CHENNAI: An elderly woman, believed to be in her late 80s, miraculously survived for nearly 12 hours through out the Sunday night inside a dry well into which she accidentally fell near her house at Ramapuram. D Saraswathi* (name changed on request), living alone in her house at Bajanai Koil Street, was headed to her neighbour's house around 7 pm when she is believed to have slipped and fell into the open well.
Around 6 pm on Sunday a neighbour had visited Saraswathi in her house and given her coffee. "A little later, she stepped out of her house to return the tumbler to the neighbour when she apparently took the wrong direction due to her poor eyesight and stepped into the open well," said a relative of the elderly woman was taking care of Saraswathi on Tuesday at the Government Royapettah Hospital.
Saraswathi, who does not have a sound memory and poor eye vision, says that all along the night, she throught she was sitting inside some pit and was hoping for someone to come for her rescue.
"She was not there another neighbour went to her house to give dinner on Monday night. But they assumed that she had gone out," said the relative said. All through the night, Saraswathi was inside the well and only around 7 am when the light came, she started crying for help. The neighbours who went to her house to give her breakfast found her missing and was looking around when they heard some noises and checked inside the well.
Fire service personnel who reached the spot a little later found Saraswathi still conscious. "We made her sit in a chair and puller her out. She had suffered injuries in her back, but was conscious," said a fire and rescue personnel who was involved in the operation on Tuesday morning.
Saraswathi, a widow with no children, has been living in the house alone for last four years. A few of her relatives nearby and the neighbours are providing her food. She was not aware of her correct age and her relative believe she must be between 89 and 90 years.
"Even until six months ago she use to cook her own food and visit people. Recently her eyesight became poor and she was largely confined to the house and the neighbours would visit and give her food," said
Saraswathi's relative.
The Royala Nagar police are investigating on who is responsible for leaving the well open.