Emily Sellick, from Kingsbridge in Devon, was exploring a disused lead mine in Shropshire with six friends when she suffered an epileptic fit and fell.
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| Emily Sellick pictured after her rescue from Pridhamsleigh Cavern in June 2006. She was so impressed by the work of the cave rescuers who helped her that she later volunteered to join the Devon Cave Rescue Organisation |
The 24-year-old was pulled to safety after a six-hour rescue operation involving dozens of specialist cave rescuers, police and paramedics.
In 2006, Miss Sellick was injured in a fall at Pridhamsleigh Cavern, near Buckfastleigh, prompting a three-hour rescue.
She is also thought to have been hospitalised after falling 30ft down a gorge while climbing near Chudleigh last month.
In Wednesday evening's accident, Miss Sellick and her friends had climbed 250ft down into the mine at Snailbeach, near Minsterley.
She landed in a side chamber and began to slip in and out of consciousness.
It took two of the team 45 minutes to climb back to the surface and alert the emergency services.
A major rescue operation was launched involving 50 volunteers from Midland Cave Rescue as well as police and paramedics.
Miss Sellick, secretary of the Devon Cave Rescue Organisation, a non-operational, administrative role, was pulled from the mine at 3.30am on Thursday.
She was taken to the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital complaining of back and leg pain. The extent of her injuries is not known.
The incident bears remarkable similarities to the rescue in June 2006 when she had volunteered to assist a cave exploration with students from her former school, Kingsbridge Community College.
The party were 300ft to 400ft into the cave at Pridhamsleigh when she slipped while attempting to climb a small step and landed on her back.
"I was screaming when I fell," she said in a later interview with the Western Morning News.
"I was very frightened, but the time between the slip and hitting was quite minimal so there was not much I could do in that time."
Despite fears that she had injured her spine, she was able to return home the next day having suffered mild hypothermia and a large amount of bruising to her back, tissue damage and an injury to her right knee.
Source: This is Plymouth