'She's a fighter' | Family recounts devastating crash and daring rescue in Benton County

On Friday, June 14, wife, mother, and grandmother Nadia Johnson was in Rogers visiting her family when the unthinkable happened.

While driving on I-49 in Northwest Arkansas, Johnson’s car flipped and she was ejected through the sunroof, landing nearly 30 yards away.

Nadia, who had been sideswiped by another vehicle just hours earlier, thankfully survived the crash, although she suffered numerous devastating and life-altering injuries.

The 47-year-old Alabama native was in town visiting her son, Curtis, who was celebrating his first Father’s Day.

Curtis had been out with his mom and knew that she wasn’t far behind. However, when time began to pass and she hadn’t made it to his house, he knew something was wrong.

His wife got the call shortly after that Nadia was en route to Mercy Hospital in Rogers.

“She flipped her vehicle on 49 and that was it. That was all the information that we got,” Curtis said. Worry began to set in as the family was greeted by a chaplain at the hospital.

“We went into the emergency room, and we told them who we're there for, and they said that they were going to escort us to the family room. So they escort us to the double doors. We go down the hallway, and there's a family room to the left. As soon as you get in there, the chaplain is sitting there waiting on you,” Curtis said.

“So not only do we have very minimal information on exactly what happened, but you also got a chaplain sitting there waiting on you; It's not a good sign, you know,” Curtis added.

Eventually, a security guard let slip that Nadia was ejected from the vehicle.

“He's like, ‘Hey, are you guys here for the vehicle accident that had the ejection?’ And that was the first time we heard anything about an ejection. And I was like, 'What do you mean ejection? Like, was she ejected?'” Curtis recounted.

As the minutes passed, there was still no word on what happened or how Nadia was.

“Nobody came and talked to us or anything. We ended up talking to the state trooper that arrived at the scene. He kind of gave us a little bit of information, but nobody really knew, like, how the accident happened,” Curtis said.

Donald Jowers, or DJ, is Nadia's twin brother and was in Fayetteville at the time of the crash.

He had just gotten home from work intent on having a relaxing evening when he got a text saying to meet at Mercy Hospital.

"I had no idea what was going on, you know? My wife called my nephew to find out what was going on. And that's when we found out that my sister was in a car crash," DJ recalled.

DJ rushed to the hospital and joined Curtis in waiting for more news on Nadia's condition. After about 45 minutes of waiting, things began to move into motion.

“We're freaking out. We don't know if she's alive or anything like that,” Curtis said. “And finally the doctor came back, and he came in with a sheet of paper, and from top to bottom, the sheet of paper is just filled with a list of everything that's either broken or injured. Then they told us that they didn’t have the resources to deal with her injuries.”

Doctors informed the family that Nadia needed to be transported to the nearest Level One Trauma Center, which happened to be in Springfield, Missouri.

“She's in there getting strapped up to the bed and everything to be life flighted. And that was when they told us that she was going to Springfield,” Curtis said.

Right before the transfer, the family was allowed to see Nadia for the first time since the crash. 

“My mom was laying in this bed with a sheet covering from her neck down. She's got all these things hooked up to her, and she still has grass and rocks and dirt stuck in her hair, and I just, I lost it. I don't really cry that much, but you know, never in a million years do you see one of your loved ones, especially your mom, in that type of situation,” Curtis said.

DJ said that his bond with Nadia, and seeing her in that condition, made the situation difficult.

"It’s hard, you know, especially for me, because it's not only my sister, it's my twin sister. You know, we came into this world together 47 years ago. I’ve known her longer than anybody. We just, we have this bond, this attachment," DJ said.

The family loaded up into their cars and drove to Springfield, where Nadia endured multiple medical procedures.

Curtis says that his mom was unresponsive for a week after the crash. She suffered injuries including a broken sternum, broken ribs, a broken neck, a broken wrist, damaged lungs, and both of her legs had to be amputated once at the hospital in Springfield.

DJ said that the incident brought the memories of his sister flooding back.

"I remember running around with my sister, you know, and playing and doing sports and her shooting me in the rear end with paintball guns and like, like, I remember all this stuff, you know, and then to see a family member like that, it's tough," DJ said. "We've never been through anything like this before. Nobody in my family knows how to handle it."

DJ said one of the hardest things is finding the right words.

You're trying to hold your emotions and you're trying to be strong for that person as well. I just, I never thought that anything like this, what would ever happen, you know?

After days in the hospital, Nadia finally woke up.

"I walk in the room, and my mom is just wide awake. She's wide awake," Curtis said. "She’s looking around the room, you know, she's holding my hand. Tell her to squeeze your hand, she'll squeeze it. You tell her, ‘Hey, I love you’ and she'll mouth, ‘I love you’ back and try to talk and everything. And then, you know, every day, up until that point, it was nothing but bad news, bad news, bad news. And then it was just kind of a relief."

Nadia's son said that her survival and recovery has been nothing short of a miracle.

"I thought I lost her, you know, and just walking, walking in there Saturday afternoon and seeing her awake, and just being able to tell my mom, I love her and her to be able to respond back it was a miracle to be honest with you," Curtis said.

