Milan — A cave explorer in northern Italy was successfully rescued on Wednesday, 75 hours after she sustained injuries while trying to map an unexplored section of the Bueno Fonteno cave, as reported by alpine rescue teams.

The final phase of the rescue effort went more efficiently than initially anticipated. Rescue workers managed to carry 32-year-old Ottavia Piana, who was secured in a stretcher, to safety at the mouth of the cave in the early hours of the morning. Remarkably, this was the second time in 17 months that she had to be rescued from the same cave located near Lago d’Iseo, northeast of Bergamo.

Piana endured multiple fractures, including injuries to her face, ribs, and knee, after falling about 5 meters (13 feet) while she explored an uncharted area of the cave on Saturday, according to medical professionals. The Bueno Fonteno cave is situated approximately 500 meters (yards) underground, with around 19 kilometers (nearly 12 miles) of the cave already mapped.

The extraction from the narrow, unmapped passage of the cave proved to be particularly challenging. Footage captured during the operation showed Piana enveloped in blankets and secured to a stretcher, maneuvered through tight tunnels by a team of helmeted rescuers that included rotating doctors and nurses. They paused every 90 minutes to monitor her condition throughout the arduous journey.

By late afternoon on Tuesday, the rescue team had reached the main tunnel, and the remaining passage was completed much quicker than expected, arriving at least 12 hours ahead of schedule.

A total of nearly 160 technicians from 13 different regions of Italy collaborated in the continuous rescue operation, which began at midnight on Saturday after her teammates alerted authorities that she was injured and trapped deep within the cave system.