Woman stranded in car for days after crash speaks out

LAKEWOOD, Colo. (KGO) -- A Colorado woman who was trapped in her crashed car for six days and signaled for help by writing messages on her umbrella and poking it through the car, is now opening up about her incredible ordeal.

Kristin Hopkins is adjusting to a new reality after her feet and part of her legs were amputated. Her car plummeted off a Colorado mountain road on April 27, crashing upside down and crushing her feet.

"I just remember waking up the next morning," she said. "I was lying on the roof of the car because the car had flipped. The first thing that came to my mind was, oh my god I have to go pick up my kids. You know, it's a school day."

But her car, hundreds of feet down from the road, was hidden.

"I noticed my feet were kind of not the right color, or size, or anything," she said. "So I knew, obviously, those were hurt."

Hours stretched into days. Help was not coming.

Hopkins: "When I was upset I would try to smash the windows with the snow scraper to break out, and I couldn't."

Reporter: "Did you have any food? Any water?

Hopkins: "The only thing I had was one little pack of instant oatmeal. And I tried to eat it, but after like two bites without water and my mouth so dry, it didn't work. Haven't had it since!"

Still trapped, she spotted an umbrella. That gave her an idea.

"It was my little 'aha!' moment," she said. "My little MacGyver moment, you know? And I swear that was going to be my saving grace. I found my purse, found a sharpie, and attempted to write my little messages of come get me."

No one came to her rescue for nearly a week, when Andy and Hope Lombard spotted the wreck, just in time.

Reporter: "How much time do you think you had left?"

Hopkins: "I found out today that the doctors told my parents I had about eight hours left."

The single mother says that all along there was one thing that kept her fighting to stay alive. Actually, there were four.

"I had to keep going, because they need a mom," Hopkins said. "I couldn't leave my kids."

She'll spend a few weeks in a hospital. With prosthetic legs, she'll learn to walk again.

"Somehow I needed to have this happen for me to realize something," Hopkins said. "And what that something is, I don't know. But I will figure it out."