My Story

So I’m alive..we rolled a 4-runner and I was ejected out of a vehicle, found 30 ft away from the car broken in half with crushed vertebras, a pulverized sacrum, a shattered ankle, a slight concussion and collapsed lungs and I m alive, I am gonna be able to walk again someday and I feel like I need to share my story.
So here it goes….

On April 2nd Garett and I and our little dog Moody packed up the car and headed on the road to Utah to attend my older brother Dickson’s wedding. We had been experiencing some weird weather for April but have driven in a lot worse before. It was Garett’s turn to drive and I decided to catch up on some sleep since we had a long night ahead of us. So with my seat belt on I leaned the seat back and fell asleep with ease. At about 10:30 p.m we were driving west of Baker City Oregon and hit some black ice and I awoke to hear my sweet husband “ uh oh sweetie we’re hitting a rough spot…here we go, hold on baby, here we go.”

Still blurry eyed and confused, I wasn’t sure what was happening. I remember seeing a glimpse of the road and feeling like we were sliding. All of a sudden I felt like I was dreaming that I was flying through the air, but now I know this was no dream. I remember feeling like I was flying through the air, only I couldn’t return to the ground. It was as if gravity didn’t work on me. It didn’t feel like slow motion , it felt like I was being held up there for a reason. This may not seem important but the truth of the matter is that the trajectory of my course should have thrown me under our rolling SUV or into traffic….but I wasn’t. I was thrown 30 feet away from the car on the side of the road out of harms way. I don’t remember impact or the pain that came along with it. That in itself is a huge blessing.

(Now you will have to excuse me because my memory of the accident and the hospital is very limited and blurred. So you can read my husbands account further down or at…. http://rachelandgarett.blogspot.com or my blog is http://racheldabelljacobson.blogspot.com/ it is much more detailed and has the full account of the amazing Samaritans that helped us along our way)

So we had hit some black ice and rolled the vehicle.. On about the 2nd or 3rd roll, Moody our dog and I were thrown from the vehicle. The remarkable thing…our 30 pound dog was thrown from the same vehicle and suffered NO injuries. Amazing!! Right? Now I wish I could say that I was as fortunate but all things considering I am as fortunate. No doubt my injuries are extensive and painful, but the reality is I should have brain damage, be a quadriplegic, or be dead. I landed on my butt and back when I was thrown from the car but could have easily rotated another 20 degrees and landed on my head. And as crazy as it sounds I feel like I was thrown from the vehicle for protection. When the car rolled it lurched onto (my) the passenger side of the car and with each roll the roof of the car was pounded further and further into the interior of the car (which would have been my head). After seeing the car I realized the roof of the car would be crushing me all the while Garett’s side somehow remained relatively erect. Another unforeseen blessing.



We were transported to an Oregon hospital but later got life flighted to a different hospital. The only memory I have of the Oregon emergency room is when Garett and my ER doc placed their hands on my head and administered a blessing to me. (yes the ER doc that just happened to be working that evening, just so happened to be an LDS bishop) After the blessing I remember feeling tired but more strongly safe. I felt comforted despite the pain. I felt calm in the middle of the chaos. Looking back now I know heavenly father blessed me with the spirit so that I could bear the reality and trials that would come from the accident.

Our means of transportation to the second hospital was a Jet. A Jet could have flown us to Harborview (right by home) in less than 90min but instead took me to the hospital with one of the top foot and ankle specialist AND neurologist in the states. Remarkably the two areas that I would later need extensive surgery in.

My neurologist said that I broke in half…. but fell back together in the exact right place. The doctors were shocked that I could feel my legs and wiggle my toes. When they began the spinal surgery to clear out the debris and insert the rods the doctor said that “there is no reason she shouldn’t be paralyzed right now.” He said the dura (the tissue lining use to protect the spinal cord) was completely shredded. He said it looked as if some one had come in and stripped an electrical cord of its plastic sheath. It’s a blessing that my spinal cord wasn’t damaged. My neurologist even had the insight to fuse only 3 of my vertebrae instead of 5 but still managed to provide temporary support by using rods to sustain the other vertebrae above and below the fusion. What a blessing that I will have little to no ramifications in mobility because of that insight.

