Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada is a majestic park in the middle of the Canadian Rockies. It’s breathtaking on a normal day, but on this particular day a few years back, it really took the breath away from one couple out driving there — and for all the wrong reasons.
In August 2015, a couple was driving along a road just outside Jasper National Park when they saw something move on the side of the road. They slowed down the car, thinking they might see a bear or a moose, but instead were shocked to discover that it was not a wild animal, but a little girl.
Turn the clock back some hours and a mom named Angela Shymanski from Calgary, Alberta was driving home with her five-year-old daughter, Lexi, and her 10-week-old son, Peter.
Angela was tired and could feel her eyelids becoming heavier and heavier. The next rest area was miles ahead, though, so Angela decided to just try her best to stay awake until she got there.
But she never reached that rest area. She closed her eyes for a second, and before she knew it, her car veered off the road into a deep ditch.
The crash left Angela unconscious, and since the car was at the bottom of a 40-foot ditch and wasn’t visible from the road above, there was little chance that anyone would ever see it.
Luckily, 5-year-old Lexi was still fully conscious. She saw her mother lying there and heard her little brother crying and decided to act. So she did something that few children her age would’ve have dared — let alone accomplished.
She unbuckled herself from her carseat and got out of the vehicle. Then, she climbed barefoot up the steep slope to the side of the road and started waving down passing cars.
That’s when the couple saw the little girl and stopped.
The Good Samaritans were able to call for help. And soon, emergency services arrived on the scene and brought Lexi, her mom, and her brother to the hospital.
Unfortunately, Lexi’s mother’s back was broken and her brother had internal bleeding in his brain.
But things could have been much worse if the brave 5-year-old hadn’t bravely gone in search of help.
For her efforts, Lexi became the youngest person in Canada to receive a bronze medal from The Royal Canadian Humane Society.
Watch the video below to see how Lexi saved the livers of her mother and little brother:
[arve url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pt0xoiD3Qls” /]
Isn’t Lexi a real hero? Share this video to pay tribute to the brave 5-year-old and to remind people not to drive tired. It’s just as dangerous as driving drunk!
