Two Kids Survive Shooting By Mother

Shot in the neck and paralyzed, 11-year-old Adam Fowler managed to roll off the bed - and onto his dead mother. His sister, Jessica, was able to crawl into the living room despite a bullet in her neck.

For five days without food or water, they called out feebly and tried to make enough noise to attract neighbors’ attention. Adam banged on the wall with a nonworking telephone. Jessica, 13, struggled to turn on the TV full blast.

When they weren’t making noise, they prayed and encouraged each other to hang on.

Finally, on Tuesday, they were discovered after a concerned coworker of the mother called police.

Investigators determined that Carrie Lee Rhodes, 38, had shot her children with a .357-caliber pistol in a bedroom of their rented house, then killed herself with the gun.

Rhodes, a nurse, left a note indicating she was depressed over a failed love affair and money problems, a police spokesman said. She was divorced from the children’s father.

Doctors weren’t sure whether the children’s spinal cord injuries were permanent. They were listed in serious but stable condition.