DENVER — Kristin Hopkins wrote pleas for help on a red-and-white umbrella that she managed to push through a broken window of her crashed car and open, hoping to attract the attention of drivers on a scenic highway above.
Days later, someone spotted the flipped car of the 43-year-old single mother of four children about 80 feet down an embankment in a central Colorado aspen grove.
Authorities said at least one motorist hiked down from Red Hill Pass on U.S. Highway 285 and alerted authorities on Sunday that there was a body inside the car. Rescuers found Hopkins alive, conscious and coherent — but critically injured and extremely dehydrated.
Hopkins was flown by helicopter to St. Anthony Hospital in suburban Denver, Park County undersheriff Monte Gore said. She was in critical condition on Monday, hospital spokeswoman Loralee Sturm said.
Hopkins' family issued a statement saying she will lose her feet because of injuries suffered in the crash but is expected to survive.
Hopkins drove off the roadway near the old mining town of Fairplay. The accident occurred beneath a spot overlooking the sprawling ranchlands and surrounding mountains of Colorado's South Park area.
Her 2009 Chevrolet Malibu struck multiple trees and rolled several times before landing on its top.
When rescuers reached the car on Sunday, firefighter Jim Cravener asked a colleague to break a window and feel for a pulse.
“He started to break the window, and she put her hand up to the window,” Cravener said. “At that point, it became a rescue.”
Hopkins' notes on the umbrella were hard to make out but appeared to say, “six days, no food, no water; please help me; need a doctor,” Cravener said.
“It's really something off that ‘Shouldn't Be Alive' show,” he said. “She really had a strong will to survive.”
Hopkins was fairly responsive at first, even telling her rescuers she was not hurt.
