Mom who lost lower legs to frostbite to save daughter shares story for 1st time

Kristen Hiebert is still trying to piece together what happened the night her car went off the road and she crawled to safety in frigid conditions to save her little girl, losing the lower part of her legs to frostbite in the process.

She's learning to walk with prosthetic legs. She has discovered a strength she never knew she had.

Everything she did that night,and is doing now, is all for Avery.

"Some days I like to think that it was almost a blessing in a weird way because it's kind of opened my eyes to think of what I need to be doing to better myself and my daughter and to be strong for her," Hiebertsaid in her first interview since the accident.

Hiebert doesn't remember the accident that left her and her four-year-old daughter clinging to each other for warmth in a ditch for at least 10 hours in 20 C.

• Woman rescues mom, 4-year-old after night spent in bitter cold
• Mom who crawled up snowbank to save daughter after crash loses feet to frostbite

"I remember cars going by and screaming, but I knew in the back of mind that they can't hear me, they can't see me. So we just laid there," she said.

Hiebert, 27, and her daughter Avery were driving home toBoissevain, Man.,on Jan.17after checking on her mother's house inGlenborowhile she was away on vacation.Hieberttook her usual route, one she's driven hundreds of times.

Her car somehow went off the road at a bridge on Highway 23 nearDunrea, Man.,and landed in the ditch at the bottom of a steep embankment, missing the river by mere metres. Hiebertwas unconscious at first, buteventually woke up and knew she needed help.

She doesn't know how she eventually found the strength to climb up a steep embankment to get help when she had two frozen feet andmultiple injuries from the crash.

Kristen Hiebert describes what happened the night she was stranded in the ditch in the freezing cold with her daughter

8 years ago

Duration 5:03

Kristen Hiebert is still trying to piece together what happened the night her car went off the road and she crawled to safety in frigid conditions to save her little girl, losing the lower part of her legs to frostbite in the process.

"Something inside of me just did it. Like, I don't even really remember it. I just remember that it had to happen," she said.

"I had to do this and I had to get out and I had to save her and save myself you know, for her but I would have given anything just for her to be OK. If I had to die or whatever,as long as she was OKthat was my main concern always."

She doesn't remember how she managed topull Avery out as well. Hiebertbroke her right wrist and a bone in her right hand. Her left arm was broken below the shoulder. She had a fracture in her neck, bruised ribs, and her left hand was full of bits of glass.

Remarkably, Avery was not injured.

"It was almost like this bubble around Avery because she was perfectly fine," she said."I don't know how."

'I just had to get up that hill'

But next, Hiebert could not make it up the steep embankment to the road because there was too much snow. She knew staying warm would be the next challenge. She had lost her shoes and Avery was missing one of her boots.

"I just covered her whole body with mine and I blew the hotmy breath into her coat," she said."I don't know.I thought it might keep her warm."

Hiebert, a single mother, says it was the longest night of her life.

"I told myself and I told Avery that we probably weren't going to make it out of here alive. And we laid there for a long time. And I don't know what hit me.I just had to get up,up that hill," she said.

"The hardest part to me was leaving her down there in the snow. So we, I left her and every so often I'd yell down to her and as long as I heard her I just kept going up and up that hill. And I remember getting to the top and just crying that I had made it."

Hiebert couldn't feel her feet and she couldn't get her broken arms over the railing to wave for help.

"People were driving by and I'm thinking, 'Why are they not stopping?'"

Guardian angelarrives

That's when a woman Hiebert calls her "guardian angel" noticed something by the railing and turned around.

Tina Dubyts was driving to her job in Killarney, Man.,and pulled over. Hiebert immediately sent her down into the ditch to get Avery, who was taken to hospital in the first ambulance to arrive on the scene.

Hiebert went next and was then airlifted to Winnipeg, where doctors worked to save her frostbitten feet.

"They had put boots on my feet that were constantly pumping warm water into them but nothing,nothing worked, so they decided to do the amputations," she said.

Hiebert's legs were removed just below the knees. Sheneeded skin grafts on both her knees because of frostbite damage. She also had surgery to put in plates in her broken hand, wrist and arm.

To make matters even worse, Hiebertthencaught a hospital superbug MRSAwhich slowed the healing of her grafts and the wound on the end of one of her legs. Her mom and stepfather flew home from vacation in Cuba and were unsure if she would pull through.

