Man trapped for five hours with nose just above water

An Australian man is lucky to be alive after spending hours struggling to keep his nose above water after his excavator rolled into a dam.

Daniel Miller, 45, had been using the machine at his remote property 180 miles north of Sydney when the edge of the dam gave way.

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He became pinned down by the a bar on the machine and sank into the mud, with his nose just above the waterline.

He shouted for help until finally a neighbour heard his screams from 500 metres away and went to get help.

Mr Miller adopted a kind of yoga pose to keep his back arched, while thoughts of his wife and two young children kept him going.

According to the BBC, he said: "I was trapped and had to keep my head up above water using my arms, I guess it was the cobra position.

"I'm not a yogi but I guess you could say yoga saved my life. That and the will to live."

Rescuers had to dig underneath Mr Miller's body to allow him to escape from under the bar.

He was taken to hospital where he was treated for hypothermia.

Daniel's wife Saimaa posted some images of the scene and thanked the rescue workers for saving her husband.

She wrote: "Dan is ok! He was trapped ... with only his nose and forehead out of the water, with the weight of his excavator on his back, and with the boggy dam ground below him slowly slipping away. For five hours.

"It was literally sheer mental strength and determination to survive that got him through. As well as being fit, strong and healthy. Nothing to do with luck. Legendary effort from a legendary man."


According to the Telegraph, Chief Inspector Neil Stephens told NBN News that Mr Miller was "extremely lucky to survive".

"He was trapped such that only just a part of his face was above the water, just his nose and his forehead was above the water."