Updated 08/21/12 – 8:32 p.m.

CHICAGO (CBS) – A woman trying to clear a beaver dam got stuck in mud up to her chest for about five hours on Monday.

Jean Chin was finally rescued after neighbors heard her screaming and called for help. She became stuck in a marsh around 6:30 p.m. Monday near her home in the 500 block of Liberty Street.

Neighbors who finally heard her plea for help called police about four hours later, according to the Wauconda Fire Department.

She was in the marsh, trying to clear a beaver dam, authorities said.

When rescue crews arrived, they found her trapped in thick muck almost up to her shoulders.

Chin told CBS 2’s Mike Parker she couldn’t believe how strong the suction was that held her in the smelly, stagnant mud.

“I couldn’t wiggle out,” she said.

LISTEN: WBBM Newsradio’s John Cody reports

Chin said she spent 3 1/2 hours calling for help.

“Every time I saw a car coming soon, I’d shout, ‘help me’ and I kept calling, and I looked, and everybody’s car windows were closed,” she said.

She said the mud was disgusting.

“They cut my clothes off in the ambulance, and when I got to the hospital they cut the rest of my clothes off.”

As for the Wauconda firefighters who managed to dig her out in a 45 minute rescue operation, she said, “Oh, they’re such heroes. It was amazing.”

It took several pieces of equipment to get her our safely. Firefighters used ladders as makeshift bridges and needed several shovels to dig her free.

She was not injured, but was taken to Condell Medical Center in Libertyville for observation.