Hiebert doesn't remember the first couple of weeks she was at theHealth Sciences Centre. She was in hospital for two months, first in Winnipeg and then she was transferred to Brandon.

Kristen Hiebert shows some of the injuries she sustained in the crash

8 years ago

Duration 1:50

Kristen Hiebert is still trying to piece together what happened the night her car went off the road and she crawled to safety in frigid conditions to save her little girl, losing the lower part of her legs to frostbite in the process.

The amputations were devastating for Hiebert, but she saidnothing compares to the pain of what might have happened and wondering what caused the accident.

"Did I see an animal, was it ice, was I looking back at Avery? There's so many questions, so there's a lot of times I feel very guilty about her being there and if it was my fault," she said.

"Was I doing something I shouldn't have been, like looking back or changing the radio? The guilt for a long time was unbearable."

Hieberthas no ideahow long she was unconscious in thecar. That's been one of the most difficult parts of the accident wondering what her little girl was going through while waiting for her to wake up.

"What she went through was pretty hard on me for a while," she said.

'She's been amazing'

Avery suffered frostbite on one foot and spent more than a week inhospital.

"It hurted me," Avery said, holding her tiny pink foot up for inspection.

Avery had trouble sleeping for a while after the accident and didn't want to ride in a car at night or go down a gravel road. But these days, she's back to being a normal four-year-old.

She loves to paint, hunt caterpillars in the yard, play in the park with her momand help her great-grandmother water the garden.

Avery graduated from nursery school on the same day her momstood for the first time on prostheticlegs. And Avery was right there when Hieberttook her first steps.

"She was just in shock. It was very cute.She's like, 'Mom, Mom, you're walking!' And I'm like, 'Yes, I'm walking.' So it was good. A good moment for us to share together," Hiebert said.

"She was there and I'll keep her there every moment. She needs to be just a part of it as I am, you know. She's been amazing."

Hiebert is gratefulthere will be other milestones ahead. Avery's upcoming fifthbirthday will be spent at the lake, and they are looking for a place to livein Boissevain so they can get settled before Avery starts kindergarten in the fall.

Then, Hiebert will figure out what to do next. She won't be returning to her old jobcleaning hotel roomsand is looking forward to career counselling.

"Everything has to be different now because even when I do have my prosthetics, it's not like I stand for hours,so I've been looking into getting more schooling," Hiebert said."When she is settled, then I'll work on myself."

Public support 'very touching to my heart'

Above all, Hiebert wants to thank all the people who have helped her and her daughter. She has been living with her mom and grandmother, dividing her time between their two homes. Friends and family have helped care for Avery.

A GoFundMe campaignstarted by Hiebert'sbest friend,Morgan Campbell, has raised more than $90,000.

"I just couldn't believethe support from everywhere,like from the States, from Canada," Hiebert said."It's very, very touching to my heart."

In her hometown of Boissevain, a social raised $20,000. Prize donations came from as far away as New York. There was a steak night where the local hotel and the Lion's Club matched the money raised. RCMP in Killarney organized a fundraising hockey game where Dubyts was given an award.

"The support from my town has just been overwhelming, so I owe them a lot," said Hiebert, her eyes misty with tears.

But Boissevain's mayor should expect a call from her shortly. Hiebert finds it hard to get around on the sidewalks and streets in Boissevain and plans to lobby for better accessibility for all the elderly residents with mobility issues.

She laughs when asked if she doesn't already have enough on her plate. For Hiebert, there's no question the accident has changed her.

"It doesn't matter what you look like or what you are, you can still do whatever you want," she said."I just want to be a good role model for her."

And Hiebert said shedoesn't know how she'll ever be able to adequately thank the scores of people who have helped her and her daughter recover from their ordeal.

"There aren't words toto say. It's just been amazing," she said. "Now I am able to do things for my daughter and do things for myself that I never thought was possible."

This story is part of a CBC Manitoba series called "Where Are They Now," aboutManitobanswhose stories have touched our hearts.Other stories in this series are:

• Manitoba crash survivor's health-care team calls for outpatient brain injury clinic
• Maria Mitousis says mail bombing will not be the moment that defines her