An Indiana woman who was trapped in her car for six days after an accident is speaking out about how she survived and how she plans to recover after spending months in the hospital.
Brieonna Cassell was discovered by two men on Tuesday, March 11, inside her vehicle, off a road and out of sight of passing traffic, according to the Newton County Sheriff’s Office.
Three months later, Cassell is recounting the events leading up to her discovery, telling CBS News affiliate WBBM that she fell asleep while driving and crashed into a ditch, trapping her legs.
“My car crunched like an accordion,” Cassell told the WBBM.
“I was like, ‘Well, go to sleep—hopefully, somebody finds you,'” Cassell told 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.'”
Cassell used clothes to absorb water to drink from the ditch she was trapped in and a mattress topper to stay warm, according to local station WGN-TV.
According to the sheriff’s office, Johnny Martinez, who was operating equipment for a drainage company, noticed her vehicle and contacted his supervisor, Jeremy Vanderwall, who also serves as the local fire chief.
They found Cassell alive but injured inside the vehicle. She was eventually flown to a hospital in Chicago.
“Despite her injuries, Cassell had survived 6 days waiting to be rescued,” according to the police.
“I see the tire come up and stop,” Cassell said on WBBM. “Then I was just so relieved.”
“When they got me out of that car, my flesh had been rotting for two days.” “I had been smelling it,” Cassell told WBBM. “I didn’t think my legs were coming out of the car with me.”
According to WGN-TV, she suffered multiple broken bones and required more than a dozen surgeries to recover. On Saturday, June 7, she returned home from the hospital.
“I just feel like He has a reason that I am here,” she told WGN-TV. “I don’t have any other explanation for it.”
