Đặng Bảo Duy tells the moment he jumped to a well to save his daughter. Photo tienphong.vn

GIA LAI — Gia Lai General Hospital has reported that Đặng Bảo Duy, a courageous father from Pleiku City, Gia Lai Province, is in stable condition and recovering well after his heroic rescue of his daughter from a 35-meter-deep well.

Duy sustained multiple injuries, including fractures in his shoulder and cervical vertebrae, and is currently undergoing treatment at the hospital.

His nine-year-old daughter, Đ.L.L., suffered a fractured femur and successfully underwent surgery at Gia Lai Paediatric Hospital. Doctors have confirmed that she is in stable condition both physically and psychologically.

Speaking from his hospital bed, Duy recounted the terrifying ordeal and the desperate moments of escaping what he described as "death’s door".

At around 1:30pm on Saturday, May 17, during a family memorial gathering, Duy was startled by a loud scream from behind the house. Fearing the worst, he rushed outside and saw his daughter had fallen into a well.

Without a moment's hesitation, he grabbed a rope and lowered himself down to rescue her. In his urgency, he repeatedly collided with the well’s walls during his descent.

“I didn’t feel any pain at that moment. I just wanted to reach my daughter as fast as possible. When I saw her struggling at the bottom, I held her close and told her, ‘Daddy is here, it’s going to be alright,’” he recalled.

Fortunately, the water in the well was only about one metre -water deep at the time. Meanwhile, Duy’s family members desperately searched for ways to rescue them both. One person tried to climb down but had to retreat due to the lack of oxygen.

In a quick-thinking move, relatives inserted a large plastic pipe into the well and used a fan to blow air down, providing oxygen to sustain the pair until help arrived.

Rescuers came down to save Duy and his daughter. Photo tienphong.vn

In the first 30 minutes, as oxygen levels dwindled, Duy and his daughter began to lose consciousness. In a final effort, he lifted her onto his shoulders, allowing her to breathe more easily, and urged her to take deep breaths.

Though thoughts of the worst crossed his mind during the nearly two-hour ordeal, he fought to remain conscious, drawing strength from the sound of his daughter’s cries.

“I’m grateful to my family for their quick thinking and to the rescue team for their timely, courageous effort in bringing us back from the brink,” Duy said emotionally.

As previously reported by Tiền Phong newspaper, around 2pm that same day, while playing near the house, the girl accidentally fell into the well.

Upon witnessing the incident, Duy immediately climbed down in a desperate attempt to rescue his daughter.

Authorities were quickly alerted, prompting the Fire Prevention and Rescue Police Department to dispatch a rescue vehicle, an equipment transport truck, and a team of seventeen officers to the scene.

Upon arrival, rescuers found that the well was approximately 30m deep, with both victims in visible distress and severely weakened.

The team swiftly deployed specialised equipment and oxygen to the bottom while executing a carefully coordinated confined-space rescue strategy.

Through four rotations of officers descending into the well, both father and daughter were successfully lifted to safety by 3:25pm. VNS