Last Monday, I was at the vet with Ramses for a little spot over his eye that would not go away. He was rubbing and rubbing it and making it worse. While I was in the little room waiting for the tech to come in, my mom called me to tell me that she was on her way to Austin, as my aunt and cousins had been in a wreck. At that point, we didn't know details, so we didn't know how bad it was.
As it turned out, my aunt was driving to meet my grandparents so that one of my cousins could stay with them for a couple of days, when an oncoming car suddenly veered into her lane, causing an unavoidable head-on collision. The cars were traveling probably around 70 miles an hour. The other car, a Mazda SUV, immediately caught on fire and spun into a ditch. The pregnant driver and her two young sons were killed.
My aunt's minivan spun around so that it ended up facing the opposite way in the road. She saw the other car catch on fire, and she could even feel its heat through the closed minivan. She stumbled out of the van, yelling at her kids to get out of the car in case the fire spread. The lock system on the minivan had shut down, however. At this point, a couple of men had stopped and were working frantically to get the door open to get my cousins out. They ripped the handle off the door. They ended up having to break a window to get the kids out. They got my cousins out one at a time and asked them to sit patiently in the grass, away from the accident.
Meanwhile, my aunt, who knew her leg was broken, tried getting around the car to the kids. She stepped on her injured leg and fell in the middle of the highway, unable to get back up. One of the men carried her to the kids.
According to one of the girls, a lady "held up a blanket to shield them from the smoke of the burning car" while they sat there.
I'm going to take a minute to say how grateful I am to all of these strangers that helped my family. From helping them out of the car, to shielding them from the horrific scene of a car on fire with people inside- I tear up just thinking about the kindness of all of these people. I know you'll never see this, but thank you so much.
Two of the girls were life-flighted to the hospital, and my aunt and the other girl were taken in an ambulance. They later discovered that the daughter taken in the ambulance was worse off than they had originally realized.
My aunt had a collapsed lung, cracked ribs, a broken nose, a broken leg- and her heel was shoved up into her ankle, severing the tendons and ligaments in the process.
The oldest daughter had a
broken collar bone, cracked ribs and sternum, and compression fractures
in her spine. She also had to have surgery for internal bleeding from
her intestines.
One of the younger two, K, had low to medium spleen and liver injuries, a broken arm, and compression fractures in her spine.
The other girl, L, had the worst injuries, with a significant spleen injury, a badly broken arm, and a fracture in her spine.
At this point, my aunt and K have been released and are at home recuperating. The other two girls were moved out of the ICU today to "regular" rooms in the hospital and are progressing. The oldest one, however, has developed a stomach bug, which requires her to be confined to her room. The girls all have to wear back braces for the weeks to come, and L's back brace will have other attachments to it because of the fracture in her spine.
I got to visit with them on Saturday, before K & my aunt were released. K was in very good spirits, and she got out of her wheelchair several times and walked around. My sister painted the nails on her hand not in a brace. I gave her a Tangled barbie doll, which she informed me would go into the overflowing Barbie basket they had at home (lol). She carried it around the rest of the time she was in the hospital.
When I went to visit L, she didn't say anything, just laid in her bed dully while a nurse fussed over her. She did reach for my hand, however, and when I told her I had gotten her a gift, she looked at it. I told her I was going to set it with her other gifts, and she nodded her head. She was just so hopped up on medications that she couldn't really interact very much.
The older daughter had about had it with visitors and nurses, but she was talking. I showed her the book I had gotten her (she reads everything she can get her hands on), which she fortunately had not read yet. Her biggest concern through all of this is the fact that two of their Nintendo DSs were broken in the wreck. Fortunately, they found one of them still working- hers. "But when we get new ones, we'll have 3 extra chargers! What will we do with all of those???" Haha.
We were sitting with K when they wheeled my aunt in to see her for the first time in almost a week. There were no dry eyes in the room... well, except for K, who informed her mom that it was ok to cry, because a lot of people cried when they were happy. My aunt got to visit the other two girls in their rooms as well, where K constantly made sure that no matter who they were visiting, her mom still knew she was in the room with her.
It will take some time to heal the physical reminders of the wreck. I don't know how much longer the other two girls will have to be in the hospital. It will take more time to heal the emotional trauma from the wreck. The oldest daughter has really been in a state of shock, even a week later. Healing will be painful, especially for my aunt and her dislocated ankle.
But I am so grateful to God for protecting my family through this. I am so grateful that He has blessed us with all of the people who have helped them- from the doctors and nurses working around the clock, like the one who worked tirelessly and a little sneakily to try and figure out what to do about L's internal bleeding, to the state troopers who have come to the hospital to check on the girls continuously, to the friends of the family who have either made the drive to the hospital and/or volunteered to sit in the room with the girls for a night(s) so that they didn't have to be alone, to my own family, who has dropped everything to go and help my aunt and uncle through all of this. I feel like I can't thank God enough for sparing my family, for giving them another chance, for being there with them in the wreck.
I am so sad about the fate of the other family in the wreck, and I don't know the answers for what happened to them. I think about the left behind husband and family all the time. The wife, who was my age, was preceded in death by a sister, who was killed in a horse-riding accident. I can't even imagine what her family has already been through, or what they're going through now.
They think that the reason the woman swerved into the other lane is because one of the kids climbed out of his car seat, and she was trying to deal with him. It's something any of us would do- and because of it, I'm laying down my phone when I drive. I'll be the first to admit that I text message while I'm driving, but not anymore. It's not worth it. Take your eyes off the road for one second, and your family ends up grieving over your body- or another family's life is changed forever.
Be safe out there. If not for yourself, think of the other people on the road.