The family later learned more about Nadia’s accident from a Facebook group dedicated to reporting traffic incidents in Northwest Arkansas. 

From there, he was connected to people that had witnessed or pulled up to the crash, including one daring bystander that they credit with saving Nadia’s life.

"We got people that actually pulled up to the incident, I talked to a couple of them on the phone, just kind of asking for some more information on what they saw or what happened and then somebody commented that there was a Marine that stopped and found her," Curtis said.

Through Facebook, Curtis was able to get in contact with the Marine who he says saved his mom.

"I sent him my number, and then he called me, and I just lost it. I started breaking down. He started breaking down on the phone. And you know, he kind of just walked me through exactly what happened. He was the fourth car that stopped," Curtis said.

Sgt. Connor Osborn, a recruiter for the Marine Corps, recounts that he was heading home from work when he saw the scene on the side of I-49.

Osborn, a Marine since 2018 and previously a machine gunner stationed in Hawaii and North Carolina, saw Nadia's car in the ditch and decided to pull over.

He grabbed a tourniquet from his vehicle and ran out to help.

After looking in the crashed car and noticing that no one was inside, he spotted Nadia's body face down yards away. A fellow bystander commented that she was "gone."

However, Connor noticed that Nadia was still breathing, and when he looked down and saw how badly damaged her legs were, he knew he needed to jump into action.

He applied the tourniquet he had to one leg, and his belt to another, before another tourniquet could be retrieved from his truck.

"He kept her from bleeding out right then and there. So if he didn't do what he did, I wouldn't have my mom today," Curtis said.

Connor says that while he hasn’t been in this kind of situation before, he went right back to his training.

"I just immediately went back to my training, and it just happened really fast, and I just knew what to do, like I said, I'm grateful that the Marine Corps taught me all of that," Connor said. "In the Marine Corps, we're taught to treat things like they're always happening and like always real. So we treat every situation like it's real life."

Curtis said he's grateful his mom wasn't alone during such a traumatic incident.

"The fact that he sat there with my mom right beside her, holding her hand and rubbing her head and talking to her and everything until EMS arrived. I don't even know how to describe it, you know, it's just the peace of mind that my mom wasn't just lying there in the dirt, in the grass, alone, like she had somebody there, and it was a complete stranger," Curtis said, adding that he's confident that if Connor hadn't found her, she wouldn't still be alive.

Now, Curtis said Connor is part of the family.

"Ever since then, he's been texting me every day, calling me, I'm calling him. He's asking for updates," Curtis said. "He's a part of the family. We're best friends now. But, I mean, he is the reason why I still have my mom. He's the reason why our daughter, Mia, still has her grandma."

"I went up and saw her a few days ago, and she opened her eyes a couple times, so that was really cool to see," Connor added. "I'm just glad she's still alive, and I hope they get to spend a lot more time together in the upcoming months."

DJ said that he was grateful for Connor’s decision to pull over and stay with his sister.

"He deserves everything. You know, was telling me there were some people that were there when he got there, and they told him not to go over there. There's a woman dead over there. She wasn't dead," DJ said. "So he wasn't a follower. You know, so many people that are just followers."

DJ said that Connor's placement in that situation was an act of the divine.

"God put him there," DJ claimed. "You know that young man, he gave my sister life, and he gave my sister an opportunity."

Now, the family is looking at the road ahead for Nadia.

Curtis told 5NEWS on July 9, nearly a month after the crash, that his mom is off the ventilator and completely breathing on her own. She's eating solid foods, and her cognitive status has improved substantially.

Nadia is at the point where she is able to talk, though still struggles. Doctors say that he right leg isn't healing correctly, and another surgery is possible. She will eventually be discharged and transferred to a long-term facility in Alabama, but she'll likely be in Springfield for a few more weeks.

While she still has months of physical rehab and recovery to endure, the family says that she's a fighter.

"My sister's going to make it. She's a fighter, you know, and she doesn't have legs, that's okay, though, because she has a lot of family members around her that do have legs, and they can help, you know, and she'll learn to adjust," DJ said. "I struggle with it because she's my twin, and so I want her to be able to live the rest of her life, you know, however long that may be, you know, comfortable in her own skin as well. Yeah, things changed."

"She's stubborn. She's a fighter. You know, it might take her a little bit, but she always pulls through," Curtis said.

He adds that his mom is very independent, and that it’s going to be a big obstacle in embracing her new normal.

"So because she's extremely independent, I know that that's going to be a pretty big obstacle for her to overcome. She'll just have to, you know, work hard to kind of find a different, different way to do certain things."

In the wake of Nadia's crash and her transfer to Springfield, her family is advocating for a Level One Trauma Center in Northwest Arkansas. To learn more, click here.

If you'd like to support the family, visit their GoFundMe.

Watch 5NEWS on YouTube. 

Download the 5NEWS app on your smartphone: 

• iPhone app 

• Android app 

Stream 5NEWS 24/7 on the 5+ app: How to watch the 5+ app on your streaming device 

To report a typo or grammatical error, please email KFSMDigitalTeam@tegna.com and detail which story you're referring to.