Here is an account written by my mom of the car accident I was in November 21 2006. It is really nice for me to read every once and a while. I makes me feel so blessed of all the people in my life who love me.
On
Tuesday evening, two days before Thanksgiving, November 21st...I got the
call. It was 8:20 in the evening. The lady on the other end said that my daughter,
McKinzie had been in a terrible auto accident and that I had better come right
away. (she later told me that she said
that McKinzie was awake...but I didn't hear that part) My whole body went numb, my mind went into
slow motion while I was on the phone. I
thought she had the wrong person..and I was wondering why she was calling
me. Erin immediately knew there was
something wrong just by the look on my face.
She was going crazy. She kept
saying..”what happened..what happened, while pacing back and forth. I finally gave the phone to Mike and he got
the directions where the accident occurred I went in my room pacing back and
forth. I was in shock. On the way up to the accident, I just kept
praying, pleading actually, that my sweet McKinzie would be alive. I was so very scared. We drove and drove...it seemed. It was dark.
We finally saw the lights. And people.
We couldn’t get to the accident sight so we drove down to a house and
climbed up a hill in the dark. When we
got there, the lady that called me said she was awake. The relief I felt that she was alive was so
profound I about dropped to the ground right there. After that, I was so very happy that she was
alive that I didn't care about anything else.
I was also happy everyone else involved was alive too. I saw her sitting in the car...her head to
the side. Mike went up to see her, but I
couldn’t, didn’t want to see her I that condition. It took 45 minutes or more to pry her out of
the car. They finally had to break the
back window and pull her from there.
When we first got there...the driver of the car was just getting into
the ambulance. Her mother yelled out
“Tara I’m am so sorry” The driver’s father stayed there, and we chatted. He too, apologized for what happened and was
just so glad that Kinzie wasn’t dead.
He was very nice, and said he stayed just to make sure she was going to
be okay. Again, I was just happy that
Kinzie was alive.
When they pulled her out of the vehicle, they laid her on
the road. The helicopter came and it was
very noisy and windy for a moment. We
started calling relatives, informing them of the accident. Mike said Jack and Kim would meet us at the
hospital. When she was laid in the road,
I noticed her leg was bend the wrong way.
I knew she had broken a leg bone.
she was bleeding from her mouth because I saw them suctioning the blood
from her mouth there on the road....we later found out that she had punctured a
vein on top of the inside of her mouth...and she swallowed a pint of
blood...they had to give her 4 units while in the hospital... For some reason,
I wasn’t worried for her. Again, I was
just happy that she was alive. They were
going to transport her to MacKay Dee Hopistal, but at the last moment, they
gave our choice of Ogden Regional or SLC.
Well, of course, Ogden was closer, so that is where we chose. They put Kinzie in the helicopter and we got
in our vehicle and took off to the hospital.
Us and every one else that wanted to go too. Apparently, word spread fast around the
community.
They had her in a back room in the ER when we arrived. They wouldn’t let us see her. Jack, Marcie and Kim were there. Everyone started arriving..all of Kinzie’s
friends. The bishop came, and his
counselor. Her volleyball coach
came..Sherri came down...it was amazing.
She had a lot of support come that night...a lot of her friends
etc. They finally let me and Mike back
to see her. She was swollen and she had
blood in her mouth. They escorted us out
again into the waiting room. The lady
who supports the families of such accidents came out and talked to us and told
us what would happen and gave us a booklet etc.
She was very helpful. They let us
go back again. This time she was drugged
up and ready for surgery. They wanted us
to talk to her. I grabbed her hand and
started crying. I didn’t know what to
say. It just broke my heart seeing my
sweet daughter this way. I was just
crying. They kept telling me to say
something to her. I didn’t know what to
say. Finally I said...”I love you
sweetie” ‘I love you” and I kissed her cheek.
Mike said something too. Jack,
Kim and Mike gave her a blessing then too.
Then we waited in the waiting room. The waiting room was packed full of
people. One moment the waiting room was
full of talk and noise, then they wheeled McKinzie passed them to surgery, and
all of the sudden everything was quiet.
They had to do that because they were remodeling the ER and there was no
other way around it. I finally told the
bishop that I didn’t want the people there anymore...and he told everyone to go
home. By this time it was 10:30ish. The doctors...came to talk to us, to let us
know what would be happening in surgery.
There was the orthopedic surgeon..who was so nice. And then, I think we saw the jaw doctor...and
then the main doctor over it all. Jack,
Kim, Marcie, Mike, Erin and I knelt in prayer in the waiting room. That was a special moment. Then Mike and I and Erin went to the waiting
room to wait. It was quiet and
dark. Of course we couldn’t go to sleep.
So we just went over the night’s events.
Erin turned on the TV, and watched a couple shows. Finally she got tired and went to sleep on
the floor. Mike and I were just watching
the clock. I finally dozed off at
3:15...and I think at 3:45 the orthopedic surgeon (Dr. Watson came in and woke
us up and told us about the surgery.
That is where we found out that she had broken her two legs...left femur
and right tiba and broke her right wrist, which he didn’t cast yet because of
swelling. He was very nice..but was
anxious to go to bed because he had to work the next day. Mike and I went back to sleep and at 5:00,
the jaw doctor came in and told us about her Jaw. The jaw doctor and the surgeon had to work
together on her separate injuries. He
told us all the stuff he put in her face to fix it...and that her jaw was wired
shut and that her bottom jaw was just shattered. He was very good too. Then he left, and then we went to the other
waiting room closer to the ICU where they had Kinzie.
