Brieonna Cassell, an Illinois woman who was trapped in her crashed car for six days in Northwest Indiana, has been released from the hospital after a nearly three-month recovery, as WGN-TV reported. Cassell, a 41-year-old mother of three, was driving home in March when she fell asleep at the wheel, resulting in her vehicle veering into a ditch along CR 600S in Newton County, where she was pinned inside with multiple broken bones and without immediate rescue.

The survivor recounted how, in an effort to call for help, she tried to get her phone's voice assistant to dial out but the device was out of reach and required screen-unlocking, in a statement obtained by WGN-TV ; she innovated survival techniques such as using spare jeans to soak up ditch water for drinking and staying warm with a mattress cover and that she never gave up hope though admitting that she didn't begin to lose hope until the day she was actually found six days after the crash, according to Cassell's telling.

After being discovered by a local fire chief alerted by an employee who spotted the wreckage, Cassell spent the majority of her time in the hospital's ICU and OR undergoing 13 surgeries, WGN-TV details; she has since returned home, where a wheelchair ramp has been installed at her residence, and her mother Kim Brown shared the emotional impact of her daughter's full recounting of the ordeal.

Meanwhile, in a separate interview with CBS News , Cassell who couldn’t move due to being trapped by her legs, survived by drinking water from her cardigan, warming herself with a mattress topper, and trying to signal for help with a flashlight thought she would never make it out alive; she is now focused on physical therapy and book writing to detail her harrowing journey, expressing certainty in her eventual ability to walk again.

Comparatively, this incident in Northwest Indiana mirrors a similar episode from December 2023, when Matt Reum also survived six days trapped in his vehicle in a ravine along Salt Creek in Portage, Indiana after a crash, subsisting on rainwater and using his airbag for warmth until being discovered by two fishermen, as CBS News recounted; Reum, who ultimately required a leg amputation, expressed his gratitude and perspective a year following the event, likening it to Cassell's story of survival and unexpected rescue.