A mother in Minnesota has made a miraculous recovery after a 1,500 pound steer trampled her in March, doctors say.
Rachel Sands, 24, was assisting her father, Don Czanstkowki, as he worked to move cattle into a trailer.”I had the trailer backed up to a little corral. And, of course, one’s gonna turn sideways. They always do,” her father told CBS News. On that occasion, however, the attempt to load the cattle nearly turned fatal after a spooked steer broke free and ran over Sands, trampling on her chest.
“It got past me and pretty much just ran right over her, and ran into the fence right there,” he told the outlet. “And it was stepping on her chest, trying to get away.”
Sands somehow managed to crawl to safety, but told her father as he rushed to her side that her heart hurt before losing consciousness, CBS News reported.
Doctors are calling a Minnesota mom’s recovery nothing short of a miracle. https://t.co/DNKIoapDNP
— WCCO | CBS News Minnesota (@WCCO) May 2, 2023
After Sands’ panicked mother called 911, first responders arrived on the scene and had her airlifted to Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) in Minneapolis, the outlet reported. Sands suffered four strokes on the way to the hospital, and upon arrival doctors discovered her heart had stopped beating, per the outlet.
The medical team worked to revive Sands, finally achieving a pulse twenty minutes later, CBS News reported. After removing the blood that had pooled around her heart, doctors hoped for a recovery but told her family the odds of Sands surviving her injuries were slim, per CBS.
“They came in and they basically told us that she has a slim chance of pulling through this. It was tough to hear,” her father told the outlet.
After spending three weeks in the hospital, Sands was able to go home to her husband and kids. “If 100 patients had her exact injury and scenario, probably 99 of them wouldn’t have survived,” her doctor, Alex Coward, said, according to CBS News. (RELATED: 28-Year-Old Japanese Jockey Take Yanagida Trampled To Death In New Zealand)
“The goal for us is to get patients back to their families. And to know that she’s able to go back home to her kids and her husband, that feels really good. That feels like a big win,” Dr. Coward added, per the outlet.
Once she recovers, Sands plans to resume helping her father on the farm, telling the outlet she enjoys being around the animals.”I’m very thankful to be here and for my parents and for everybody that like helped me and worked on me,” she told the outlet.