A California nursing student survived “against overwhelming odds” after a pole flew through her car and impaled her in the stomach during a terrifying freeway crash, according to a report.
Janina Akporavbare was driving in rush-hour traffic on the 10 Freeway in San Bernardino on Aug. 25 when a metal pole suddenly hurtled toward her while her younger brother sat in the back seat, WDBJ7 reported.
“I remember all of a sudden just seeing this huge pole coming at my car, and I couldn’t swerve… ‘cause it was during rush hour traffic,” Akporavbare told the outlet.
The nursing student managed to swerve off the road and call 911 with the pole dragging from the front of her car.
“The pole was really long, so… other cars [were] running over the pole while it was in my stomach,” she said.
Firefighters and other first responders then rushed to the scene, cutting part of the pole while leaving a section of it still pierced through her stomach, according to harrowing photos provided to the outlet.
“I remember thinking, ‘I’m gonna die right now. That’s it for me,’” Akporavbare said.
The nursing student made it to the hospital in just 10 minutes, “against overwhelming odds,” the Loma Linda Firefighters Association told the outlet.
Doctors gave her just a 1% chance of surviving the terrifying accident, the association added.
Akporavbare endured a grueling recovery, undergoing nearly three surgeries and spending nearly two months in the Loma Linda University Medical Center.
“They took out part of my colon, my liver, my kidney. They were all injured,” Akporavbare said.
Her medical bills totaled a whopping $1 million after the ordeal. The crash also forced her to miss a semester of nursing school and time at work.
“I feel terrified. I don’t really drive that much. I don’t drive on that freeway,” Akporavbare said of the fear she now experiences behind the wheel.
Crash investigators don’t know where the pole that upturned Akporavbare’s life came from.
Akporavbare and her attorney are now trying to determine how the pole went airborne on the freeway, urging the witnesses of the crash to come forward.
“So, I would really like to find the people who did this and get some peace about it,” Akporavbare said.
Akporavbare said she is grateful to be alive despite the ordeal, and thankful for the first responders who saved her life while she works to become a life-saving nurse herself.
“It makes me want to be a nurse even more because I want to help people like the nurses at Loma Linda helped me,” she said.
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