A driver heading down a treacherous wooded freeway spotted a little girl on the side of the road, barefoot and alone, flagging for help. They pulled over, and the desperate girl would lead them to a horrible scene that was far from where she was found.
Little 5-year-old Lexi Shymanski had gone with her mom Angela and baby brother Peter on a drive from their home in Prince George, British Columbia to Calgary. With soft lullaby music playing for her kids in the car, the mother nodded off at the wheel.
The family’s car careened off the road and plunged down a 40 foot cliff into the rocky terrain. The crash knocked Lexi out, and when she awoke, she saw her mother hunched over the wheel and her brother was crying, while she herself was covered in scratches.
Knowing that the car could not be seen by other drivers, as they were down in a deep ravine, Lexi did the unthinkable for a child her size. She had been strapped tight in a five-point harnessed car seat, that she’s never been able to get out of before, but somehow she managed to Macgyver her way free from the restraints and ultimately out of the car. Then, barefoot, she climbed the rocky cliff to get to the street above and signal for help for her family.
Miraculously, the driver who stopped for her was a paramedic, who couldn’t have been there by coincidence, but possibly as a Godsend. The fact that the help was medically trained for emergencies is likely what saved Angela’s life, or at least prevented her from being permanently paralyzed.
With Angela’s visibly broken back, the medic knew that it could have resulted in paralysis if they moved her body. The average individual could have made the mistake of trying to pull her out, which would have been tragic.
Life flight was sent to the scene, and all three were flown to a nearby hospital, where it was also discovered that the baby had a bleed on the brain. If the quick-thinking girl hadn’t sought help as fast as she did, her brother may have suffered dire consequences. She’s now rightfully being hailed a hero for the endurance she had to get help for her mom and brother. The rocky cliff she climbed typically requires firemen and medics to use ropes to scale the embankment, but she did it on her own, without wearing any shoes.
When later asked what made her decide to climb to safety, Lexi said, “I thought, ‘What would Mommy say if she was awake … Mommy would say go get help,’” CBC reported.
The family is healing from the ordeal, and Angela’s husband, the children’s father, has taken a leave from work to care for his wife and children around the clock. Angela broke her back in the crash but also required CPR at the scene, which resulted in more broken bones. She’s expected to make a full recovery, thanks to urgent action by her daughter and a good Samaritan, who was in the right place at the right time.
