When confronted with a near-death situation, survivors often report that, as the emotional event unfolds, their life flashed before their eyes.

Malora Stites of Sallisaw knows all too well the almost instantaneous reliving of vivid memories from her 18 years of life.

In the blackness of a rural Arkansas night just three days after Christmas, Stites’ life changed in seconds. As she stood on the shoulder of I-49 at about 3:45 a.m. in Crawford County, thankful she had survived losing control of her car and crashing into the concrete barrier of a bridge, she called 911 and then waved frantically to oncoming cars, alerting them that her disabled car was blocking both lanes of the highway.

But when a semitruck barreled down the shoulder Stites hoped would provide her with safe haven until emergency crews arrived, she had to make a lifeor- death decision in the final few feet before the semi reached where she stood.

“I see [the truck] getting closer and closer and closer, and at this point, he’s about maybe 10 feet away, and I’m realizing he’s not going to be able to come to a stop,” Stites recalls in reliving the final fateful seconds she was on the bridge.

She leapt into the pitch that lay beyond the concrete barrier of the bridge.

“I didn’t realize how high up I was until I started falling down,” Stites told KFSM, Channel 5, in her first media interview two weeks after surviving what was a 40-foot plunge onto a deserted Doyle Road below.

“I felt like I was reliving my life all over again. I had like a million different dreams in the span of like a second. It was really insane,” Stites said of her desperate decision.

As she surely flailed in the endless darkness into which she jumped, searching blindly for a safe landing spot, Stites found only the asphalt of the lonely roadway over which the I-49 bridge spanned. In the impact of the fall, Stites broke bones in her back, and fractured ribs, her pelvis and her sternum (breastbone).

Emergency crews at the scene requested a medical helicopter, but due to weather conditions, it was unable to fly. Stites was subsequently transported by ambulance to Washington Regional Medical Center in Fayetteville. She was then moved to Cox Medical Center South in Springfield, Mo.

“Multiple people have called it a miraculous survival,” she says, trying to piece together the events of that fateful night.

After more than a week at the Springfield hospital, Stites finally returned to the two-story home she shares with her 61-year-old mother.

“I would never have thought, leaving that night, that the next time I came home would be in a wheelchair,” Stites told Channel 5 from the wheelchair she’ll need to use for several months, while wearing a full body brace.

“There was a really high chance that I couldn’t even walk again at all ever. And I’m really grateful that I can,” she says. “You realize how quickly everything can change, because you never think something like this is going to happen to you.”

What started as a normal drive to work from Sallisaw to Fayetteville quickly turned into a bad dream from which Stites could not wake up.

“I’m grateful I can even talk to you right now,” she told Channel 5. “I’ve never been in any kind of accident before. I’ve never even broken a bone.”

While still recovering at the Springfield hospital, Stites took to social media to provide a firsthand account of what happened that night.

In her own words

In the days following her harrowing experience, a bed-ridden Stites took to Facebook in order to tell her “full story for people asking.”

“I was on my way to Fayetteville to work for DoorDash, something I did often,” she wrote.

“What happened was an animal ran out into the road, and the left lane was completely empty, so I tried to merge over,” she said. “But I turned the wheel too fast, and my car spun around in circles, slamming into the guard rail. It was smashed up and turned sideways, taking up the middle of the road. I couldn’t move it, and I was afraid to try again because I saw sparks flying and there was liquid pouring out of my car. I ran to the shoulder and called 911.”

With flashlight in hand, she began waving her arms in the air to warn oncoming traffic.

“If you know this road, you know it can be curvy and hilly, so it was hard to see cars until they were close. A couple of cars went by and pulled over on the side of the road, but then I remembered seeing a semi-truck coming towards me. My car was turned sideways in the middle of both lanes, so he was driving on the shoulder … where I was standing. I know from past experiences that it takes longer for semis to come to a complete stop, and when I saw how close he was getting, I made the quick decision to jump over the guard rail, not fully realizing how far up I was … just trying to climb over and hang down.

“My brain went into a panic when I saw how close [the truck] was getting, and, out of instinct, I decided I wasn’t going to wait and see if he’d stop [in the] last minute or not, so I jumped. I’m glad I did, because I was told I most likely wouldn’t have survived if I didn’t. The shoulder was only three feet wide.

“I’m still currently in the hospital with some broken bones,” Stites wrote. “I’ve already had surgery. I’m told that I should be able to walk again with time, but we need to use a wheelchair for the next few months.”

But Stites’ medical recovery isn’t her only challenge.

“Due to the circumstances of the accident and not having full coverage insurance, we will not be able to get a new car. My 61-year-old mother and I shared this vehicle, so she is having to get rides from people now,” Stites shared on Facebook. “I live in a two-story home and will need to purchase a stairlift, which isn’t covered by my insurance. I do have some money in my savings account, but I was planning to use this for college and would hate to have to pick between regaining my independence and my education. I want to be a nurse practitioner in medical aesthetics, so I will need to go to school for six to eight years and take extra courses on aesthetics. I was using the money I made from DoorDash to buy stuff I need so I can save money for school, but now I am not able to work for a while.”

A GoFundMe account has been set up to help Stites with expenses.