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The next time you think you’ve had a rough night, you probably haven’t. Charlene Kirby had a really rough night between June 7 and 8.

Kirby, a longtime Colorado River Road resident, was in her ATV hauling a trailer load of grass and leaves up a gully on her property when the rig jacknifed. She was outside the rig when it rolled backward and she fell, hard, trying to get away from it.

A retired paramedic and emergency room nurse, Kirby knew right away that she’d probably broken her femur, the big bone above the knee.

You aren’t supposed to move when that happens, because there’s the danger of severing the femoral artery, which can cause you to quickly bleed to death. But it was a quarter-mile to the house, about 7 p.m., and there was no one around.

“I’m not laying here all night,” she said to herself.

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So Kirby lay on her side, putting her injured leg over her good leg. She said she screamed “loud enough, I thought they’d hear me in McCoy.”

She also twice said aloud a Bible verse, Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me,” and got to work dragging herself toward her house.

Kirby was wearing a work shirt, heavy pants and gloves — “God had me prepared for this,” she said — and got busy at the hard, painful job ahead.

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She then recalled that in her neighborhood, there had been sightings of a mountain lion, as well as coyotes and a family of foxes.

So she repeated the 23rd Psalm, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me.”

She also prayed for God “to send his angels to protect me.”

“I felt at peace and protected,” she said.

Shock? Hypothermia? Or both?

As she dragged herself on her left side, slowly, it started to rain and the temperature started falling. Kirby started shaking and wondered if she was going into shock, turning hypothermic, or maybe some combination of the two.

So she’d pull her sweatshirt over her head to breathe into it to warm herself, then drag herself a bit more.

At about daybreak, after about 14 hours of crawling, she was within sight of her yard, and her dog, who began whining for her but couldn’t come near because of his invisible fence. But she couldn’t drag herself anymore.

Her son, Rick, usually comes by in the mornings, about 10 a.m., to help irrigate. This Sunday morning, June 8, he came early, about 9 a.m.. He saw the drag marks and followed them to where his mother lay, exhausted, but alive.

“He thought I was dead, but I told him, I’m alive — call an ambulance,” she said. “I just laid there in the dirt — I couldn’t even move my arms anymore,” she added.

She went into surgery at Vail Health Hospital on the evening of June 9, and then spent June 12 to July 3 at Castle Peak Senior Life and Rehabilitation in Eagle. Kirby has high praise for the staff there.

She’s back home now, with her house set up for her.

Longtime neighbor Mike Lederhause is a former trooper with the Colorado State Patrol. Back in the days when he was on duty and Kirby was an active paramedic, the two of them responded to many accident scenes.

“I’ve been on accidents where she was the difference whether people lived or died,” Lederhause said. Before becoming a paramedic, Kirby often responded in her own car, with her own materials.

‘She’s done a lot’

“She’s done a lot for the community,” Lederhause said.

That kindness is being repaid now that Kirby is back home.

“I’ve been so blessed,” she said. “So many friends and family have come to see me.”

And, she said, she feels lucky.

“I didn’t hit my head, I didn’t break both my arms. I’m lucky. It could have been a lot worse, especially if that side-by-side had run over me.”

And she credits the almighty for getting her through that cold, painful night.

“The only reason I’m here is God was with me,” she said.