Channel Nine
A man who was trapped in a dam after his excavator rolled endured five excruciating hours before he was finally rescued.
Daniel Miller, 45, was working on his Charlotte Bay, NSW, property when the excavator slid down an embankment, pinning him in the open cabin with his nose just centimetres above the muddy water.
Every so often, Mr Miller was forced to arch his back and press his lips above the water so he could scream for help.
He was eventually heard by a neighbour five hours later – at around 2.30pm on Tuesday – and emergency services were called.
Speaking about the ordeal, Mr Miller’s wife, Saimaa, said her husband’s survival was ‘nothing to do with luck.’
‘It was literally sheer mental strength and determination to survive that got him through,’ she wrote on Facebook.
‘Legendary effort from a legendary man.’
‘Thank you friends, neighbours and workers for your incredible effort. We are so grateful for the community support,’ she added.
When Saimaa was finally reunited with her husband, he told her it was the promise he made at their wedding to not die before her that got him through.
‘(He said), darling that’s the only thing I thought to keep alive, I promised you,’ Ms Miller told The Daily Mail.
‘He was thinking, I need to be there, I want to be there for my wife and children.’
Mr Miller suffered hypothermia and minor back injuries, but was largely unharmed.
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