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Phone is a lifeline after Tewksbury woman falls through ice

E-mail|Link|Comments () January 6, 2010 05:35 PM

By Stefanie Geisler, Globe Correspondent

A woman's cellphone became her lifeline after she fell through ice in Tewksbury.

Police and firefighters said the woman, a 58-year-old Tewksbury resident, went for a walk Tuesday morning. She called 911 around 9 a.m. shortly after she fell into an ice-covered marsh near the Frasca soccer fields.

Since the woman didn't know where she was, police used GPS tracking to find her.

"She was trying to cut through an area that she was not familiar with," dispatcher Garin Worth said. "She got quite a ways on the ice before she fell through. It was more like a marsh or a brushy area than it was a large water area."

Worth said it took 15 to 20 minutes to locate the woman, whom officials declined to identify.

Tewksbury Fire Chief Richard Mackey said GPS tracking was essential to rescuers.

"They were able to coordinate the general area, and then by talking to her on the phone she could hear the sirens getting closer and closer to her," Mackey said.

When they found her, she was stuck up to her chest, he said. "It actually took three guys just to pull her out of there."

Worth said the woman didn't sound panicked over the phone. Instead, she seemed embarrassed and a little nervous. "She was more upset that she was bothering us than anything," Worth said.

The woman was transported by ambulance to Saints Medical Office in Lowell as a precaution. She had no reported injuries.

"She was very, very lucky," Mackey said. "If she didn't have her cellphone, with hypothermia it might've been a tragic situation.''