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Brunswick mom in coma after ATV accident

A Brunswick family is asking for the community's support after a mom of six suffered life-threatening injuries in an ATV crash.

Family members say Anne Elizabeth Simmons is in a coma and on life support after the crash last Saturday.

“She wasn’t breathing and I did CPR on her,” her husband Paul said. “It seemed like 30 or 40 seconds went by and finally shed started laboring breathing.”

Paul Simmons said they were at their nephew’s birthday party last Saturday. Later that night, he said he was working in the garage when he heard a crash near the driveway.

He said it appears that while his wife was driving a four-wheeler, she clipped a pole and the ATV flipped into a ditch.

Paul Simmons said he rushed over and found her unconscious with the four-wheeler on top of her.

“I thought I was going to lose her,” he said. “I thought she was going to die. I just prayed. Lord, Jesus please don’t take her.”

He said he performed CPR on his wife and was able to get her to start slowly breathing. Paul Simmons and a friend were able to pull the four-wheeler off of her and call for help.

“The whole thing was such a blur,” he said. “It seemed like no time, several ambulances were there, law enforcement and everything. They took her and she’s been unconscious ever since.”

He said she has been in the hospital for over a week and he’s hopeful that she will get through this.

She is still in a coma and have doctors monitoring her at UF Health in Jacksonville.

“She suffered some brain swelling and that’s really what all this has stemmed from,” Paul Simmons said. “She’s got some cuts and lacerations of course, and a few second-degree burns the size of a softball on her back from the gasoline.”

The couple share six children. The youngest is 6 years old. Paul Simmons said the support of their family and friends have helped them through this difficult time.

“When you have people going in and out seeing her and supporting you, it’s a lot easier,” he said.

Paul Simmons' family has created a fundraiser page. They said funds will go toward her emergency medical treatment.