Apparently she had a kidney disease and therefore weighted only 41 kilograms. She needed money for an operation which she got.
What fall in shaft makes possible
Surviving in Romania is out of your mind. The road surface is full of ominous holes, exotic shafts, and poorly marked wells .... Olaf Tempelman19 June 2001, 0:00
Since then, Oana Furnica has not just been a well-known Romanian. She has grown into a folk hero in no time. And even more: to a martyr, an icon. Because everyone now knows that Oana could only save little Alina because of her own tragic fate. She suffers from a severe kidney disease and therefore weighs only 41 kilos. That is why she fitted in that well.
Her single mother has no money for an operation. The poor widow lives with Oana and her two brothers in a small apartment. A real melodrama. And the Romanian media is crazy about that. In the past week, the limits of good taste were once again considerably challenged. "For her brave act, the life of Oana Furnica was as sad as a rainy fall day."
Furnica, from the village of Voluntari near Pipera, sat on the local TV watching the live broadcast of attempts by rescue workers to get Alina out of the well. The bastard was so stuck that it just failed with a rope. A tough but somewhat set-up rescue worker then got stuck in the well. A lot of muscle power had to be used to get him out again. In the meantime, Furnica had seen that the well in Pipera was almost identical to that in Voluntari, where there has been no water for a long time. Furnica walked outside and discovered that she easily fitted. An hour later she went down to Alina upside down.
It was dark and at a depth of ten meters she did not succeed in tying a rope around the toddler's waist. She came up again with a fiery red face. There, she was generally discouraged from trying again. But she didn't give up. On the second descent, however, the toddler had extended her hands to her. The child was so stuck between the wall and the bucket that Furnica had to slowly pry it loose. A minute later they returned together from the dark depths. Only Alina's leg was bruised.
'>The return from the underground' is already one of the most repeated moments in Romanian TV history. And that is why the melodrama Oana Furnica gets a happy ending. She gets her own apartment from the mayor of Voluntari. From the prefect Oana - who has finished school since she was fourteen - gets a job at the province. From a businessman she receives ten thousand guilders for an operation on the kidneys. If it succeeds, someone else must enter the shaft in the next accident.
https://www.volkskrant.nl/nieuws-achtergrond/waar-val-in-rotput-al-niet-goed-voor-is~ba539ba6/