Watch the video above: Senior shares story of survival
SASKATOON – 89-year-old Verna Zwarich has lived to tell her story of survival after being stranded outdoors for four days.
There’s a certain toughness that runs in her veins. When the 89-year-old broke her hip on her farm in October, her ability to survive was put to the test.
“I thought there’s no sense in lying here, so I crawled out to the front of the truck because the road is not to far, right past the farm,” Zwarich explained.
Zwarich desperately tried to wave down traffic, but nobody saw her.
After spending an hour and a half trying to get into her truck, she dragged herself to a nearby shed just before nightfall.
She survived there, without food or water for four days.
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“I prayed and prayed while I was in that shed, that was one thing that kept me going,” Zwarich said.
Zwarich’s farm is located about 15 kilometres northeast of Kenaston, Sask. It was about -10 degrees outside at the time of the incident.
“There was cold cold wind from the north,” she explained.
“And when I was in the shed, the little mice came out at night, and were chewing away. So I picked up a stick and was trying to keep them off my face,” she said.
She said raccoons were scratching at the roof and coyotes were prowling around the area.
On day four, Zwarich managed to drag herself out of the shed.
She was found by a her neighbour and a friend and was taken to Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon. After hip surgery there, Zwarich was transferred to City Hospital and then Parkridge Centre for therapy.
After weeks of recovery, Zwarich is now back home.
She plans to get a cell phone so she’ll be safe on her own moving forward.
Zwarich worries the media will label her as a hero. She says she’s just an ordinary woman and believes anyone would have survived the way she did.
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