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Girl says mother’s voice helped save her life – one year after mom’s death

Posted at 2:00 PM, Jul 16, 2014
and last updated 2014-07-16 14:00:54-04

FRACKVILLE, Penn. — A 12-year-old Pennsylvania girl said she heard her mother’s voice while she was stuck in an underground flooded drainpipe. Taylor Russell’s mother passed away last year after a battle with cancer. Russell said she heard her mother’s voice while she held her breath underwater.

“It was just scary, dark, scary. My mom helped me through, though,” Russell said. “I was thinking of everyone, my dad, my mom, my new mom, my sisters and my brothers. I was just praying that I would make it through.”

Russell went into the pipe while checking out flash floods near her home. When she finally made it out of the dark pipe, the water swept her hundreds of yards downstream.

“I came out and I kept hitting my head off of stuff because there were rocks in the water, and I grabbed on to some rocks and tried to grab on to some trees,” she said.

When her father Brian arrived at the pipe, he feared the worst.

“You start losing hope very quickly when you see the pipe where she entered,” he said. “Best thing in the world when I knew she was okay. She just looked very beaten up. She was breathing, she was talking, and she told me she missed me.”

Russell was released from the hospital and allowed to go home on Tuesday.

Source: WNEP