PARSONS, TN (WKRN) — A teenage girl from Parsons, Tennessee, about an hour and a half west of Nashville, is recovering from a horrific all-terrain vehicle crash on July 4.
Chloe Monroe, 14, lost her arm and was burned on her back by gasoline — but managed to pull her 4-year-old sister to safety just after the crash.
Chloe told WKRN she wasn’t speeding when the vehicle flipped with her and her sister on board but that the tires were sliding on loose gravel.
“The phone rang and it was 911, and she said, ‘Your daughters have been in an accident,’” said Jennifer Monroe, Chloe’s mother. “A lot of thoughts have run through my head of what could have been.”
Chloe was behind the wheel with her 4-year-old sister Shyloh beside her when the ATV “started fishtailing this way and that way.”
Chloe began losing control and the vehicle flipped. The roll bar fell on Chloe’s left hand and her leg was pinned underneath making it impossible for her to get from underneath the ATV.
“My sister was, like, dangling. She still had her seat belt on so I just pulled her up and she just kind of crawled out,” Chloe recalled.
She was so focused on her sister that she didn’t realize she had been injured.
“I looked down and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, my arm is missing.’”
Shyloh found her hand, saying, “Here sissy. Here’s your hand.”
Chloe’s dominant left arm had been severed, but she quickly called 911, remaining calm for her sister — all this while her leg was trapped under the ATV and the chemicals from the gasoline were burning her back.
“I know that God was with me and everything,” she said. “If it wasn’t for Him, I probably wouldn’t have been here.”
Chloe, a beauty queen and Riverside High School dancer, has already undergone four surgeries. Doctors weren’t able to save her hand, but her family is keeping a positive outlook and planning on a full recovery with a prosthetic.
“It’s a journey, but its going to be a positive one I hope,” said Monroe. “I’m so grateful they’re okay because it could have been an entirely different situation.”
Chloe had another surgery on Monday and it was successful, her mom reports.
“The doctors have advised me that Chloe needs lots of rest this week. We are so thankful for all those who have taken the time to visit,” wrote mom Jennifer Young Monroe on Facebook.