A young woman from Taiwan visiting Yellowstone National Park has died from injuries sustained when she slipped into the Firehole River near Old Faithful, according to park officials.
The 22-year-old woman fell into the river Tuesday afternoon, a park release said. Lin Ching-Ling, a Taiwanese national, apparently fell into the river about 1:30 p.m. and was submerged for about five minutes before another visitor dived in and pulled her out from about 10 feet under water, the release said.
He then brought her to the water’s edge, yelled for help, and immediately began CPR.
A doctor and two nurses who happened to be in the area quickly took over CPR efforts, the release said. When park paramedics and rangers arrived, CPR was continued for about 40 minutes on-scene, when the patient regained a pulse. She was then taken by ambulance to Madison Junction where a waiting helicopter transported her to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center.
According to hospital officials, she was pronounced dead at 10:10 p.m. Tuesday.
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there is a "tunnel". its very short maybe 1-2 feet. 25-30 inches wide im guessing. i went through it. its about 15-20 feet down from the highest part where the idiots jump from and get fined $200. 100 for climbing, 100 for jumping. i have also reached the bottom and stood there for 5 seconds! the bottom is 33 feet i was told by a diver.
Same thing happened to me. I was young and extremely foolish back in 1973. I joined many visitors in jumping off the cliff at the "swimming hole." But then it rained for 4 or 5 days. We went back and the river was so much stronger. My friends warned me. Like an idiot, I went ahead and body surfed through the canyon all by myself, out of view. Whooosh! What a blast! But then I got pulled down right before it opened into the pool. Struggled and struggled to get above water. Stared at the green beam of sunlight at the end of what seemed like a whirlpool. Finally I completely ran out of oxygen. Accepted my fate. Immediately was pulled straight down. Then my right foot felt a rock ledge off to the side, so I used it to push off at an angle with all my might. It worked! And that's why I'm still here. It's surprising that more people have not drowned there. At very least, they should be told about "that spot", what can happen, and how to survive it.
My family along with some friends spent the day swimming at Firehole in 2014. I had a similar experience of getting pulled about 10' under water after floating from the upper pool area. It was a near death experience for myself, but I was finally able to grab the rock wall and pull myself up. Just swimming I could not overcome the undertow.
It had rained heavily for 5 days. I stupidly went into the rapids farther upstream to swoosh down to the water hole where the cliffs are. When I got there, I was pulled down by what I thought was a whirlpool, right at the mouth of the pool under the cliff. Nobody was around. I struggled and struggled to get up to the surface that looked like circular swirling green sunlight. Ran out of air. Gave up struggling and was pulled way down. Then my right foot felt a rock ledge, so I pushed off of it and got out of the eddy/whirlpool. Young and foolish days!