Woman Survives Fall Into Niagara Rapids

Tour boat spotted her and pulled her out
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 21, 2011 4:04 PM CDT

This week has brought water tourism disasters at Yosemite and Maui, but finally we've got a happy ending to a similar tale: A 30-year-old Michigan woman survived a fall into the rapids below Niagara Falls, reports KSDK-TV. Lindsey Burgess fell in while hiking with her fiance, and she got quickly got sucked under. "It feels literally like a tornado underwater," she told ABC News later. By sheer luck, a tour boat happened to be nearby, and the crew pulled her out.

"You gave me everything," Burgess told the boat's captain, Corey Ziraldo, when he visited her at a local hospital last night. Doctors weren't sure Burgess would survive when she first arrived on a respirator, but she's now out of ICU and breathing on her own. See the ABC video at left to get a sense of the rapids' power. (More Niagara Falls stories.)

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