I've been thinking that the title of the thread isn't right.
A distress beacon IS the same thing as dialing 911 in terms of results.

In this case, neither action could have saved her life.

Folks hope that 911 or beacon activation is kind of like a Star Trek emergency transporter that will whisk them out of danger instantly. But dialing for help doesn't work that way.

Shifting topic a little-

From reading aircraft accident reports I learned the technique of considering how the accident report would read if something went wrong with a risky action I was considering doing. Can be applied to just about everything one might be doing from flying to backpacking to just driving your car to work.