WINNIPEG — An injured Manitoba woman who crawled up a snowbank to seek help after spending overnight in a frigid ditch trying to keep her young daughter warm has lost her feet to frostbite.
Kristen Hiebert and four-year-old Avery were going home last month when their car slid off a rural highway near a bridge and rolled down a steep slope to the frozen Souris River.
The spent the night huddled together for 10 hours as temperatures dipped to -23 C.
At dawn, Hiebert dragged herself up the snowbank despite a broken leg, broken neck and severe frostbite to her bare feet.
Her friend, Morgan Campbell, says Hiebert's feet had to be amputated last week.
Campbell says on a GoFundMe page that Hiebert's family is overwhelmed but buoyed by public support.
"Kristen is overcome with emotion by all of the love shown towards her and her family," Campbell wrote. "She sends her sincerest gratitude to everyone who has donated, sent kind thoughts, words and prayers.
"She is in awe of your compassion. You have made their ability to recover achievable."
Avery has been discharged from hospital and "is doing wonderful" as she recovers from frostbite on one foot, Campbell wrote. Hiebert continues to heal and the frostbite on her right hand is showing improvement, she added.
"She is quite amazing," Campbell wrote. "Her feeding tube will be removed soon, but her biggest irritant is the neck brace she has to wear constantly for the next while."
The GoFundMe page set up to help Hiebert — a single mom who worked two jobs cleaning homes and a hotel — has raised just over $64,000 so far.
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