My Accident and Miracle
Part 4
The ride in the ambulance was pretty normal for an ambulance ride, I guess. I felt great hope in the fact that they did not have the siren on. It was a good sign.
I was extremely uncomfortable lying on my back, strapped to a board. The weight of my little baby began press on my pelvis and everything inside. The paramedics had cut off all my clothing and covered me with a gown of some kind. It’s funny how you can still be embarrassed, even in an emergency. They also put a heated blanket on me. It helped my shivering some.
They took me to Baptist Medical Center. They unloaded me and there in the ER I immediately saw my husband. I could tell the adrenaline was flowing through his veins. He immediately came over and took my scraped hand. I don’t remember what he said, or if he even talked at all. I just remember how he looked. One thing about My Man is that he likes to be in on the action. He likes to get right in and get his hands dirty, and he rarely hesitates–even in emergencies. In fact, he doesn’t fear many things. But I saw fear in his face that day. I could tell there was so much that he wanted to be doing to help me, but he couldn’t.
At that time, Mark did not even know all that had happened. He only knew that I had somehow been hit by a car. He assumed I’d been crossing the street or something. He did not know I had been on the sidewalk. He did not know the force had pushed me off the bridge. He didn’t know how close our little son had been to being hit. My Man listened as the paramedics filled the doctors in on the whole accident. The fear in his face grew.
The nurses and doctors began poking and checking me. My ER room was bustling like a scene from a medical drama. I was afraid. Suddenly, a great longing filled my heart inside me. I wish my mom was here, I thought. More than anything in the world I wanted my mom to be there, but she was hundreds of miles away in Utah. I wanted to cry and I wanted her to be there to tell me that everything would be okay, the way a child runs to her mom when she falls and scrapes her knee. My mom and I have a great relationship. She had helped me be strong all the years that I had been far away from home.
I feel like God heard my little thought at that moment. Because, within minutes of my longing for my mom, the Relief Society President of our church, Sister Jones, and my wonderful friend from church, Griselda, entered the room. Both were smiling and I could see true compassion in their faces. My own eyes filled with tears as feelings of relief and peace filled my heart. And this knowledge entered my soul: God could not give me my mom that day, but he sent the next-best thing–the mother of our church congregation and a friend who was like a sister to me. I knew I would be okay.
In fact, I had many visits from people during those first few hours. They reminded me that I wasn’t alone. I noticed Bishop Nance was there also. He was the layman leader of our church in that area. The tall man towered over me as I lay in the hospital bed, still strapped to everything. He spoke words of kindness. I was amazed at how quickly the word had passed to him. My husband gave me a priesthood blessing with the assistance of the Bishop. His blessing was heartfelt and he blessed that our baby would be alright and that I would recover.
After the blessing, I felt much better about my own health. I somehow knew that nothing was broken or seriously wrong with me, even though I was in great pain. I wasn’t so sure about my baby girl though. I then went to have a CT scan, x-rays, and an ultrasound done.
The CT scan showed that I did have a concussion (that explained all the throwing up that I did too), but my neck was okay. The x-rays showed that my knees were not broken (though I could hardly move them because of the pain).
These were my main injuries:
A major concussion (with a huge bump on the back of my head)
A large gash on my forehead
Severe abrasion and bruises on my right knee (most painful of all injuries)
Severely scraped left knee
Scraped hands and feet
Lower back pain (from where the van hit me)
Sore jaw
Sore hip and upper thigh (from where I was lying on the cement?)
Sore tongue (I bit it pretty hard)
Neck pain (probably from whiplash and who knows what else)
The ultrasound I had to see the baby was inconclusive. No answers. I would just have to wait in faith. My silent prayer continued for her, and so did my worry.
After many hours at that hospital, they finally unstrapped me from the board, took off the IV and the neck brace, and they bandaged my many wounds with good ol’ Neosporin and Band-Aids. I realized later that my worst injuries were above my shoulders and right at my knees–nothing in between. I believe that angels possibly saved me and my baby. It was a miracle. My injuries were minor compared to the severity of the accident.
Heavenly Father, thank you for saving my life I prayed, and I have prayed those words many times since.
The doctors decided that I should be taken to UAMS because that was the only hospital that my OB/GYN worked at and I would be closer to her monitoring. They had concluded that I had no major injuries. What a relief. Now the only worry was the baby.
I tried to get up to get into the wheelchair so we could head to UAMS. The room spun around and around. I had never felt so dizzy before! I couldn’t even take one step without help. Oh boy, I thought, this is not going to be fun. Despite the miracle of it all,recovery was going to be much harder than I expected.
