After her car rolled over, a northwestern Minnesota woman hung upside down and unconscious for nearly two hours in subzero temperatures before regaining consciousness and sending a one-word text to her husband: help.
Jeremy Mammen called authorities and set out to find his wife, Jolene, in the early morning darkness of Feb. 14. He found her about 5 miles from their Thief River Falls home, trapped in her 2014 Ford hatchback, which had skidded off a rarely traveled road. The State Patrol and paramedics arrived shortly after, freed Mammen and got her to a hospital.
"After the first roll, I blacked out and don't remember much," Jolene said. "When I came to, I was very disoriented and could not feel my toes. I was shivering."
She likely survived in part because she had a cellphone and was wearing a winter coat her husband had given her for Christmas. The State Patrol posted her story on Facebook on Friday to illustrate the importance of wearing seat belts and dressing appropriately for winter conditions.
Mammen had left her house on 150th Street NW. around 6 a.m. on her way to her job in Grand Forks, N.D. She was on Pembina Trail north of Pennington County Road 3 when she hit a patch of ice and her vehicle rolled into the ditch and landed on its roof.
Suspended by her seat belt, she hung upside down and blacked out, the State Patrol said. Temperatures were well below zero.
Around 8:29 a.m., when Jolene should have been in Grand Forks, she woke up and called her husband, Jeremy. But he could not understand her, Nielson said.
Jolene then texted and mistyped the word "helpp" to Jeremy. That's when he called 911 and started his own search. He found her unresponsive and hypothermic, he said. Medics warmed her with an electric blanket, he said.
