Bogalusa’s Donna Carroll said she feels lucky to be alive.

The 71-year-old Carroll said that she recently suffered an unprovoked beating at the hands of an apparently out-of-control female assailant. As a result of the beating, Carroll suffered injuries to her neck, back, legs and ribs. She had a black eye and continues to experience pain and headaches from the beating. She had no broken bones from the attack.

Normally, one to help others during difficult times, Carroll said she now has second thoughts about assisting anyone else.

Carroll said she was driving along on Derbigney Street on Oct. 24 when she saw a fire truck at the end of Adams Street. She went toward the truck thinking a house might be on fire.

“The ambulance and fire truck were just pulling off when I saw a girl crying in the yard,” Carroll said. “I pulled off on the side of the road and asked her if I could do anything for her. She said, ‘No, but I can do something for you (expletive deleted).’ She started running toward me and literally started beating me with her fists.

“I was between the ditch and the street. She knocked me to the ground and was beating me like a wild woman. I managed to turn over and she started kicking me with her boots.”

Carroll said she thought the end was near.

“I started praying because I couldn’t get up. I thought I was going to die right there by the road,” Carroll said. “About that time, a car came up Adams with a lady and her mother. They rolled the window down and asked the girl what she was doing. The girl asked them if they wanted some.”

Carroll said her prayers must have been answered.

“The next thing I knew I was sitting in my truck with my hands in my lap,” Carroll said. “I came out of a daze and realized the truck was running. I know my foot wasn’t on the accelerator, but the truck just started gliding.”

Carroll said there were a number of witnesses to the beating, but none intervened.

Carroll sought treatment at Our Lady of the Angels Hospital.

“The ladies in the X-ray unit can tell you I was screaming from all the pain,” Carroll said. “It was like every bone in my body was broken.”

Bogalusa City Prosecutor David M. Duke said a warrant is in the process of being issued for the alleged assailant, who is known to authorities.

“We will go through the normal course of prosecution in court,” Duke said. “It will go forward.”

Carroll said the ordeal changed her.

“I won’t be stopping to help anyone else,” Carroll said Wednesday. “I was coming from Covington the other day and saw an elderly man broke down by the road. That bothered me for two or three days because I didn’t stop to help him. I’m still in a lot of pain. Never did I think something like this would happen to me. I haven’t been out of the house but twice since Oct. 24 because the pain has been so bad. She really did a number on me.”