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Freezing woman survives for two days on floating mattress after getting stuck on lake in -10C temperatures

She floated for nearly two miles before reaching dry land on Thursday

Emily Atkinson
Monday 07 February 2022 05:50 EST
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The sun rises over Tulsa, Oklahoma, after a major winter storm cut electric power to about 350,000 homes and businesses from Texas to the Ohio Valley.
The sun rises over Tulsa, Oklahoma, after a major winter storm cut electric power to about 350,000 homes and businesses from Texas to the Ohio Valley. (AP)

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A stranded woman was reportedly discovered after floating for two days on a blow-up mattress in the middle of an Oklahoma lake.

After drifting along for nearly two miles on the inflatable raft in -2C temperatures on Wednesday and -10C on Thursday, per World Weather, the woman drifted ashore before being rescued at train tracks near Lake Texoma.

Train Conductor Cristhian Sosa and Train Engineer Justin Luster came across the woman while on their regular southbound trip aboard a freight train from Madill, Oklahoma, to Irving, Texas, reports KRMG. She was holding onto the mattress, waving her arms and shouting for help.

“She was literally laying on the ground waving one arm, basically her left arm, the one that her arm wasn’t stuck with her jacket and she was asking for help so we instantly knew she was hurt and she needed help,” Sosa said.

“Well naturally we kinda thought maybe she was delirious, we really didn’t know what really happened and it wasn’t until we got to the crossing where highway patrolman had come out to find out her story was accurate, she had been floating on that air mattress for a solid day or two,” Luster added.

Freight network operator BNSF told NBC News the pair stopped the train to help the woman - who identified herself only as Connie - and called the emergency services for assistance.

The crew moved her to the second engine to warm her up as she was showing signs of hypothermia, it added, and her hands were cut up and bleeding, and she struggled to walk.

Connie told Sosa and Luster she had been floating for two days on the partially-frozen man-made reservoir after becoming separated from a man she had been with.

The woman and her companion had been using the blow-up mattress as a raft to get to a boat on the lake, Oklahoma Highway Patrol said.

She was taken to a local hospital where she is expected to make a full recovery.

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