Woman rescued after fall when power crew shows up by accident

BOONE COUNTY, Iowa —

In mid-June in rural Boone County, Iowa, nestled between a cornfield and lush forest, Penny Lamar started her morning the way she always does:

A diabetic, she took her long-acting insulin before letting her two dogs, Fearless and Hettie, out to use the bathroom.

She’s lived in a barn-turned-condo with her newlywed husband, Al, for less than a year. It’s a peaceful property surrounded by hummingbird feeders and tall grass off a quiet dirt road.

She was only a few steps outside when her life changed.

“Midway down the driveway I had a big patch of mud,” Lamar said. “And, so I hit that and down I went, my leg bent back underneath me like this, and I landed flat.”

Stranded in a puddle of mud, Lamar was unable to sit up or move. Her husband was away on a trip to Canada. The only witness to her fall was the wide, empty dirt road in front of her.

So, she waited.

Minutes turned into hours as Lamar lay in the mud, her insulin wearing off. She could feel the mud soaking through her pajamas as she prayed to survive.

“I am honestly thinking that I’m going to lay there and die,” Lamar said.

Just when hope seemed lost, a Midland Power Cooperative truck unexpectedly rolled down her driveway. The crew was responding to what their system had flagged as a power outage.

They didn’t find one.

They instead discovered Lamar, who had a broken femur, critically low blood sugar, and internal bleeding that left her anemic. Thanks to their quick response, she was rushed to the hospital.

“So my heart of hearts, I feel that, you know, our Lord works in mysterious ways,” Lamar said. “And that was one of the mysterious ways is he sent a false message.”

Lamar is now recovering, adjusting to having screws and rods in her leg. She expressed her gratitude to the power company employees who saved her life.

“We give the guys from the power company crap when the power’s out, you know, why is the power out too long, you know, why did it have to go out? Got it out. And, and they get very few atta boys,” Lamar said.

Though her recovery will take time, Lamar is grateful to be alive, thanks to the crew that came to her rescue.

“Thank you. Thank you so much,” she said. “Thank you for paying attention to the message with all of the other work that you had to do that morning, that we had been without power. Thank you for calling 911 and staying with me.”