‘It provides me numerous closure’: B.C. girl reconnects with couple who saved her life

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Three British Columbians are joyful to be reunited nearly a 12 months after tragic circumstances first introduced them collectively.

Final summer season when Katie Potts was critically injured in a horrific crash on the Coquihalla Freeway, a Salmon Arm, B.C. couple stopped to assist.

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Within the aftermath, the rescuers didn’t know Potts’ title and have been left questioning if she had survived.

Nonetheless, in June, nearly a 12 months after the collision that just about took her life, Potts was capable of finding the couple she believes saved her.

It began on the morning of July 11, 2021 when Potts and her boyfriend have been returning residence from a tenting journey. Their car went off the street close to Larson Hill and Potts alongside along with her seat have been ejected from the car.

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“My boyfriend fell asleep behind the wheel and from what I bear in mind I used to be additionally asleep after which I awoke and I used to be within the grass,” mentioned Potts, throughout an interview from her residence in Maple Ridge.

“It was only a actually scary feeling. I regarded down. I noticed that my leg was amputated on the scene. My hand felt fairly moist prefer it was in a puddle or one thing and I ended up shedding three fingers.”

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Solely later would Potts be taught she additionally had injured her again.

“It was actually scary, the physician informed my dad he wasn’t too positive if I used to be ever going to have the ability to stroll once more due to the harm on my again. I used to be three millimeters from being paralyzed,” she mentioned.

Potts mentioned her boyfriend picked her up and introduced her as much as the freeway.

“We have been waving down automobiles making an attempt to get folks’s consideration one of the best we might and there was in all probability about 5 to seven automobiles that handed us, didn’t even take a look or no matter, till Marilyn and Jarrod have been those who stopped,” recalled Potts.

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Marilyn and Jarrod Thomas have been on the best way to Vancouver to see their daughter that morning after they noticed smoke close to the freeway.

“A younger fellow was waving his arms so we pulled over. Didn’t even know that there was one other particular person there till he had thrown her into the again seat of my automotive,” mentioned Jarrod Thomas.

Feeling faint, like she was dying, Potts mentioned she referred to as out for her boyfriend.

“Jarrod took out his hoody string instantly as quickly as I mentioned, ‘I really feel like I’m going to die!’ He ripped out his hoody string after which tied off my leg, after which my boyfriend grabbed his hoody string and tied off my hand to cease all of the bleeding,” Potts mentioned.

Marilyn Thomas mentioned she tried to moist the younger girl’s lips to ensure she wasn’t dehydrated.

“You simply go to work and also you simply say, ‘Nicely, now we now have to maintain her and do no matter we will,’” Marilyn Thomas mentioned.

When first responders arrived Potts was taken for medical care and Marilyn and Jarrod Thomas have been left worrying about what occurred to the critically injured younger girl whose title they didn’t know.

They puzzled if she had made it.

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“We tried to seek out out about this accident on the freeway and we couldn’t discover out something,” Marilyn Thomas mentioned.

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Potts was additionally desirous about the couple that had stopped to assist.

“I wouldn’t be right here right this moment in the event that they wouldn’t have stopped as a result of [of] the time that the ambulance got here and once I mentioned to all people, ‘I really feel like I’m going to die!’….They wouldn’t have been there in time as a result of I might have misplaced method an excessive amount of blood,” Potts mentioned.

In June, nearly a 12 months after the crash, Potts was capable of finding the pair she credit with saving her life because of a viral social media submit by a household good friend.

“She made an enormous submit and it simply went viral. I didn’t count on it however I’m so grateful to everybody who did this for me as a result of it provides me numerous closure to lastly know what and who I’m residing for. It’s for them,” Potts mentioned.


Click to play video: 'Visitors from Vancouver rescue man in distress in Skaha Lake'







Guests from Vancouver rescue man in misery in Skaha Lake


Guests from Vancouver rescue man in misery in Skaha Lake – Jun 19, 2022

They’ve spoken on the cellphone and Potts hopes to go to the couple later this summer season.

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“As quickly as I heard her voice, I simply began breaking down into tears,” Potts mentioned of talking with Marilyn Thomas.

The rescuers have been equally joyful to seek out out Potts had survived and is recovering.

“She is so courageous and simply so resilient. She is only a fantastic younger girl,” mentioned Marilyn Thomas.

“We are not any guardian angels. We are not any heroes. We’re simply common individuals who did something that any common folks must be doing and that’s stopping and serving to.”

Regardless of her physician’s considerations, Potts is strolling once more and after getting her first prosthetic water leg she is wanting ahead to swimming along with her niece.

“If it wasn’t for Marylin and Jarrod, I wouldn’t have the ability to get pleasure from these little issues. Each morning I simply get up and I say thanks to them,” Potts mentioned.

© 2022 International Information, a division of Corus Leisure Inc.



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