Back to School
As the summer was coming to a close, I, being a seventh grade reading teachers was looking forward to starting a new school year on the first day back: August 9, 2010. When school let out I headed home, like I’ve done hundreds of times before, went down the same roads I travel on every day, and came to the same stop sign I’ve seen many, many times. I do not remember any of this, but from what I’ve been told, I must not have looked twice, like I normally do, since that particular stop has a dangerous blind spot and thus I accellerated into oncoming traffic in my Nissan Altima: suddently, a PT Cruiser, traveling at a supposed 45 miles per hour, came barrelling into the side of my car, T-boning me. Normally, I always wear my seatbelt, but for some reason, I did not have it on which saved my life, so I’ve been told, because the impact of the crash threw me from the driver’s side to the passenger’s side.
One of the firemen who pulled me out of the car is actually the father to one of my students and he has told me, it looked very bad at first and he’s never seen an ambulance take off so quickly. He also helped load me in the helicopter no more than 6 miles from the accident at the local hospital. My mother, by that time had gotten wind of what was happening, and made it to the helicopter before it had taken off. The flight nurses were nice enough to let her say a few words to me before the helicopter took flight. I arrived at Vanderbilt within 20 minutes and the doctors performed several scans and x-rays concluding that I had sustained several pelvic breaks and a frontal lobe brain injury. I remained in the trauma unit for four days, mostly unresponsive, until finally, one day, my father said it was like I just “woke up.” When I continued to make steady progress, the doctors released me across the street to Stallworth Rehabilitation where I stayed for about one week working with phenominal physical, speech, and occupational therapists. I was released and my doctors said I would not return to teach until January; however, I was determined to prove them wrong and their surprise, I came back within a month (September 7, 2010) of my injury.
This has been a life-changing experience for both me and my family, by all means; before something like this happens, you never truly take appreciation in life for the “simple” things: the perfect fall afternoon, coming home and putting on your comfy pajamas after a long day of work, Christmas morning with family, hugging someone you love, I could go on and on. One thing is for sure, the doctors, nurses, & physcial therapists at Vanderbilt Trauma Unit have given me another chance to enjoy those simple things, that truly mean the most and I am eternally gratefull.
