Brieonna Cassell had just nodded off while driving through rural Newton County, Indiana. It was an accident that would leave her fighting for her life over the next six days.
Trapped inside a crumpled vehicle that had vanished from road view, with her legs pinned and no way to call for help, the 41-year-old mother of three quickly realized she was alone. Her cell phone had ended up just beyond her grasp. She had suffered crushing injuries in various parts of her body.
And to make matters worse, no one even knew where she was.
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But now, three months and a whopping 13 surgeries later, Cassell is opening up about her harrowing experience. Her story is of sipping water from a ditch through her damp jeans, enduring the agony of rotting flesh while trapped, and keeping her spirits up for her kids.
“Flesh Had Been Rotting”: Trapped Mom’s Brutal Ordeal
In March, Cassell unfortunately dozed off while driving, causing her car to swerve out of control. It shot into a ditch, then climbed up a slope before coming down with such a heavy thud that her “car crunched like an accordion,” as she later described to CBS. The impact was so severe that it broke both her legs, her forearm, and some ribs and even damaged her vertebrae.
Her body got wedged into the car’s floorboard, leaving her utterly unable to move.
“I was like, ‘Well, go to sleep — hopefully, somebody finds you,'” Cassell recalled. When she woke up the next day, she realized no one could even see her. “Now I’ve got to figure out how to get out of here.”
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She tried to stay hydrated by dipping her jeans into a creek and sucking out the moisture. She wrapped herself in a mattress topper from her trunk at night to keep warm. The stink made her realize how alarming her situation had become. “When they pulled me out of that car, my flesh had been rotting for two days. (…) I didn’t think my legs were coming out of the car with me,” she revealed.
“My kids are most. That’s who I was really worried about. I wasn’t leaving my babies,” Cassell pleaded. Meanwhile, her mother, Kim Brown, reported her missing and said, “I was just screaming to God, ‘Please let my baby come home.'”
Brieonna Cassell’s Recovery Was Because of Her Purpose
On the sixth morning, Cassell made a desperate plea to the universe: “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.”
In about an hour, Johnny Martinez, a guy who works on the drains, spotted something that didn’t seem right. He contacted his boss, the local fire chief, Jeremy Vanderwall. They went to check it out and found a car that had been squished flat. It was clear they had a serious situation on their hands. So, emergency services were called. They decided the best way to get Cassell to the hospital was to fly her to Advocate Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Illinois.
When doctors first saw her, they weren’t too hopeful about her legs. But she’s a fighter and beat the odds. They sent her home on June 7th, and she was improving even though she couldn’t walk yet.
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Now that she’s back at her place, she’s planning to put her story into a book. She wants to reach out to others who’ve been through tough times like hers, hoping her experience can comfort them.
“I just feel like He has a purpose that I’m here,” Brieonna Cassell said.
Her story has already struck a chord nationally, with Facebook groups and rescue volunteers sharing updates and support throughout her recovery. Cassell’s resilience and maternal determination testify to the will to survive, alone in the dark.