My foot and ankle surgeon was just as insightful (due to a little persuasion from my mom). Instead of putting metal screws into the talur dome of my foot (which is very problematic and causes a lot of pain in recovery) he was able to use bio degradable pins and bypass a lot of the complications that come with that sensitive part of the foot. I still received a rod and 11 screws on the outside of my ankle but thankfully in a year when I go to get all the metal out of me I don’t have to deal with getting any metal out of the talur dome.

I’ve suffered a lot of injuries and I have had a lot of surgeries and have more to come, but all in all it seems difficult not to be grateful. The rest of my injuries were inoperable because there wasn’t anything they could do for them. When I landed on my butt I fractured 5 areas in the sacrum as well as broke my coccyx clear off of my sacrum. Luckily they said with time theses areas would reattach and slowly heal.

I spent a couple days in the ICU, 10 days in the acute care unit and another 10 in the Rehabilitation Center (and right now what feels like will be an eternity of physical therapy) but on April 27th my sweet in-laws found a way to take me home. I couldn’t fly because protocol for someone whose lungs collapsed is waiting 6 weeks. That amount of time was not acceptable to me. I was too anxious to get home. I couldn’t drive because my sitting tolerance was too low. I could only put pressure on my sacrum for maybe 30 minuets before being in horrible pain. A 10 hour drive from Boise to Seattle would be impossible. It felt like I would never get home. At 11:00 I was dis-charged and taken to the car where my father in law had taken the middle seats out of his van and placed a mattress for me to lay down on. My father in law being the brilliant Navy Sea Bee constructionist that he is had easily thought of a way to tether down straps across me to secure my safety. It was the best feeling to be going home. I couldn’t have been happier. I had my sweet husband sitting in the back seat stroking my head and our cute little dog lying next to me. We had all survived and we were going home. I felt so grateful, for so much.

Now that I am home, I have had a lot of time to think about things and reflect. I have encountered people who will hear my story and tell me, “what bad luck” or “how unfortunate” or “your poor thing” but I couldn’t disagree with them more. I am so grateful. I know I have a Father in heaven who loves me and for some reason saw fit to spare me from leaving this earth prematurely. He provided a way for me to endure this and accounted for every needful thing. I know that we are on this earth to makes choices and that trials are meant for us to overcome. I just need everyone to know that in our trials, we are not alone. Our Heavenly Father is mindful and will provide ways for us to endure and overcome. I am so grateful for this knowledge. I want everyone to know that your support and prayers are working. I have felt their power and it has given me strength and encouraged healing. This weekend I was able to walk on my left foot for the first time in 3 months. I went swimming the other day and actually got a work out (again for the first time in three months. Whoo! What a work out!) I am on my way to being back to normal. Thank you all for your love and support. I feel overwhelmed with all the blessings I’ve received and feel so grateful to have such wonderful people surrounding me.

Now that the whole of my story has been told I need to tell you about some of the lighter side of our experience. The funny stuff….just a couple of stories…they may not be that funny though...

As the ER Dr.’s and Nurses were cutting off my clothes to assess my injuries I stopped them….and said “no don’t cut my bra off, its new and its so hard to find a good bra” It may not be that funny but I think its funny that when my life is in danger…I am worried about my bra. Not sure if I had drugs on board by then but lets just say I did. Anyway the sweet nurse sided with me when the Dr. disregarded what I had said and she saved the bra. Hooray!!

At one point I was so drugged that I wasn’t quite sure why we were in the hospital. So I concluded that the only logical explanation was that I had had a baby. And therefore asked .. “ok so where is my baby?” (a great blessing I wasn’t really pregnant) My mom just looked at me funny and back at the nurse.

I had felt really bad about asking the nurses when I could have more pain killers because I didn’t want to be annoying and I didn’t want them to think I was like a drug addict or something so whenever they came in I would ask “Do you know what time I am supposed to get another dose.. did I just have one? Should I just suck it up?”(I really had no concept of time) The nurses were always so sweet and kind. They would always laugh and tell me I’d been in a car accident and its ok to ask for more pain killers. They would tell me they would be right back with something to help and my response inevitably was “I’ll be right here” (seeing as how I couldn’t even roll from one side of my bed to the other) they would usually laugh as they went to help me manage the pain.