NEWTOWN COUNTY, Ind. (WLS) – An Indiana woman who survived being stuck in her car for nearly a week is now facing another battle.
The woman’s family says she could lose her legs from the injuries she sustained in a crash after surviving in her vehicle for nearly a week while it was stuck in a ditch.
“I didn’t know what happened to her. I didn’t know where she was. It was scary,” Lexie Cassell, the woman’s daughter, said.
Her mother, Brieonna Cassell, had fought for her life for nearly six days, stuck in her vehicle after she’d fallen asleep at the wheel and veered off the road into a ditch – out of sight from passing cars.
“We were just doing everything we possibly could to find her because we knew she was out there,” the woman’s friend, Jamie Tidwell, said.
Friends for 30 years, Tidwell says she knew in her gut what had happened. She didn’t find her friend, but someone else did.
A contractor was operating a tractor when he spotted the vehicle. After alerting his supervisor, they discovered Brieonna Cassell alive, breathing and conscious.
“She wanted to fight to stay here with us,” Tidwell said. “Her kids mean a lot to her. So, I really think that she was really fighting to make sure she got back to her children.”
With her phone dead and unable to move, Lexie Cassell says her mom screamed for help, made signs to hold up to her window, and even put her car in neutral to slide into the creek closer to fresh water to drink.
But as the days and nights passed, she says her mom admitted her will to survive was dwindling.
“She fought and she kept trying, but that morning, she was ready to give up, and then they found her,” Lexie Cassell said.
The woman’s daughter says doctors don’t know if they’ll be able to save her mom’s legs as they were significant compound fractures to both. But they are trying.
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