Near Fatal Laundry Room Incident Girl Becomes Trapped in Washer Machine September 1, 2004 � An eight-year-old girl from the Reading area is still recovering after her extraordinary ordeal. She became trapped in a giant washing machine.
It almost sounds like a scene from "Alice in Wonderland".
At first, the story seems a little bit bizarre. But through the eyes of an eight-year-old, there's no doubt it was flat out terrifying. The girl is lucky to be alive. She got stuck in an industrial-size washing machine.
Eight-year-old Anna Moyer is happy to be with her parents today, but ahe is still bruised, and sore from an accident that very nearly cost her life. For more than five minutes, Anna was stuck in a triple loading washing machine.
"Were you scared?"
"Uh huh."
"What were you thinking when you were inside?"
"I want to get out." It happened yesterday evening, in the community laundry room at the Shillington Commons Apartments in Cumru Township, down the street from Anna's home. Anna and her friends wandered down there - she says she got into the machine on a dare. Then, a friend put in a few coins, and turned it on.
"It starts, and I bang my head every time, and my head hurts already."
"But I'm glad she's okay."
Gwen Schrack is still emotional about how she, along with two other adults, saved Anna from suffocating in the machine. Schrack, who knows C-P-R and is studying to become a nurse, frantically helped dismantle the washer, literally pulling wires apart, to turn it off, and got Anna out.
Gwen Schrack/RESCUER:
"We tried to get the door open, we couldn't get the door open. She was spinning around in there, there was water, there was soap."
"They finally got it open, and she was just limp, she looked like a rag doll. Her lips were blue, she was completely pale."
Anna was treated and released from Reading Hospital. Mom would like to thank the rescuers:
Daphne Moyer/ANNA'S MOTHER:
"I would love to get their names, and thank them all personally. This means so much to me that she's here."
Anna took the week off from school. When she returns next Tuesday, she'll have a story to tell, and a lesson for others.
"I won't do no dares, I won't go in it ever again."
"I hope kids learn, a washing machine is not a toy."
We did give the Moyer family a number to contact Gwen Schrack, one of her rescuers. That certainly will be an emotional phone call. In the meantime, Anna's parents have grounded her. The eight-year-old, at least for now, is also afraid to even enter a laundry room.