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Woman trapped in pool turns to Facebook for help

By Ben Hooper
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Aug. 21 (UPI) -- A New Hampshire woman who was trapped in her pool when the ladder broke turned to Facebook to summon assistance to get her back to dry land.

Leslie Kahn, 61, said she was finishing up her daily swim in her backyard pool Aug. 11 when a step on the ladder she uses to get out of the above-ground pool broke.

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"I had one foot on it, and when I put my other foot on it, it went down. And I cracked my knee," Kahn told WBZ-TV.

Kahn said she tried to climb out without the ladder, but didn't have any success.

"Without something for my feet to get leverage on and without that upper body strength, it wasn't happening," she told WMUR-TV.

Kahn said she had left her phone inside, but her iPad was on a chair nearby.

"I got the trusty pool pole, dragged the leg of the chair, dragged it over, got the iPad, hooked up to Wi-Fi and asked my community for help," she said.

Kahn posted her call for help on Epping Squawks, a popular community Facebook group.

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"I started off with 911 and an exclamation point," she said. "I wanted to get people's attention fast."

She said a neighbor who saw the post showed up only a few minutes later.

"I was really glad to see her friendly face, and I sent her inside for the toolbox," Kahn said. "And then the police came and then a neighbor came from up the street because he'd seen the police."

She said the assembled rescuers were unable to fix the step quickly, so they lowered a step ladder into the pool and Kahn was able to climb out.

Kahn, a breast cancer survivor, said she had learned during her treatment that it's OK to ask for help.

"You get through whatever life throws at you, and you ask for help," Kahn said. "And be prepared to help others, and that's the way life is supposed to work. That's the way community is supposed to work. And in my experience, it does."

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