull her out of the well. It would take drilling a wider shaft next nearby, then drilling a tunnel to connect the two wells. It would be a lengthy process because of the hard rock.
After the first day, the family and rescue workers grew more desperate.
Was she still alive? To find out, a technician lowered a microphone into the well and to everyone’s surprise, they heard her singing to herself.
But time was running out. One day passed, then a second day. She was still trapped underground. Then, 58 hours after “Baby Jessica” fell into the well, she was rescued.
Viewers watching KVUE saw the dramatic rescue live as it happened on Oct. 16, 1987. A reporter on the scene shared his eyewitness description as a rescuer emerged with her in his arms: “She’s got a bandage on her head from what I see. I see her eyes open. I see some dried blood on her cheek. I think her eyes are open.”
Indeed, Jessica’s eyes were open as she was hoisted to safety. She had survived.
Jessica was rushed to a hospital and received treatment for a head injury and cuts and bruises. A portion of a foot was removed after gangrene had set in.
Then, just one month after the rescue, Jessica left the hospital, limping but in good spirits.
Today, Jessica is 38 years old and a mother of two but generally avoids publicity. She was recently quoted as saying that her “life has been a miracle.”