Woman survives freak lawn mower accident that left her neck sliced open
BRIDGE WATER, S.D. -
It was a day like any other for Kendra Jensen, who said she was picking up her kids' toys outside while her husband was mowing the lawn until a freak accident almost took her life.
"I walked out my front door, and I started picking up a couple toys, I stood up and that's when I was immediately hit," said Jensen, recalling the moment an object shot out from the lawn mower and struck her neck.
"I thought maybe something flew out of the mower and hit me pretty hard but I didn't know it had actually sliced my neck open," said Jensen.
Jensen heard a loud thud against her house and immediately grabbed her neck realizing she was bleeding. When Jensen saw how deep the cut in her shoulder was, she started to panic.
"Once I was hit and I realized I was bleeding, my first thought that came to my mind was, ‘I'm going to bleed out and die,'" said Jensen.
She started waving her arm and screaming for her husband who rushed to help her.
Her husband quickly grabbed a towel sitting beside her and dialed 911. They lived 45 minutes to the closest hospital, but thankfully her husband is a combat veteran who had a trauma bag in his car because he is also a police officer.
An ambulance showed up and she was taken to the hospital where she was put into a trauma unit.
She said the doctors immediately ordered x-rays to make sure there was no extra shrapnel embedded in her wound or anywhere else.
Miraculously, the object that struck Jensen's neck had not hit anything major.
"It was right between my carotid artery and my trachea, and barely missed anything important. I'm extremely lucky that I'm alive to even be telling you this story," said Jensen.
Jensen had posted photos of the incident to Facebook, hoping to shed light on how quickly things can go south for someone who thought they were having a completely normal day.
She wanted to share her story in hopes that it might make people a little bit more aware of their surroundings and save someone else's life.
After that fateful and chaotic day, Jensen is making a speedy physical recovery but says it will take some time for her to heal emotionally after seeing her life flash before her eyes.
Jensen and her husband still don't know what hit her, saying they looked all over the lawn and deck, to no avail.