MCCOY, Colo. (KMGH) – A 75-year-old Colorado woman is recovering after breaking her leg in a crash and spending the night outdoors in her rural community.
It was an ordeal of nearly 14 hours of fighting through pain and crawling home before Charlene Kirby was found.
At 75 years old, Kirby has made a name for herself in Eagle County.
“For 25 years, I was the only first responder up here. I also became an ER nurse,” she said.
Her career and hometown prepared her for one night in early June. She said she was involved in a crash when her trailer jackknifed.
“Everybody was gone for the day. So, I hooked up the trailer to the side by side, and I went,” Kirby said.
However, her trailer could have also saved her life.
“Miracle No. 1, the trailer jackknifed again, and then the side-by-side did not run over the top of me,” Kirby said. “But when I fell, I knew I broke my femur. I could feel it.”
Kirby said she ended up crawling for hours after the crash to get help.
“You’re really not supposed to move a femur, because you could sever your femoral artery,” she said.
She crawled from around 7 p.m. to 9 a.m. the following morning.
“14 hours,” Kirby said. “People asked me if I did the Army crawl. I said, ‘No.’ It was more like the inchworm.”
Her son found her the next morning and called an ambulance.
“I had dirt in my nose, in my ears, on my teeth, in my hair … all down the front of me,” she said.
She spent three weeks rehabilitating her leg.
“There’s no doubt in my mind I survived because God was with me the whole time,” Kirby said.
And Kirby was even back home in time for the wedding at her ranch.
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