Twins Survive; Rescuers Shaken

Officer Allen Wagner feared the worst as he picked up a coatless, frozen 3-year-old girl found face down in the snow as her twin sister tried to keep her warm on a bitter cold Nebraska morning.

As he raced to his squad car clutching an unconscious Jennifer Woracek, Wagner believed she was close to death.

“There was a certain sound, a breathing sound, that I have heard with people ready to pass on,” Wagner said Saturday, his voice choked with emotion.

The sisters were hospitalized with severe frostbite and exposure early Friday, and Jennifer underwent heart and lung bypass surgery.

On Saturday, Jennifer’s condition was upgraded from critical to serious and she was on a respirator. She appeared to recognize her parents when she periodically woke up, said Dr. George Reynolds, director of Children’s Hospital’s pediatric intensive care unit.

“She was as close to dead as she could get,” Reynolds said.

Her sister, Kourtney, was in stable condition.

The girls got up before sunrise Friday morning and went outside in 10-below-zero temperature. Their father saw a light on and an open door.

About 40 minutes later Officer Troy Kister found a tiny footprint in the snow. “It looked to be fresh,” he said.

A few minutes later, officers found three of their boots and then the girls. “It was shocking,” said Kister, holding back tears.

The extent of the girls’ frostbite and their long-term prognosis remain uncertain.