After giving blood, 19-year-old crashes into California lake. ‘I could have been dead’

Driving home after giving blood, 19-year-old Mary Robertson doesn’t remember passing out behind the wheel. But she absolutely remembers regaining consciousness.

“I felt like I blinked and all of a sudden I woke up in the middle of the lake,” Robertson told KOVR. “I woke up because the water was really cold on my feet.”

An onlooker who was fishing at Ellis Lake in Marysville, California, shouted at Robertson to roll down her window to escape the sinking car, KTXL reported.

“And she opened her window and that was probably just before the electronic system stopped working,” her mother, Lacie Robertson, told the station.

The 19-year-old crawled out through the window and swam safely to shore, KOVR reported. “I could have been dead in the lake,” Mary Robertson told the station.

The Yuba County Sheriff’s Department dive team and boat patrol helped recover the sunken car from the lake the Wednesday after the March 19 incident, deputies wrote on Facebook.

Divers found the submerged vehicle and hooked it up so it could be pulled from the lake, which has extremely poor visibility, the post says.

Mary Robertson said she decided to drive the short distance home after recovering from feeling woozy following her first visit to a blood donation clinic, KTXL reported.

“I thought it was a good thing to do,” she said of donating blood, KOVR reported. But she and her mother encouraged blood donors to ask for help getting home if they feel ill afterward.

This story was originally published March 29, 2021 at 1:05 PM with the headline "After giving blood, 19-year-old crashes into California lake. ‘I could have been dead’."