Doctors fight to save Indiana woman’s legs after she was trapped in car for six days

Doctors are fighting to save the legs of a woman who was trapped in her car for six days after crashing into a ditch in Indiana.

Brieonna Cassell, 41, was stuck inside her Ford Taurus for six days after her car wrecked into the ditch off a rural road in Newton County, Indiana.

After surviving the harrowing ordeal, the mother of three began treatment at the Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Illinois.

When she arrived at the hospital, she had compound fractures and infections in both of her legs and a compound fracture in one of her wrists.

Cassell underwent surgery on Wednesday afternoon. Doctors are waiting to see if her infections are going to heal before they continue with further treatment and surgeries. If the infections in her legs do not heal, then doctors may be forced to amputate them.

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Police believed she fell asleep behind the wheel of her black 2008 Ford Taurus and veered off the road while driving near the small town of Brook, approximately 80 miles south of Chicago.

Cassell crashed into a “very big, deep ditch” that couldn’t be seen from the road, her father, Delmar Caldwell, told ABC7 Chicago. He added that passersby couldn’t hear her cries for help from their cars.

“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 said.

The crash pinned her legs inside the vehicle and kept her from moving, but Cassell was resourceful and found a way to keep herself alive despite being immobilized.

To avoid dying of dehydration, Cassell put her vehicle in neutral, allowing it to slide further into the ditch, where she could then whip her cardigan out of her window to soak in the muddy waters around her car. She then sucked the liquid from her garment.

“She put the car in reverse and let it roll back down the bank to the water, so she could reach out,” Aaron Cassell, her husband, told WGN9. “She could only reach out with one arm to reach the water and then let it soak up in there and pull up and suck the water out of the hood.”

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After six days, an equipment operator named Johnny Martinez spotted Cassell's vehicle and reported it to his immediate supervisor, Jeremy Vanderwell, who is also the volunteer fire chief of the nearby town, Morocco.

Martinez and Vanderwall investigated the vehicle and found Cassel conscious. They then called for medical assistance. First responders provided initial treatment at the scene and then handed Cassell off to a life-flight helicopter.

Cassell's family has set up a GoFundMe page to help the woman cover her medical bills. Lexie Cassell, Brieonna's 23-year-old daughter, said her mother does not have health insurance. The fundraiser has brought in $13,000 of its $25,000 goal.