A 3 year-old boy and his 1 year-old brother managed to survive for several days alone and starving in the wreckage of a car crash in Arkansas that killed their mother.

Law enforcement officials were stunned that the boys were able to survive for so long. When they were found late on Monday, the crash was believed to have occurred on Saturday. However, police now think the crash actually happened last Thursday, meaning that the two toddlers may have survived as long as four days alone.

Ouachita County Sheriff’s Detective Nathan Greeley, who was one of the first officers to meet the 3 year-old after he was found, said that though the boy had some scratches and bruises, he seemed to be most desperate for human contact.

“They went through pure hell,” Greeley said. “It is completely amazing that not only did they survive that long, but that the 3-year-old was able to walk out the way that he did.”

The boys were found after the 3 year-old was seen wandering on the side of a highway in Camden on Monday. When officers arrived to pick him up, they discovered the car crash at the bottom of a ravine.

The mother of the boys was ejected from the car upon impact, but the 1 year-old was strapped in. There was no food or water in the area of the car crash. The mother has since been identified as Lisa N. Holliman, 25, and she is believed to have lost control of her car as she drove.

Greeley said that the 3 year-old saved his baby brother’s life when he went up to the highway.

“Had not he done what he did, his brother probably wouldn’t be here right now,” Greeley said.

Please keep these brave little boys in your thoughts and prayers! Find out more about their story in the video below, and SHARE this story so your friends and family can see this as well!