STOCKTON — Stockton firefighters pulled a lifeless woman from toxic waters under a freeway overpass Friday evening in downtown Stockton.
The Stockton Fire Department received a report at about 5:20 p.m. of a woman who had fallen into Mormon Slough near the Crosstown Freeway and South Lincoln Street. Firefighters said the woman was sitting or standing near a rail on the onramp when she fell 15 feet into the cold, murky water below.
Engine 2 and Water Rescue 6 responded to the scene along with Stockton police and medics from American Medical Response. Two divers entered the water and found the woman fully submerged about 35 minutes after she fell into the slough.
The woman was not breathing and had no pulse, firefighters said. She was placed in a rescue basket, transferred to an ambulance and rushed to San Joaquin County General Hospital.
Medics from the Fire Department attempted to resuscitate the woman with CPR while administering advanced life support measures. The Fire Department could not immediately say whether efforts to resuscitate the woman were successful.
"This is what we consider a cold-water drowning," Battalion Chief Lane Healy said. "Anything less than 60 minutes, we'll attempt resuscitation. Technically, the cold water is thought to slow the metabolic breakdown of the organs, and whatever oxygen is left in your bloodstream is conserved because of the cold water."
The area where the rescue occurred is surrounded by homeless encampments. Dozens of transients who frequent the area stood by watching emergency responders as they tried to rescue the victim. The slough is littered with trash, debris, hyacinth and human feces, firefighters said.
"There are so many entanglement hazards and it's zero visibility," Healy said. "It's incredibly toxic water with biological hazards. We dive in a dry suit, which gives us a degree of safety from the pathogens, but not entirely. That's why we do immediate decontamination afterwards. We wish we had gotten her out of there sooner, but the divers were in the water less than 15 minutes before they found her."
— Contact reporter Jason Anderson at (209) 546-8279 or [email protected]. Follow him at recordnet.com/crimeblog and on Twitter @Stockton911.
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