A mother of three from Northwest Indiana is beginning her arduous journey to recovery after being trapped in her car for nearly six days. Brieonna Cassell, 41, was discovered in a ditch alongside a county road in Newton County, Indiana. With multiple surgeries ahead, doctors are striving to save Cassell's legs from amputation. Lexie Cassell, her daughter, described her mother's strength to WGN-TV, saying, "She's very strong in general, she's caring, she has a very big heart."
After veering off the road and into a ditch, Cassell got stranded out of sight from passing traffic. Amid significant injuries, she had the presence to try and reach a nearby water source to sustain herself. "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, detailed this ingenuity to WGN-TV. These feats of survival were echoed by a local man, Matt Reum, who had himself been trapped for six days in a vehicle last December and is now offering his support to the Cassell family.
Jamie Tidwell, a friend of Cassell for over 30 years, recounted to ABC7 Chicago her belief in Cassell's resolve: "Her kids mean a lot to her, so I really think that she was really fighting to make sure she got back to her children."
Despite the hopeful signs, Cassell's condition remains precarious, and the family is now facing mounting medical expenses. Lexie Cassell has started a GoFundMe page to help cover these costs, as her mother is uninsured. "If I could tell her one thing today, the recovery isn’t going to be easy by any stretch of the words because it’s never easy," Matt Reum shared his experience with WGN-TV.
