A mother is being heralded for her perseverance after a car accident left her and her four-year-old daughter in a rural Manitoba ditch overnight.
Friends say that Kristin Hiebert and her daughter, Avery, were tossed from their car Sunday evening and survived temperatures in the -20s. The pair spent the night huddled together at the bottom of a steep embankment outside Dunrea, about 230 kilometres west of Winnipeg.
And although cars passed by the area throughout the night, drivers were unable to see the wreckage or its two occupants in the ditch below.
As dawn broke, Hiebert -- who broke several bones -- eventually found the strength to crawl out of the ditch and flag down a passing car.
Long-time friend Morgan Campbell, who spoke with Hiebert from hospital, says the mother is in plenty of pain but thankful that she and her daughter are safe.
“She just kept repeating, ‘Morgan, I had to save Avery, I had to save Avery.’ So that’s a mother’s love,” Campbell told CTV News Channel on Wednesday.
According to friends, Hiebert suffered two broken wrists, a broken femur and frostbite. Avery suffered frostbite to her foot, Campbell said.
“She’s got a lot of injuries, so it’s going to be a long road of healing for Kristin. She’s going to need a lot of support,” Campbell said.
An online fundraiser has since garnered more than $18,000 to support the mother and daughter as they begin the recovery process.
Deputy Fire Chief Craig Kozak of the Ninette volunteer fire department described the vehicle as “totally mangled.”
“I just spoke to her for a quick second in the car before EMS got there. She was sitting there it looked like maybe in a little bit of a state of shock," Kozak said.
According to the online fundraiser, Hiebert has undergone several surgeries and is recovering at Winnipeg’s Health Sciences Centre.
With files from CTV Winnipeg
