A 32-year-old woman was buried alive when a trench collapsed at her construction site, but four years later, she’s credited one key reaction with helping her survive.
Ashley Piccirilli had only been on the job in Northampton, Massachusetts for seven days in 2021 when disaster struck.
She was working with her co-workers in a trench between nine and thirteen feet deep, laying a sewer pipe, when the trench suddenly caved in, plunging her into darkness and leaving her trapped.
“I’ll never forget the sound, because it hit me from the left to the right, the whoosh of the dirt covering me,” Ashley shared in an article for People.
Completely immobilized, she described the sensation as “tight and uncomfortable” and recalls thinking, “How do I get out?”
Ashley was covered with about six feet of dirt (YouTube/Bay State Health)
Struggling to breathe, Ashley was forced to take ‘tiny little breaths’—and while the whole situation might sound like a claustrophobic’s worst nightmare, Ashley surprisingly shared that she stayed fairly calm.
She believes that this helped her survive.
Ashley explained: “I never thought I was going to die, never, because I kept thinking— they know where I am, they’re coming for me. I knew I was buried alive, and maybe it was foolishness, but that thought kept me calm, and I didn’t panic. I didn’t think about my family or anything, because I just didn’t think I was going to die.”
“A lot of people’s worst fear is getting buried alive, and it could’ve been mine, but in that moment, it was a fight-or-flight situation. You have to fight to get out, and for me, that fight was staying calm. I attribute that calmness to my military training,” Ashley explained.
Though she managed to keep her composure, Ashley didn’t realize at the time that one of her lungs had collapsed and several of her ribs were broken.
Ashley underwent a year of recovery (YouTube/Bay State Health)
Had she been able to take a deep breath, Ashley would have realized she was suffocating.
“If I had panicked, I wouldn’t be here today. I 100% believe that,” she said.
It wasn’t until the rescuers arrived that Ashley began to feel pain, and when she was finally freed from the Earth, she was given a chest tube to help her breathe.
After treatment, it was revealed that she had broken all the ribs on her left side, one on her right side, and her clavicle. Her spleen had been removed, along with 15-20 percent of her liver, and a major artery had a ‘huge hole’ in it.
Doctors had to reconstruct Ashley’s sternum and diaphragm. All told, she spent about 30 days in the hospital and then endured a year of recovery.
Dr. Kramer, one of the surgeons who treated Ashley, attributed part of her successful recovery to her ‘positive outlook on life.’
