Mother trapped in ditch for 6 days after crash shares her story: ‘I wasn’t leaving my babies’
NEWTON COUNTY, Ind. (WLS) - After more than a dozen surgeries, an Indiana woman who spent six days trapped in a ditch after crashing her car is out of the hospital and recovering at home.
Brieonna Cassell, 41, fell asleep at the wheel in March while driving in rural Newton County at night. She crashed into a ditch, suffering compound fractures in both legs and her forearm as well as numerous broken ribs and vertebrae.
“My car ramped up. It smacked into the embankment on the other side. It crunched like an accordion. It threw my body into the floorboard,” Cassell said.
She told herself she had to stay calm, despite the excruciating pain. She thought she’d be found by sunrise, but her car was deep in the ditch, hidden from view of the road.
“One of the first things I told myself was, ‘All right, you gotta stay calm because if you freak out, it’s not going to help you,’” Cassell said.
Fighting each night and day to stay alive, Cassell spent almost a week trapped in the ditch. Her phone, which was thrown from her cup holder during the crash, lay just a few feet away.
“I mean, I felt it [the phone]. It was at my fingertips. I was able to reach over and touch it, but I kept pushing it farther. I couldn’t grab it,” Cassell said.
She used a pair of jeans to soak up water in the shallow creek at the bottom of the ditch to stay hydrated, while the entire community searched for her.
The mother of three says it was her family that gave her strength.
“My kids are most. That’s who I was really worried about. I wasn’t leaving my babies,” she said.
But when Cassell woke up on the sixth morning, still trapped, she knew time was running out.
“I said, ‘I’ve done everything that I can think of. I cannot get out of here alone. You have to let somebody see me, or I’m not gonna make it out,’” she said. “It wasn’t even an hour later that Jeremy pulled up.”
A local volunteer fire chief had been alerted by an employee about Cassell’s car. He called 911, and the mother was flown to Advocate’s Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where she underwent 13 surgeries.
“I get emotional talking about all that, too, because if it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be here,” Cassell said.
Three months later, Cassell was discharged from the hospital. There were doubts at first, but doctors managed to save her legs. She still can’t walk, but she is expected to be able to after more recovery.
In the meantime, she’s working on publishing a book detailing her harrowing ordeal.
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