There was another lady in the waiting room. Her husband got checked in for some reason or
another. I told her of our ordeal and we
became friends. At six 0'clockish the
nurse from ICU came in and told us Kinzie wanted to see us. This day was Erin’s birthday. We jumped right up and rushed to Kinize’s
bedside. She looked 100 percent better
than from the night before. But it still
broke my heart to see her like this. I
started to cry. She had tubes in her
nose, in each nostril. Her face was
very swollen. However, to my surprise,
she did not have one bruise on her face.
That, to me was incredible. The
night before there was blood all over her neck and face. And this morning, she was all washed up and
not one bruise. I still get teary eyed
just thinking about it.
Tina, was her nurse for the first day. She was young and professional. Kinzie was sleeping, so we decided to go get
some breakfast. Erin and I had not eaten
since 4:00 the day before where we had a hot dog at Sam’s with Kinzie. That is another thing about that
morning. That time with Kinzie at Sam’s
kept running through my mind...the last time I was with Kinzie...there I was
with her and Erin at Sam’s club...and now here she was lying in ICU.
We went to Denny’s.
(Now every time I pass Denny’s, I think of this morning) Connie Porter
called me right then. She was the one
who called me first. I wanted her to
tell me what happened. She was a witness
to the accident. She told me all about
it and answered every question I had.
They were coming around the corner...Katie got to close to the edge of
her side of the road, got into some gravel, over corrected to get back on the
road...got in the pathway of the oncoming truck, over corrected to get back on
her side, and then her car did a 360 in the gravel, and Kinzie’s side was hit
by the truck. Katie immediately got out
of the car and sat down on the road.
Connie and the driver of the truck went to Katie to make sure she was
okay. Katie finally told them there was
another passenger in the car. They had
no idea Kinzie was in the car. Kinzie
apparently had her cell phone trying to call someone...(hopefully me) That is
when Connie took her cell phone and called me on it. Anyway...we were getting phone calls
wondering how Kinzie was. We ate a good
breakfast at Denny’s...bonding as a family. Then we drove to Walmart to buy
stuff like shampoo and toothpaste. When
we got back, Marcie was there with a little gift bag for us. It had deodorant, toothbrushes, etc. in
it. I thought that was very, very
thoughtful. I really did not think we
would have that many visitors that day, because Kinzie was in ICU and couldn’t
see visitors. Boy, was I wrong!!! We were deluged by visitors all day long and
into the evening. I will see if I can
remember them all. Kim and Lydia came.
He gave us 150.00 for food while we were in the hospital. I broke down and cried at the generosity of
the gift. That has really come in
handy. I didn’t think we would need the
money...but I had no idea what was in store for us. Kim was a great source of strength that first
evening, as was Jack and Marcie. When I
walked in from Walmart, There was Brad and Chugg sitting by the front
door. It was surprising and yet very
touching. I was wondering why they were
sitting by the front door and not back where we set up camp I sat down in front
of them and said, “Do you want to hear about McKinzie?” They both readily shook their heads yes. So I gave them an update and sent them on
their way. When I saw them, it reminded
me of two lost puppies, not knowing what to do.
IT was very sweet.
When I walked back to the waiting room, there was the YW
presidency. We had a nice chat. Tysen Johnson and his mom came, Gerilyn came
early that morning. Sister Anderton
came. I was so relieved that I didn’t
have to teach RS that Sunday... We
decided to put together a little sign in book for our visitors to share their
thoughts with McKinzie. These have been
a great source of strength to here. I
would bawl and bawl as I read them to McKinzie because they were all so very
touching with their expressions. Kinzie
would have me read them and read them to her.
And I would bawl through each one of them. Bishop and his wife came down. My dad and Violet stopped in on their way to
Thanksgiving with my family. I think
they stayed at Treg’s I couldn’t believe the out pouring of love we felt that
day. Coach, Jamie and Swish came by
also. Coach hasn’t missed a day of
stopping by. She has been so incredible.
I think it was that
afternoon Kinzie woke up and asked for us. I was SO happy. We had a difficult time communicating. She can’t see without her contacts plus she
is drugged up, plus her eyes were swollen.
We started having her point to an alphabet chart. That worked somewhat. She would get frustrated with that because I
didn’t know exactly which word she was spelling out. She was so anxious to know what
happened. She couldn’t remember anything. She wanted to know everything all at
once. What her injuries were. I was just SO happy to be with her.
The saddest part for me was to see her
lying there in the hospital...Anyway...they wisked her to surgery and after 5
hours of it...she looked completely different...they just wiped all the blood
away from her face. She broke both
legs...left femur and right tibia, she broke her right wrist and she shattered
her lower jaw (broke in 8 different places)
plus she broke her top jaw.
Nothing else...not one bruise on her face...no brain damage, no spinal
injuries..etc. She was very
blessed. She spent 4 days in ICU then 7
days in intermediate care. And now she
is home doing quite well. She can walk,
slowly with a walker...They put sturdy pins in her legs, so that she can
walk. They cast her wrist and wired her
jaw shut for six weeks. She hates that
part! Her spirits are mostly up...however she wishes she didn't have to go
through this recovery bit.
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