Baby 15 years after the well battles JRA

[Guest guest]

Baby 15 years after the well

United Press International

10/07/2002

MIDLAND, Texas, Oct 06, 2002 (United Press International via COMTEX) --

Fifteen years after the tense and dramatic 58-hour rescue of McClure

-- trapped in 22 feet underground in an abandoned water well in Midland,

Texas -- the teenager is facing another challenge.

Sixteen-year-old McClure now faces the challenge of a serious illness,

juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disorder which causes

inflammation, redness and soreness in joints.

" I hurt all the time, even in my sleep. " told the Ladies Home

Journal in an exclusive interview in the November issue.

" It's a case of the body mistakenly attacking its own tissue, " said

's doctor, . " When a teenager gets it, the chance of

remission is less likely. "

Left untreated, JRA could destroy 's cartilage, leaving her joints

disfigured and painful. But is optimistic, " will live a normal

life. She can go to college, marry and have children. "

For the past year, has been sick with infections, a low-grade fever

and swollen joints, and she's missed weeks of school but she continues to

see herself as a survivor and dreams of happy endings.

" I want to have a good marriage, I want kids, at least four, a house with a

white picket fence and everything, " she told the magazine. " I want a big

wedding and a beautiful white gown and my two dads walking me down the

aisle. "

However, what happened Oct. 16, l987 continues to not only affect her and

her family but her hometown. While she has no memory of the accident, the

scars on her forehead and leg are a reminder.

" This boy asked me, 'Can you pay a plastic surgeon to fix everything?' I

told him, 'I'm not going to do that. I've lived with these scars for 15

years, " she said. " They're part of who I am. " She also said that the trust

fund, estimated at $1 million, formed from the donations from people

worldwide at the time of the rescue wouldn't be used for plastic surgery.

McClure told the magazine that she found out about her accident when she was

five and saw a television movie about it. " People ask me all the time, 'Do

you remember anything about being in the well?' I don't. I didn't want to

believe that anything that horrible could happen to me, " she said. " I don't

think Momma likes to talk about it. "

's mother, Cissy Porter, admits that she still feels guilty for

leaving her daughter for a few minutes in the backyard while she went to

answer the telephone. " I don't know what I would have done if she hadn't

survived, " Porter said.

The few moments it took the 18-month-old toddler to drop into the well

changed her life, her family and many in Midland.

In 1987, Cissy and Chip McClure were teenage parents trying to make it in

during the oil bust of the late 1980s.

's mother was baby-sitting six children while at her sister's home

when she left in the backyard. Police officers responding found a

metal pipe sticking up out of ground and a child crying from deep inside.

A 36-inch drill from on oilrig was brought in and rescuers thought they

would have the little girl bought out by evening by drilling a shaft and

then inserting rods from one shaft to the other to keep the child from

dropping further down the hole.

The well ran 70 feet down and if had fallen further she would have

drowned.

However, they hit a layer of rock that the drill could not cut through.

Volunteers took on the long and tedious task of drilling holes inches apart

and a couple of inches deep. They broke the rock into pieces and then

removed the rock shards.

It took two days to dig through the rock layer. Meanwhile about 300

television crews and reporters watched the process from atop stepladders in

an adjacent backyard.

" That's what shocked me -- that the whole world was helping, " Midland police

detective Dan Walkenshaw told the Midland Reporter-Telegram. " The only

objective was to get that little girl out alive. No matter what the cost is,

or how much work it would take. "

Paramedics lowered a television microphone to hear her and at one point they

heard her singing songs she learned in Sunday school. Oxygen and heat were

sent down the hole.

The first rescue attempt failed. Paramedics in the rescue shaft discovered

was wedged tight at 22 feet because her feet had split and one foot

was over her head

However, time was running out, they knew was dehydrated and couldn't

stay much longer so in a second attempt she was lathered in petroleum jelly

the paramedics were told to bring her up even if they had to break her leg.

As the world held its collective breath, a paramedic appeared with the child

now known as " Everyone's Baby. "

" When that moment arrived there was an explosion of emotions, " recalled

Midland newspaper editor Ott. " Horns honked. Church bells rang. Voices

cheered. Tears flowed. "

's leg was not broken but she underwent surgery to remove a toe on

her right foot.

The hospital reported getting 50 phone calls an hour from people asking

about the little girl's condition. Gifts and money poured into the hospital

Former Midland resident, H.W. Bush, then vice president, and his

wife, Barbara, visited in the hospital.

A couple of weeks later, some 40,000 people lined the main street of Midland

to honor the rescuers and more than 400 involved in the rescue walked in a

parade.

A day later, Oprah Winfrey broadcast her TV program from the Midland Center

and said, " America is alive in Midland. "

However, many lives had changed. Cissy Porter said she could hear the oilrig

in her nightmares. had nightmares too.

The McClures were criticized for using $80,000 from the fund in a family

business that failed and couple divorced in 1990. 's mother later

married Tim Porter.

The family, fearing could be kidnapped, sought to curtail media

exposure by agreeing to a contract with the magazine for exclusive

interviews every five years.

Although she does not remember the accident, told Ladies Home

Journal that she felt a special bond with her rescue workers, especially the

family of O' Donnell, one of the paramedics who pulled her out of the

well. O'Donnell committed suicide in 1995.

Some said O'Donnell had a hard time recovering from the stress of the

rescue, the media attention and the return to everyday life

" I wanted to thank him, but I couldn't, so I thanked his wife and son. I

told them how grateful I was. I know he didn't die saving me, but still, I

lived and he died. He was one of those who was there the longest, trying to

save me. "

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