The Accident

I have needed to blog this for awhile.  I knew it would take some time but it must be documented.  On May 22nd I had a normal day.  Went to a retirement celebration and had fun visiting with friends.  We had found out a couple of days before that Joe got a new position at work and it was a big step up for him. It would mean two more years at Minot and we were excited and proud. HD and Kassi were on their way to the hospital to be induced.  The doc thought Emmett was big and since Kass isn’t they decided to induce her.  The evening was full of energy and happiness. At around 9:30 my phone rang it was Sierra’s boyfriend Joey.  I figured Sierra was in the hospital. I assumed her pain was overwhelming or she was having kidney stone issues again.  Joey was calm and said “Sierra is in the hospital” (duh I already knew that) then he said “she was in an accident.  She is hurt but she is stable.” The words she was stable seemed comforting and scary why would a doc describe someone as stable? Was she unstable before? Joey told me her femur was broken and that she had “some swelling” around her left eye.  She was conscious and hurting.  He had called my dad (they were on their way to her) and said he would keep me updated.  I told Joe what had happened and called HD and Kass.  I told them to focus on the baby and to be happy to  keep me posted and I would do the same.  After that I called my mom, texted my brother and sister and a few friends and waited.  Joe went to bed telling me to wake him up if I needed him.  I called my dad.  He said he would call when he got to Sierra.  One friend I texted asked me what I needed and offered to come over to give me a hug.  I let her.  I was having a really hard time.  Why would Heavenly Father let this happen to Sierra? Her poor body goes through so much.  She is in pain every day and now her leg had to be broken??  I was sad and frustrated. Keva came and we talked through some of that.  Then my dad called.  He said Sierra was pretty beat up but doing ok.  I asked if she was going home (I had no idea) and he said “no way. She isn’t going anywhere for awhile.”  I was asking him a bunch of questions and then he told me Sierra was right there and that she was awake.  He put her on the phone and I lost it.  She said “I’m ok momma.  Its ok I’m ok.” Sweet girl was trying her best to comfort me.  We talked for a few and she handed the phone off.  I told dad to keep me posted.  Keva got ready to leave and I asked Joey to text me pictures of her.  Right as Keva was walking to the door I got the first pics of Sierra.  When I saw them I gasped and started to cry.  Her beautiful face was covered in blood.  Her eye was completely swollen shut and cut.  She was badly bruised.  Had I seen the first picture of her face and not known she was alive I would have assumed she did not survive the accident. It was the craziest rolllercoaster if emotions.  I was so sad and scared and happy that she had survived and that we were getting a baby! Craziest!!  Here are the pictures of Sierra that first night: 

Her poor face

Her left ankle was in bad shape too.  Badly, badly sprained.  Almost three months later it is still swollen. 


Cleaned up.  Her face and head were full of glass. 

Her hands were both cut up. 


Sierra doesn’t remember what happened.  She was not on her phone.  She hit two cars.  We don’t know if her old car malfunctioned or if she was looking at the next intersection. We may never know.  We still haven’t seen pictures of her car.  Joey and her dad went to the impound and got her stuff out of it.  They both said the could not believe she survived.  The engine was pushed all the way back to the firewall.  The front seat pushed to the back.  Sierra was unconscious and when she came to she said she was screaming for me and that the UPS driver was outside of her window telling her the paramedics were on their way then she passed out again. When she came to the paramedics were there and had to cut her out of the car with the jaws of life. She would later find out that when the paramedics came upon her accident they thought she was dead. She was taken to Pomona Valley Hospital via ambulance. The EMTs had to cut off her clothes and could not get an IV while they were driving which meant no pain medication for her. She was in the hospital alone for an hour or two before they got a hold of anyone. She was telling the EMTs to call her grandpa and they said we don’t do that. When she got to the hospital she repeated that phrase over and over until the nurse got her phone and got my dad’s phone number. My dad didn’t answer the call because he didn’t recognize the number and the message they left so that it was Pomona Valley Hospital social services calling. They said nothing about Sierra. Sierra said she laid there in the ER scared and praying being thankful that she was alive and asking heavenly father to take some of the pain away.  I can’t imagine how scared she was.  Sierra said she remembers getting into her car after work and having the thought who would I call if I were in an accident? It’s just the craziest thing to me that the spirit was whispering that to her before the accident happened.  

Sierra would spend the next four weeks in some type of hospital two full weeks in a full lawn hospital. Her femur was broken into places with the middle piece pushed out to the side and splintered. Her orbital bone was fractured deeply underneath her eye. She also had a broken ankle that she wouldn’t find out about until five days later. The swelling was so bad they had a hard time seeing through the x-rays Sierra would spend the next four weeks in some type of hospital two full weeks and a full lawn hospital. Her femur was broken into places with the middle piece pushed out to the side and splintered. Her orbital bone was fractured deeply underneath her eye. She also had a broken ankle that she wouldn’t find out about until five days later. The swelling was so bad they had a hard time seeing it in the xrays.  She would also require a blood transfusion two units of blood because when you break your femur you tend to lose a lot and her body was having a hard time replenishing it. Her accident happened on a Wednesday night. My dad stayed with her into the wee hours of the morning. When they moved her from the ER upstairs to her room and they had to move her from one bed to another my dad said her screaming was so bad and loud that nurses came running, he had never, ever in his life heard somebody scream like that her pain was unbearable.  Dad almost had a breakdown listening to her.  It was a long night. She had surgery on her femur Thursday early afternoon.  They insterted a rod from her hip to her knee.  It was rough.  Her pain was so bad. She did not get out of bed for 4-5 days.  It was awful not to be with her.  I am going to stop here for this post but will continue it soon.  It is good to remember all that she has been through.