Lexi Shymanski, 5, saved the lives of her mother and baby brother after a car crash. Her mother, Angela, had fallen asleep at the wheel while driving to their home in Prince George, British Columbia.
The SUV veered out of control and plunged down a 40-foot embankment in the Canadian Rockies. It struck a tree and was flipped upside down. When Lexi came to, she tried to wake her mother who had been knocked unconscious. Angela didn’t stir, so Lexi untangled herself from her seatbelt and airbag, kicked open the jammed door and climbed out.
She then climbed up the embankment — with bare feet – and flagged down help. Someone did stop, and helped Lexi extricate her brother, Peter. A second driver also stopped.
As luck would have it, the second driver was a paramedic and helped rescue Angela who was still unconscious. The paramedics took Lexi and her family to a hospital in Edmonton. While Lexi had only a sore neck and scratched chin, Angela had a broken back and Peter had a head injury.
Both survived, but Angela needed physical therapy in order to relearn how to walk. Several months after the crash, the Edmonton police presented Lexi with a medal for her bravery.
Richard Nowicki and Lise Lord, who had helped with the rescue, also received commendations. Lexi said she planned to take the medal to school for show-and-tell.
