A 41-year-old woman was found alive on Tuesday after being trapped in her car for six days following a crash in northwest Indiana, officials confirmed.
Brieonna Cassell, a mother of three, had been missing since last Wednesday after leaving her mother's home to visit a friend near the towns of Wheatfield and DeMotte, Indiana, according to CNN affiliate WLS.
The incident occurred when Cassell reportedly fell asleep behind the wheel before veering off the road into a deep ditch in the small town of Brook, about 80 miles south of Chicago. Her car had crashed off the road, out of view from passing traffic, and no one could hear her calls for help, the Newton County sheriff's office and her family said.
Unable to move her legs due to injuries, Cassell's phone lost power, leaving her with few options. To survive, she used her sweater to retrieve water from a nearby creek, wringing it into the water and drinking from it, her father, Delmar Caldwell, explained during a news conference on Tuesday.
"She was in excruciating pain. She was screaming out for help," Caldwell told WLS.
Cassell's six-day ordeal came to an end when she was discovered by Johnny Martinez, a passerby operating drainage equipment in the area. Martinez contacted his supervisor, Jeremy Vanderwell, who is also a fire chief in the nearby town of Morocco. The two later found Cassell, "conscious and speaking," in her car, according to the Newton County Sheriff's Office.
"Despite her injuries, Cassell had survived 6 days waiting to be rescued," the sheriff's office statement read.
Cassell was flown to a hospital in Chicago, where she was placed in the ICU and scheduled for surgery on Wednesday due to severe injuries to her legs, ribs, and wrist, WLS reported.
"I could feel something was wrong in my gut and I started panicking," Cassell's mother, Kim Brown, said during the press conference.
"I just can't wait to hug her and kiss her, which I probably can't do," Brown added.
"It's going to be a long road to recovery," Caldwell remarked.
