Jessica McClure Morales, most commonly known as “Baby Jessica”, became famous at the age of 18 months after she fell into the well in her aunt’s backyard in Midland, Texas on October 14, 1987.

Between October 14 and October 16, rescuers worked for 58 consistent hours to free Baby Jessica from the eight inch well casing 22 feet below the ground.

The story gained worldwide attention and later became the subject of a 1989 ABC television movie Everybody’s Baby: The Rescue of Jessica McClure.

The relatively new technology of waterjet cutting was an important part of the rescue.

Waterjet cutting is an industrial tool capable of cutting a wide variety of materials using a very high pressure jet of water or a mixture of water and an abrasive substance.

The rescue of Baby Jessica was tough because of the small space (eight inch well casing, 22 feet below the ground) she was stuck in.

Midland Fire and Police Department devised a plan that involved drilling an additional shaft parallel to the well and then drilling a perpendicular tunnel across to it.

With this plan, they figured they’d get McClure out in minutes. But soon came to realize that their tools were barely adequate in penetrating the thick rock that surrounded the well.

It took approximately six hours to complete the parallel shaft and a substantially longer period of time to drill the tunnel, attributable to the fact that the jackhammers used were developed primarily for drilling downward, as opposed to sideways.

After a variety of local oil drillers were brought in and proven to be of no help, a mining engineer was brought into help supervise and coordinate the rescue effort.

Forty five hours after McClure had fallen into the well, the rescue shaft and tunnel were finally completed.

Ron Short, a fit roofing contractor who was born without collar bones, due to cleidocranial dysostosis, being able to collapse his shoulders to work in cramped corners, arrived at the site of the well and offered to go down the shaft.

One report said that they considered his offer but did not use it, instead Short helped clear the tunnel debris away.

Eventually, Midland Fire Department paramedic Robert O’Donnell was able to inch his way down into the tunnel and wiggle McClure free from the well, handing her to fellow paramedic Steve Forbes, who carried her to safety.

Unfortunately, after eight years of battling posttraumatic stress disorder  after the rescue, Robert O’Donnell did commit suicide.

Following the rescue on October 16, 1987, surgeons had to amputate a toe due to gangrene from loss of circulation.

McClure also has a scar on her forehead where her head rubbed against the well casing. McClure has had 15 surgeries over the years.

On January 28, 2006, nineteen year old McClure married Daniel Morales at Church of Christ in Notrees, Texas, just outside Midland.

McClure and Morales met at the daycare that McClure and Morales’ sister both worked at together.

They now have two children jointly.

March 26, 2011, McClure turned 25 and received a trust fund of donations worth up to $800,000. The trust fund helped in the purchase of her current home, less than two miles from site of the incident, and a trust fund for the college education of her children.