Elderly woman found alive frozen to ground after snow storm

An elderly woman in the US spent two days lost in an ice storm before she was found alive frozen to the ground.

Patricia Madden, 74, was found lying on a rural road outside Nashville, Tennessee by amateur photographer Keith Sheldon last Friday morning, WKRN reports.

Mr Sheldon was out taking photos of the damage left by the storm when he saw an abandoned car in a ditch.

"She was lying right there against that dirt bank and she blended in, (she had) a brown coat on and it looked just like the dirt," Mr Sheldon said.

"I was here at the car, and I was yelling at her, 'Hello? Can you hear me?' and I got no response."

Mr Sheldon said the woman was lying on her side in a foetal position with her hands tucked into her sweater.

She eventually responded but declined his offer to help her, Mr Sheldon said, despite the temperature hovering around -11 Celsius.

Ms Madden had been missing since last Wednesday, after she left her home in Nashville to visit a horse stable 35km away.

Mr Sheldon called paramedics and said he heard the ice crack beneath her as she was lifted off the freezing ground.

It is not known why Ms Madden left the safety of her car or how long she had been outside.

She was treated for hypothermia and then released to be cared for at home by her family.

Her family said it is not the first time she had gone missing, with a brain injury caused by falling off a horse possibly causing her to become disorientated.

Source: WKRN