2018 hasn’t been Chrissy Gamble’s luckiest year.
Earlier this year she had chiral malformation decompression surgery to prevent part of her brain falling into her spine.
Another incident occurred Sept. 10.
“My husband was having a shower and then all of a sudden the water quit on us,” Gamble said. “We live where we have a well at home.
“He thought it was the pump. I went down the well the first time, and I unplugged the pump from the well, and that was fine, I got back out.”
When she went to put the pump back in the well, the ladder broke and she went down with it.
“When I fell, I fell in the water and popped back up and grabbed onto the ladder and hung on for dear life ... I had broken my leg but I didn’t realize I had broken it. I just knew that something was wrong.”
I yelled out “‘I’m OK, but I think I broke my leg.’”
The ladder was stuck on the rung of the well and Gamble hung on, keeping her from going any deeper. She was waist deep in water.
Gamble didn’t realize she had a screwdriver in her sweater pocket.
“And the screwdriver literally ripped [me] open from hip to hip, and all my intestines were coming out when I came out of the well.”
Gamble said she was in the water for three and a half hours. The cold water stopped blood from flowing and Gamble said it “kind of saved my leg and my intestines and everything.”
Gamble’s husband phoned the RCMP and 9-1-1.
Gamble said crews sent a harness down and she had to put the harness on herself. She lost her glasses down the well and she had fallen out of her shirt.
Crews sent a blanket down but it got caught on the top of the ladder and they sent another.
“The broken leg got stuck in the rung of the latter,” Gamble said. “I was like ‘OK, I’ll leave that there.’”
“When I got the harness on me they hauled me up, and then my pants fell down,” Gamble said.
Gamble said “my husband was saying ‘I’m so sorry,’ and he was crying, and I said ‘I’m OK.’”
Crews then transported her to North Battleford. She remembers a bumpy ride in the ambulance and feeling very tired. The next stop was a hospital in Saskatoon. Gamble said she stayed for seven and a half weeks.
Recently, medical staff removed staples from her leg and she’s wearing a boot. She found out later her stomach was cut but her intestines weren’t.
Gamble said she estimates her fall was 80 feet in an 135-foot well. She said she can’t look at ladders right now, and said her husband took it rough.
“He thought I was a goner,” Gamble said. “He said ‘You have to stop scaring me like that.’”
In hospital, Gamble said she was surprised to find out more people don’t fall down wells.
“When I was in the hospital I asked, ‘How many people do you have fall down wells?’ The nurses were like ‘You’re our first.’ I thought people fall down wells all the time.”
Gamble said medical staff were surprised she survived the incident.
“They asked how are you alive? I said “I don’t know.’”
“I call myself Superwoman,” Gamble said.
