Happy ending
Shannon LeClair
Times Reporter
A single vehicle rollover, which happened Saturday, Oct. 23, could have left three dead, but instead turned into a miraculous story of bravery. Nichole Mills was driving along a gravel road, north of Highway 1, near Chestermere with her two daughters. Brenna Jensen, five-years-old at the time, and her sister Shyanna Jensen, then six-years-old, were sitting in the back seat, thankfully strapped in by their seatbelts when the unimaginable happened.
“It must have been newly graded, the gravel pulled the tires in and she lost control. It flipped several times, about 100 feet into the field,” said Donna Mills, Nichole’s mother.
Nichole kept going in and out of consciousness, and in her lucid moments she could hear Brenna crying but not Shyanna.
“Their mom just laid her hands on the horn trying to draw attention and she told Brenna she had to go to the road to get help, so she got out the window,” said Donna.
Brenna went up to the road to get help. It was about 15 to 20 minutes before someone drove down the road.
“I jumped out of the car and I tried to get my mommy but she was stuck and two older ladies were coming and they stopped and I told them that there was a car accident and then they called the ambulance and stuff,” said Brenna.
Donna had received a phone call from the women who had pulled over to help.
Donna’s husband, John, had their vehicle and was taking some things to Nichole’s home. When Donna received the call about the accident, she tried to call John, but he had forgotten his cell phone at home.
“I just started pray that he would not get busy doing what he was going to do but that he’d look for them and wonder where they were,” said Donna.
John thought maybe the car had broken down and went to call them when he realized he didn’t have his cell phone. He backtracked, looking for them, when he found the scene. John tried to get the car door open to get Nichole out but wasn’t able to. He could hear sirens, so they waited for emergency crews to come rescue her. Mills was extricated from the car and was taken to Foothills Hospital in Calgary and the girls were taken to the Children’s Hospital.
“Brenna was released that night with a splint and they did surgery on Shyanna,” said Donna.
Shyanna had pins put into her arm, which were recently removed. She had a bruised lung, and a minor brain injury and she had to have about 12 stitches in her head. Nichole was released the following Friday. The doctors were hoping Nichole’s left side would heal properly but it hasn’t been and she was in for more surgery early last week.
Her collarbone was broken in three places; her shoulder blade was cracked along with a number of other injuries. At the time of the interview she was physically unable to make it. Donna said the Children’s Hospital is fantastic.
“They are just incredible, they are incredible with the kids, they are soothing, they are gentle and they are nice,” said Donna.
“It was a relief that she was ok of course, but with Shyanna staying in, that was scary with the surgery and because she had a minor brain injury, (and the) complications that can occur.”
Donna has noticed that Shyanna appears to be having a little bit of a difficult time dealing with the emotional trauma of being in a vehicle. Brenna has also been having a few difficulties with being inside a vehicle, but it is more apparent with Shyanna.
“The nurse that works in the trauma unit she said ‘what a story’ because from the reports from the police and the EMT that were at the scene of the accident, no one should have survived,” said Donna.
She hopes the women who stopped will call again so she can at least say thank you.
“I don’t even know if I said thank you. I don’t know who they are; it would be nice to know who they were that stopped. I’d like to hear their story, I would like to know why they were there at that time, on a road that isn’t travelled very often,” said Donna.
Brenna was presented with a plaque from Victim Services for her brave act and both girls were given handmade quilts and stuffed toys.