Washington Woman Trapped in Car for 10 Hours Frees Herself

— -- The 23-year-old Washington woman who was trapped in her overturned car for 10 hours says the two men who found her were “like angels.”

Noel Shannon, of Walla Walla, Wash., was driving her pickup truck through mountains on a photography trip the night of July 5th when she had to suddenly swerve to avoid hitting a deer.

The fast move caused Shannon’s pickup truck to roll over, landing on the driver’s side.

Shannon was still alive but her leg was trapped under rocks and the door frame. She had only her car keys as a tool to escape.

“I seriously thought about amputating my leg,” Shannon said from her hospital bed, according to local ABC affiliate KVEW.

“I was like, ‘No, I can't do that,’" Shannon said of an amputation. "I'm going to dig myself out. If it comes to that, I'll do it but I don't think the keys would've worked anyways."

After nearly ten hours spent trapped alone and with the sounds of wolves in the background, Shannon got one last shot of adrenaline and managed to smash the truck’s windshield with her good log and crawl out of the wreckage.

She used a sweatshirt to a tie a tourniquet around her injured leg and staggered out of the woods. She had barely made it out when she collapsed but was then spotted by two U.S. Army veterans.

“I see this older Toyota 4-Runner coming up the road," she said. "It was like they were angels from heaven."

The two men got Shannon to a local hospital, from where she was transferred to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. It was at Harborview that Shannon had her left leg amputated from the knee down.

"Nobody wants to lose a leg," Shannon said. "I mean it sucks but it could've been a lot worse."

Shannon should be able to return home in a few days and then commute to Seattle for the next six months for rehabilitation, according to KVEW. The survivor says she has a message for those who hear her story.

"Just don't take life for granted, you never know when your last day will be," said Noel.