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Lockridge woman badly injured in car accident
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
CRAWFORDSVILLE – A Lockridge woman has been hospitalized for the past week after suffering a serious car accident in which she was trapped upside down.
Brook A. Stagers, 33, was driving south on Highway 218 in rural Washington County at 1:57 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 27, just north of Crawfordsville. According to a preliminary accident report from the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, Stagers was operating a 2014 Dodge Journey when her vehicle left the roadway on the left side (east), and Stagers overcorrected, leaving the roadway on the right side (west). Stagers continued southbound in the ditch until she struck a concrete culvert, causing the vehicle to become airborne and rolling across 282nd Street, entering the southside ditch of that street, and coming to rest on its top, trapping Stagers inside.
The accident report indicates that emergency responders removed Stagers from the vehicle through mechanical means, and transported her by ambulance to the University of Iowa Hospital’s Emergency Room in Iowa City.
“Due to the totality of the circumstances, this incident is determined to be under investigation, with charges pending,” the report stated.
Stagers’ aunt Susan Hopper created a GoFundMe page for Stagers with a goal of $2,000, and as of Sept. 3, the page had raised $1,025. Hopper explained that upon being admitted to the hospital, Stagers had emergency surgery on her back lasting six hours, since she had broken several vertebrae.
“She is still out and strapped down because she can’t move for 7 days,” Hopper wrote on Aug. 28, adding, “My heart goes out to the family who has already been through so much and now a long, long road ahead.”
Stagers’ mother, Sheila Pohren-Westphal, spoke to The Union on Sept. 3. She said she was driving behind Stagers at the time of the accident, trailing her by a few miles. Stagers had just given birth to a baby girl a few weeks earlier on Aug. 7, but the baby had to remain in the NICU in Iowa City due to health complications. At the time of the accident on Aug. 27, Stagers and Pohren-Westphal were traveling back to Lockridge to visit Stager’s 5-year-old daughter, who had just started kindergarten in the Fairfield school district.
Pohren-Westphal said that when she came to the bend in the road north of Crawfordsville, she saw a bunch of cars pulled off on the side of the road. She looked over and saw a silver car in the ditch. She didn’t recognize the car at first, but felt a sneaking suspicion to check on her daughter. She called Stager’s phone, but it went straight to voicemail.
“I turned off at the next road I could and tried calling her again, because something was telling me it was her,” Pohren-Westphal said.
A short time later, she received a call from an unknown number. A man on the other end informed her that her daughter had just been in an accident.
“I flew back there, and when I pulled off, she was still in the car,” Pohren-Westphal said.
Pohren-Westphal said a Good Samaritan had stopped to inspect the wreck and check on Stagers, who was conscious and able to speak, but unable to feel her legs. First responders were able to pull Stagers out of the car from the passenger side and put her on a gurney.
“When I got up to the ER in Iowa City, doctors said, ‘We got 10 minutes to get her in the operating room,’” Pohren-Westphal recalled. “They told me her spine was crushed, and she had a few broken ribs.”
Pohren-Westphal said that in the week since the accident, doctors have examined Stagers to see if any bone fragments punctured her intestines or stomach, and Pohren-Westphal said she hoped to learn the results of those tests later on Wednesday. Stagers has been confined to her hospital bed for the past week, though she can wiggle her toes on both feet.
“On one leg, she can move her knee a little bit, but on the other one, she can’t move it much at all,” Pohren-Westphal said.
The GoFundMe page Hopper created also detailed an unfortunate incident Stagers and Pohren-Westphal suffered just prior to the car crash. Stagers had just given birth, so she and her mother were in Iowa City to stay with the baby in the NICU. A friend, who runs a cleaning business, offered to clean both their houses while they were in the hospital.
“Well she cleaned house alright, she ransacked the whole house, stealing everything she might be able to sell!” Hopper wrote on the GoFundMe page. “Brook found out last time she came home and walked in to the heartbreak.”
Pohren-Westphal said the theft shocked them to their core. Stagers and her baby were fighting for their lives, with Stagers having to undergo an emergency C-section to remove the baby since its heartrate had bottomed out and was not breathing. After they survived that scare, Pohren-Westphal went to her home in Lockridge to get supplies, and that’s when she noticed her printer was missing. After looking around, she noticed she was also missing a handgun, a book of important papers, a vacuum and more.
Pohren-Westphal said she believes the person who promised to clean the house stole not only these items but also ransacked Stagers’ home a block away, stealing a 5-foot stuffed unicorn and bags of new clothes her daughter was going to wear to kindergarten. Despite filing a police report with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office and naming the suspect, Pohren-Westphal told The Union that no arrests had been made in the case as of Wednesday, Sept. 3. She also said that the woman who stole from them sent them an invoice for cleaning services.
Hopper and Pohren-Westphal said the $2,000 goal of the GoFundMe will go toward building a wheelchair ramp at Pohren-Westphal’s home, where Stagers will live once she’s able to leave the hospital. Money will also go toward replacing the family’s belongings that were stolen.
“I have no idea if $2,000 is enough,” Pohren-Westphal said. “My main concern has been my daughter and her baby. I know her 5-year-old is being taken care of.”
Those who wish to donate to Stagers and her family can do so by visiting their GoFundMe page here: https://gofund.me/d0ee7061
Assisting the Washington County Sheriff’s Office in responding to the scene of the accident were the Crawfordsville Fire Chief, Crawfordsville Fire Department, Crawfordsville QRS, Washington County Rescue, Washington County Ambulance, Washington County Sheriff’s Office K-9, Washington Fire Department, and Moore’s Towing.
Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com
