After Fall, Speleologist Said She'll 'Never Enter a Cave Again'

"She's speaking very little, but said she would never enter a cave again." That's what an Alpine rescue medic said of Ottavia Piana, a speleologist—that's a scientist who studies caves—who was on Wednesday rescued from the Italian cave where she had sustained serious injuries four days prior. The Guardian reports Piana was mapping an uncharted area of the Bueno Fonteno cave with eight others on Saturday when a 15-foot fall left her with a fractured face, ribs, and knees. In a non-stop 75-hour operation, more than 150 experts carried out the "delicate process" of removing the 32-year-old from the cave on a stretcher. It was a 2.5-mile journey that at times required the use of explosives to clear a pathway.

Indeed, "the morphology of the cave ... made it difficult, with some areas at risk of a landslide, which is also why the accident occurred, as a rock gave way beneath her feet," said Mauro Guiducci, the National Alpine and Speleological Rescue Corps' vice president. The BBC reports six doctors and eight nurses cared for Piana continuously, with dozens of rescuers taking turns carrying her stretcher. It was not the first time Piana had been rescued from that very cave, which is located in northern Italy's Bergamo region: She broke her leg there 17 months ago and was stuck for two days. (More caves stories.)