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‘It’s honestly a miracle’: Arizona woman speaks out after losing her arm in UTV crash a week later
She says she can't give enough thanks to those who saved her life on Sept. 5.
COCONINO COUNTY, Ariz. - A young Arizona woman faced with death lives to talk about her story a week after her tragic accident on Sept. 5.
Body camera video shows the moments after a UTV crash in northern Arizona where a 19-year-old driver had her arm severed in the accident.
She's now recovering with optimism.
Lidia Almeida lives in Phoenix and over Labor Day Weekend, she went to Happy Jack with members of her church. She's driven a UTV before, but this ride changed her life.
Despite losing her left arm, Almeida believes a miracle took place that day, she said in an exclusive interview on Sept. 12.
As a Coconino County Sheriff's Deputy and a group of campers rushed to upright her UTV, Almeida felt relief, hope -- then shock seeped in.
Warning: Graphic video below. Click this link to view the video in a web browser.
"... she's losing blood," was heard in the body cam footage, and Deputy Andrew Luna applied a tourniquet to lessen her bleeding as bystanders comforted her.
A week later, Almeida says timing and swift action saved her life. "It's honestly a miracle that I'm here."
Almeida was driving three young girls in the UTV before suddenly losing control. Moments later, she saw her left arm nearly severed off from above the elbow.
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Bystanders, CCSO deputy help save woman’s life after her arm was nearly severed in crash
The crash happened on September 5, 2020, and it was captured on body camera video.
"I had already like ripped this off. The doctor said the only thing attaching this to my actual hand was skin," Almeida explained of her injury.
It took 26 minutes for medics to arrive. Almeida says she bled profusely, not knowing if she'd survive as every minute mattered.
Deputy Luna responded to the area of the crash minutes before it happened for an unrelated incident. Another woman at the crash site was a medical assistant.
"I wanna thank them. Honestly, I have no words. I have no words. The fact that they were treating me as if I was their own child," Almeida said.
Doctors saved her nerve endings and in a few months, Almeida can try to use a prosthetic arm. "I'm not gonna let my arm stop me from doing what I gotta do," she said.
Almeida wants to join the medical field one day and she even plans to take her online classes starting Monday.
If you'd like to donate to her GoFundMe, visit this link.