A 911 Call on the Shoulder of I-24 Turned Into a Fight for Her Own Life

Serenity Sumler had already pulled over to help someone else when the scene turned into a life-threatening emergency for her. Standing beside a crashed car on Interstate 24 in Antioch, she was hit when police say another SUV spun out, struck a guardrail and slammed into her.

The moment the roadside rescue became a second crash

Sumler says she was on the passenger side of a car that had already been involved in a single-car crash, talking to the driver and calling 911, when everything changed.

Police say an SUV spun out, hit a guardrail and then slammed into her. Sumler described being trapped between the two vehicles.

"I got pinned between that car and the lady's car, my lower half, until her car moved and I finally hit the ground," she said. "In that moment, I thought my life was over."

That split second is now at the center of a story that started with a simple choice to stop and help. Sumler had not been in the original crash. She had been driving home from culinary school when she came across it on Interstate 24 in Antioch and decided she could not keep going.

Something, she said, told her to pull over. What followed left her with devastating injuries and a recovery that is still unfolding.

Why she stopped in the first place

For Sumler, the decision to get involved did not come from hesitation or calculation. She says it came from how she was raised.

"Because, you know, my mom raised me that way. It wouldn't have sat well if I saw she was in distress and went home," Sumler said.

That instinct put her beside a stranger's car, trying to help in the most practical way she could by speaking with the driver and calling 911. Instead of heading home from school, she stayed at the crash scene.

It is that detail that makes the story so striking. The person now dealing with crushed bones, physical therapy and medical bills was not the driver from the first wreck. She was someone who saw a person in trouble and stopped.

Her mother, Demetria Dobbins, later described the emotional weight that has come with that decision. Sumler has struggled with the thought that if she had kept driving, she would not be in her current situation. But her family has pushed back on that line of thinking, framing her actions as the kind of help anyone would hope to receive in an emergency.

First responders did not know if she would survive

According to crash investigators, the injuries were so severe that first responders did not know whether Sumler was going to survive.

Both of her legs and her pelvis were crushed, and she suffered extensive tissue damage. She spent 31 days at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, including time in the intensive care unit.

When she was released earlier this month, the 20-year-old moved back in with her mother as she continues to recover. The reality of that recovery shows up in basic routines that now require help.

"Yesterday I had my mom help me shower because I have a shower chair. I can't stand up," Sumler said.

That one sentence captures how far her life has been altered. Before the crash, she had been on her way home from culinary school. Now, she is depending on her mother for day-to-day tasks as her body heals from major trauma.

The report of her hospitalization also points to how long and serious the aftermath has already been. More than a month in the hospital, some of it in the ICU, underscores the scale of what she survived after being pinned between the vehicles.

The financial decision that now looms over her recovery

The physical recovery is only one side of what Sumler and her family are facing. The other is financial.

Sumler had been working part time and putting money toward her culinary school tuition. But when she turned 19 in 2024, the cost of her health coverage through TennCare, Tennessee's Medicaid program, was set to rise sharply. Faced with that increase, she chose to go without insurance.

Dobbins laid out the numbers that shaped that decision.

"From $16, it's going to be $286 a month, and I don't know anyone, especially a parent trying to see their 19-year-old trying to pay car insurance, try to maintain, and then have to pay $286 for insurance," she said.

Now those earlier financial calculations are colliding with hospital care, continued treatment and the cost of getting back on her feet. The family is waiting to learn whether Sumler qualifies for what is essentially emergency TennCare coverage.

At the same time, the crash has interrupted her ability to earn money. She had been saving from her part-time job for school. Now she is recovering at home and cannot work, while bills continue to build.

She still says she is glad she helped

Dobbins says one of her biggest concerns is not only the money, but her daughter's state of mind as the medical bills mount and the disruption to her life becomes impossible to ignore.

"She does struggle now with, 'Maybe I shouldn't have helped that person, then I wouldn't be here. I want to be going to school,'" Dobbins said.

Her mother's answer has been direct.

"I'm like, you can't think like that, because you're doing what's on your heart. Always follow your heart. And anytime you're helping a stranger or whatever the case may be, I feel like you'll get it in the end," she said.

Sumler says she is trying to focus on what she can control. That does not mean she is pretending she has no regrets or second thoughts. She acknowledged that she still runs through the what-ifs.

"I still have my woulda, shoulda, coulda, but at the end of the day, I'm still glad that I helped somebody out, even though I got hurt in the end," she said.

For now, the family has set up a GoFundMe to help cover physical therapy and the bills she faces while she cannot work. The appeal reflects the strange turn at the heart of the story. A woman who stopped because someone else needed help is now the one relying on it.