Woman almost cut off own leg while trapped under her car

A woman who survived being trapped under her car for 10 hours in the Oregon mountains is now telling her story of how she almost cut off her own legs. Noel Shannon, 23, told KAPP she was driving into the mountains July 5 when she swerved to avoid hitting a deer.

Her truck ended up flipping onto the driver's side, and Shannon's leg came out the rolled-down window and became trapped under the door frame. She told KING, "Most of the time was just screaming and yelling and crying."

She shared a morbid tidbit that's inspiring much of the national interest in her story: the fact she considered amputating her own leg.

In fact the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, which also spoke to Shannon, begins its feature like this: "Using her keys as a primitive scalpel to cut off her own leg was one of the options Noel Shannon considered the night she lay trapped under her 1996 Toyota truck. Dying was not."

A bit dramatic, but to be fair, it is a pretty dramatic story. A KIRO Radio host prompted Shannon for more on what might have been. "I didn't want to have to do that 'cause I didn't know if I could actually do it -- especially with what objects I had. I had just my keys," she said.

She didn't end up having to amputate her leg because she was eventually able to break free and crawl 15 feet before collapsing on the road. Thankfully two men who were out for target shooting found her.

Shannon went to Providence St. Mary Medical Center, where she underwent surgery to repair an artery in her foot before being transferred to a hospital in Oregon, where her leg had to be amputated.

Shannon's family has set up a GoFundMe page and a Facebook page to raise money to cover her medical costs.

Shannon will spend a couple more days in the hospital before she can be sent back home to Walla Walla, Washington. She told KIRO Radio she's still planning to pursue her dream of becoming a personal trainer and opening her own gym one day.