- An Indiana woman trapped in her car for six days after an accident is speaking out about how she managed to survive
- Brieonna Cassell used her clothes to absorb water to drink from the ditch she was trapped in
- She’s undergone more than a dozen surgeries on her path to recovery
An Indiana woman trapped in her car for six days after an accident is speaking out about how she managed to survive and her path to recovery after spending months at a hospital.
Two men discovered Brieonna Cassell on Tuesday, March 11, inside her vehicle off a roadway and out of sight from passing traffic, the Newton County Sheriff’s Office reported at the time.
Three months later, Cassell is recounting the events that led to her discovery, telling CBS News affiliate WBBM that she fell asleep while driving and crashed her car into a ditch, leaving her legs pinned.
“My car crunched like an accordion,” Cassell told WBBM.
“I was like, ‘Well, go to sleep — hopefully, somebody finds you,’ ” Cassell recalled to the news station. “Woke up in the morning, and I was still there, and I was like, ‘Now I’ve got to figure out how to get out of here.’ ”
To survive, Cassell used clothes to absorb water to drink from the ditch she was trapped in and relied on a mattress topper to keep warm, per local station WGN-TV.
The sheriff’s office said that Johnny Martinez, who was operating equipment for a drainage company, noticed her vehicle and reached out to his supervisor, Jeremy Vanderwall, who is also the local fire chief. Together, they found Cassell alive but injured inside the vehicle. She was later flown to a hospital in Chicago.
“Despite her injuries, Cassell had survived 6 days waiting to be rescued,” police said.
“I see the tire come up and stop,” Cassell told WBBM. “Then I was just so relieved.”
“When they pulled me out of that car, my flesh had been rotting for two days. I had been smelling it,” Cassell said to WBBM. “I didn’t think my legs were coming out of the car with me.”
WGN-TV reported she suffered multiple broken bones and had to undergo more than a dozen surgeries on her road to recovery. On Saturday, June 7, she came home from the hospital.
“I just feel like He has a purpose that I’m here,” she told WGN-TV. “I don’t have any other explanation for it.”
