Injured Italian caver Ottavia Piana was rescued after 75 hours of rescue efforts

“He’s tired, exhausted and in pain… We made it,” said Giorgio Pannuzzo, a rescue volunteer who was with him at the time of the accident on Saturday.

“There was a freezing wind at the entrance of the cave, and if we had stopped, he would have suffered more from the cold. So we hurried,” he said.

At the time of Piana’s collapse, Abisso Bueno was involved in a project to map a previously unknown area of ​​the Fonteno cave system.

The area between Lake Iseo and Lake Endine consists of a network of caves, tunnels and underground galleries, most of which have never been explored.

Rescuers spoke of a race against time to extricate him from his injuries. Dozens of volunteers took turns carrying his stretcher and removing the many obstacles in their way.

They had to walk through narrow tunnels and sometimes use small explosives to get it out.

CNSAS Alpine rescue service said that 159 volunteers from 13 regions of Italy participated in the operation. “The injured woman was constantly monitored and assisted by a total of six doctors and eight nurses,” the report said. “The rescue operation continued for 75 hours without interruption.”

During the operation, Piana told the doctors that she did not want to set foot in the cave again.