It's a miracle: How Indiana woman survived after being trapped in car for 6 days

The woman had given up hope of being found.

She had been trapped in her wrecked car in Indiana for six days.

“I don’t think anybody is gonna find me. I am gonna die in this ditch,” she thought.

However, soon her prayers were answered.

A man operating equipment for a drainage and excavation company found her alive.

What happened?

Brieonna Cassell, a 41-year-old mother of three, disappeared last Wednesday after leaving her mother’s home to visit a friend close to the Indiana villages of Wheatfield and Demotte, according to CNN affiliate WLS.

She reportedly fell asleep behind the wheel of her black 2008 Ford Taurus before veering off the road into a deep ditch in the small town of Brook, which is about 128 kilometres south of Chicago, WLS reported.

According to her family members and the Newton County sheriff’s office, her car had crashed off the road, out of sight of oncoming traffic, and no one could hear her cries for assistance.

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How did she survive for six days?

Cassell’s parents stated during a press conference on Tuesday that she was unable to move her legs after being severely injured in the crash.

According to her father, Delmar Caldwell, Cassell used her sweater to wring water out of a nearby creek and drank it in order to survive after her phone died as well.

“She was stuck in the car and could not get out. But she was able to reach the water from the car,” Caldwell said. “The only way she was able to survive was using her hoodie and dipping it into the water in a ditch and sucking the water, or bringing the water into her mouth from the ditch.”

“She was in excruciating pain. She was screaming out for help. She could hear cars going by, but they couldn’t see her from the road,” her father added.

Cassell’s family joined rescue teams that consisted of local fire, ambulance, and aviation agencies.

On Tuesday morning, “she had given up hope of being found,” Caldwell said, adding, “And then, by the grace of God and the prayers and everything, she was found.”

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How was the woman found?

The Newton County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement on Tuesday that Cassell was found by Johnny Martinez, a passerby who was operating drainage equipment in the region.

Martinez contacted his supervisor, Jeremy Vanderwall, also a fire chief in the nearby town of Morocco. The duo inspected the car and found Cassell alone, “conscious and speaking,” the Sheriff’s office said.

“‘That’s you?’ I said, ‘Your family’s been looking for you,’” Vanderwall told the local news station. “‘There are posts everywhere on social media.’ I said, ‘I can’t believe you’ve been in this long.’”

“Despite her injuries, Cassell had survived six days waiting to be rescued,” the statement read.

Cassell was rescued and airlifted to a Chicago hospital, the authorities said.

“She said, ‘I didn’t think anybody was gonna find me. I thought I was gonna die in this ditch,’” Vanderwall recalled.

She was placed in the ICU and underwent surgery on Wednesday after sustaining severe injuries to her legs, ribs and wrist, the reports said.

Martinez was operating a tall tractor, according to Vanderwall, so he spotted the car. “I, myself, had travelled that road at least three to four times since she crashed and did not see her,” he noted.

According to Caldwell, Martinez recognised who Cassell was when he found her since the neighbourhood was familiar with his daughter’s missing person report.

“In my book, Martinez is a hero, and we can never thank him enough for his keen eye and quick action,” the sheriff said in a statement.

Vanderwall added, “If he hadn’t seen her and hadn’t pushed for me to go back and check on her, she could have laid there for who knows how much longer, and the outcome might not be the same.”

“I could feel something was wrong in my gut and I started panicking,” Cassell’s mother, Kim Brown, told reporters.

“Everybody that helped to find her and the volunteers and everything… It was a wonderful miracle,” Caldwell said, adding that Cassell is now in “good spirits” and “eating a lot.

He added, “It’s going to be a long road to recovery.”

Newton County Sheriff Shannon Cothran called Cassell’s survival “an incredible testament to her will to live.”

A fundraiser was set up by Cassell’s daughter, Lexie, to pay for her medical bills.

With inputs from agencies