You are imperfect, permanently, and inevitably flawed. And you are beautiful. - Amy Bloom
In 2011, it was midnight on Christmas night that I was in a horrible car accident with my older sister, boyfriend and his friend. They were taking me and my sister back to our house on Hobbs Street. We were stopped at the intersection of Hobbs and Main Street, only about a minute away from our house. The light turns green, we start to go and as soon as we crossed main street the tires caught black ice and we started spinning uncontrollably. The truck hit a curb which made us start to roll over, but the bed of the truck hit a sign and stopped us. The truck landed on the driver side. Mind, we were in a two door truck with four of us in it. By the time we all realized what happened, we heard a man asking us if we were okay and how many of us were in the vehicle. He said he called the ambulance and they were on their way. When the ambulance arrived they were able to just open the passenger door and get my sister and the other guy out.
My boyfriend and I, on the other hand, were stuck and smashed in the truck.
The steering wheel was crushing my legs so I was unable to move or get pulled out. The next 20 minutes was the longest 20 minutes of my life. The firefighters brainstormed about what to do and finally, they decided they were going to cut the truck open in half with a huge saw. We were instructed to put our heads down and cover our eyes. My boyfriend says the only thing he remembers from the accident was covering my eyes to shield the sparks. I can hear everyone running around panicking and trying to hurry but be efficient. One of the firefighters came from above and instructs me to lift my arms up and he was going to pull me out. He pulled once and saw I was still stuck. I heard them crack the truck open wider. He pulls again and I start to come out slowly.
I was almost out and as I look down, my left leg was completely turned backwards.
In that second, I realized the steering wheel crushed me so hard, it broke my leg, I thought I was going to lose my leg. My sister and I rode in the same ambulance to the hospital as they continued to pull my boyfriend out of the truck. My mom said when they called her, she immediately started driving to the hospital. Once we arrive they determined my left femur was completely fractured in half and my sister fractured her pelvis. She had to be flown to Lubbock Texas Tech Hospital because they couldn’t do anything for her here. My mom didn’t want us split up so the hospital said they could fly me there too. She was taken first, then they came back for me. Once I arrived, I was immediately taken into radiology then into the OR.
They made an incision on the left side of my leg and inserted a plate with 8 screws onto my bone to hold it back together.
Recovery and physical therapy were hard and lengthy. I was out of high school for half of the spring semester as I was non ambulatory. I didn’t realize at the time but I was starting an opiate addiction and becoming non social and had no intentions of coming out of the house. It was hard especially as a teenager to be seen with crutches and a huge scar on my leg. I was very self conscious about it and tried my best to hide my scar whenever I could. It took me several years to not feel embarrassed about it anymore.
It’s become a part of me now and I actually love to tell the story and show my scar! It was a scary experience but I’ve learned and grown from it mentally.
Needless to say, I’m proud of my scar and the person it has shaped me into.
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