RAIN
On February 15, 2017, I was headed to school at Parkland College in Champaign, Illinois when the tread came off of the left rear tire of my truck causing me to lose control. When I tried to get myself back on the interstate the truck ended up flipping three and a half times. The driver's side door came open during this and my left leg was outside of the vehicle.
When everything stopped my leg had been pinned under the truck and I was trapped in the middle of the interstate. Gasoline was pouring all over me. Cars drove around me and weren’t stopping and I thought that no one would help me, but a man blocked the road with his semi and a woman drove around the backed up traffic to see what was going on. She sat with me in the gasoline until help arrived. I lost a lot of blood and ended up dying twice. If it weren’t for the great members of the Cisco fire department and paramedics insisting that I be taken by helicopter, I would not be here today because they do not carry blood on the ambulances.
When my mother and boyfriend arrived at the hospital they told them that they would have to amputate both of my legs above the knee and possibly my left arm but the doctor was able to save my right leg and my left arm as well as I only ended up with a below knee amputation on my left leg. I also had two fractured vertebrae, a fractured wrist, a fractured knee, and a fasciotomy on my right leg. I was in the hospital for two months and a half months before coming home still with wound vacs.
Thankfully almost nine months later I have recovered with only scars and recently received my first prosthetic leg. I’m not fully recovered but I am on my way to walking and living a normal life. This experience has taught me so much. You are not your body and I just want people to see that no matter what happens to you, you are always you. Do not let life’s tragedies dictate how you feel about yourself or the world.