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ARCHDALE, N.C. — Fire ants attacked a woman and she almost died from all of the bites. Fortunately, a woman driving by saw her in distress.

Donna Kearns said she was weed eating when the ants got on her.

The grass was so high, Kearns could not see what was at her feet on Saturday afternoon. She ended up near a mound of fire ants.

“When the weed eater hit them they just exploded in on me,” she said. “The biting started instantly and you could tell because it’s like pins going through you.”

Kearns tried to wash them off with water, but suddenly started to feel sick, then collapsed in her yard.

“It went through my mind, my husband is hard of hearing as well, and I knew he had the TV on real loud, so I was thinking, ‘How am I going to get to him to let him know that I am out here?'” she said.

Thankfully, at just the right time, a stranger drove by. That woman said she and her husband were on the way to her mother-in-law’s home to cut her grass. They usually take a different route, but on Saturday afternoon, they decided to go down Weant Road. Every time they drive down the road, a sign in the Kearns’ yard advertising fresh eggs catches her eye. That afternoon, a woman sprawled out in the grass caught her eye instead.

“She got my husband to the door and she said I think this is your wife laying out in the yard,” Kearns said.

Then the stranger called 911. First responders got to her just in time. She said she was unresponsive. She could hear them, but could not respond. The first responders saw her feet, covered in bites, and realized she was having an allergic reaction.

“You can’t really imagine what could have happened, but it definitely would have happened if she wouldn’t have stopped,” she said.

After 48 hours in the hospital, Kearns is back on her feet. She says life is all about the little things. Whether that’s something as small as an ant or a glance from a stranger in the right direction.

“It was meant to be, I guess it wasn’t my time to go. She was in the right place at the right time, and thank God she stopped and I love her to death,” she said.

The stranger did not want to go on camera because she says she does not want any credit. She says God put her in the right place at the right time.