BETWEEN THE 911 CALL AND HAVING HER ON A STRETCHER, WAS 27 MINUTES.

cooling their bodies often helps in the recovery. Rewarming her too fast could spark a series of harmful chemical body reactions.

But with traumatic head injuries, cooling can often be harmful to the brain. It wasn’t clear if Ashlyn had a head injury or whether her brain swelling was triggered by her heart stoppage.

The initial ABC assessment — airways, breathing, cardiac — showed betterthan-expected results.

Then came Ashlyn’s initial CT scan, a specialized X-ray that allows medical professionals to see inside the body. It didn’t show any major bleeding or skull fractures — very good news, indicating no surgery would be needed.

“Once we were aware there was no obvious head injury that required operations, we were optimistic anything we saw was related to the drowning and cardiac arrest,” Skoretz said.

That meant there was no urgency to warm up her body. The decision was made to allow Ashlyn to warm up slowly and naturally without intervention, with the help of some blankets. But there was brain swelling and her neurological assessment was grim. There was no response in her pupils. She wasn’t moving.

Ashlyn’s coma score, the assessment for brain activity, was a three — as low as it could be.

Skoretz said there was a head-to-toe evaluation for any obvious injuries. A bedside ultrasound and some quick X-rays revealed multiple fractures in her pelvis. A waist-only girdle was wrapped around her to keep her pelvis in place.

A chest X-ray wasn’t as dire as expected, considering she’d drowned.

But Ashlyn was still fighting for her life.

Brayden Krell had begun to worry as the minutes ticked past the expected time when his wife said she’d be home.

She’d sent him a text at about 8:30 p.m. from her parents’ home in Waterloo that she was about to get on the road to London, about 116 kilometres away, and should be home in an hour or so.

By 10 p.m., there was still no Ashlyn.

He texted and called her cellphone, but knew she never has her phone out when driving.

The weather was miserable. Maybe she just pulled over to wait out the storm, he thought.

Their relationship was built on love but sparked by their deep Christian faith. They’d been married for two-and-ahalf years after meeting at a Power To Change conference in Toronto. Their connection was practically instant.

The Christian ministry has chapters at several universities in Canada. Brayden, originally from British Columbia, belonged to a chapter at Western University, where he studied political science and philosophy.

Ashlyn was a music major at Queen’s University in Kingston. Her whole life had been influenced by her family’s deep roots in missionary work.

Her parents had taken her and her three siblings all over the world. Ashlyn was born in Austria while her parents were working in Europe for 17 years. She’d done her own missionary work in Africa with her parents.

The time stood at 11 p.m. and still no Ashlyn. Brayden put the James Bond movie Skyfall on TV, thinking “there’s no way I could sit through an entire movie and her not be home.”

The movie ended. Brayden couldn’t sleep.

Finally, the phone rang. It was Ashlyn’s brother, Dustin. “Did you hear the news?” he asked Brayden.

“Ashlyn’s been in a very bad car accident. She’s in the hospital and we’re on our way.”

Brayden called his neighbour for a ride. He pulled himself together and headed downstairs when his phone rang again. This time, it was Const. Emad Haidar — the OPP officer — at the hospital, just as two police cars rolled up to the house.

Haidar instructed him to call his number when he arrived so he could take him to the intensive care unit.

“I didn’t really know any details at that point,” Brayden said. “I just knew it was bad.”

Brayden Krell’s life had taken an abrupt turn.

Two large, wet police officers, one in a uniform covered in mud, were sitting with him at a hospital as his wife fought for her life.

Reintjes laid out the terrible situation: “I’m not a doctor and they have a pulse. But you need to prepare yourself. This is very bad. She was underwater for at least 25 minutes. I don’t know how this is going to work out.”

“I don’t want to hear this now,” Brayden said.

Reintjes and Haidar both nodded and sat quietly. They stayed with Brayden for the next couple of hours.

It was almost 4 a.m. when a trickle of family began to arrive. The officers decided they could leave.

Before they left, Haidar, a devout Muslim, spoke softly to the young husband.

“I will pray for you and your family.” Saturday: The Recovery