The Accident

I woke up to a view of the highway, but we weren't moving. I immediately knew something wasn't right by the lack of glass missing from the windshield. I look around, still not very sure of what's going on. To my left, there's an empty driver seat but as I look right I see something that knocked me out of my sleepy haze. Blood streaming down her face I couldn't help but scream, "Mom!" I knew she could hear me because she started moving her head. I wanted to help her but what could a twelve year old do in the middle of a busy highway? I tried to get out of the car because somehow the other six passengers were nowhere to be found. I realized that there was something heavy on my lap. Looking down I see the reason behind the accident. A deer strewn across the front street, dead from the impact he's just laid upon our car, now just dead weight. Too much for me to move I began to panic and I finally managed to knock him off of me. I can barely hear my mom whispering my name through the crying and hysterics I'm producing. I know she needs help, she can't open her eyes. That stupid deer knocked glass into her eyes slashing her eyelids. I knew all she was seeing was red and I knew she was scared. I got out the car but I tell her I'll be back. Looking to my right at the immense traffic approaching I find a chance as I run to the shoulder of the highway. Three lanes later and I make it to the other six passengers all consisting of family. They were all screaming and crying and for the longest I thought it was because of my mom. And it was until I turned to the right, exposing my left cheek to them. The hysterics grew worse not just from me but from them too. My cousin grabbed my arm and took me to a van that had pulled over to help us. He was at the car talking to my mom; I guess those were the instructions from the dispatcher. She told me to look into the glass and I can't figure out why until I see white. Apparently, that stupid deer had kicked me in the face leaving a deep gash across my left cheek. There was no blood it was just white which freaked me out even more. There was no pain, I touched it to see if it would hurt and it didn't. My cousin told me to sit down as the guy came back over and said the paramedics would be here soon. As if they had heard him, approaching us with their sirens and lights were the paramedics. I didn't want to go with them, I hated hospitals. But, they made me lay down on one of the stretchers and they wheeled me into the back, then they wheeled my mom in too. I was asking if she was okay but she didn't respond and I started crying again. It seemed like forever by the time we got to the hospital. They took me to one room and took my mom somewhere else that really made me mad. I needed to see her so she'd know I was okay and she’d know the same about me. The doctors were cutting my clothes off, my favorite ones that I wouldn't be able to wear anymore even though there was blood all over it I still wanted to keep them.

The doctor said, "It's rare that someone your age survives something like this, you're one lucky young lady."

That made me want to leave even more. I kept telling them I felt fine and I needed to leave. Before I knew it they were talking about stitching me up. They checked my vitals, to make sure nothing else was wrong except the deep wound in my face. He told me to hold his hand and squeeze as much as I'd like as he stuck this long needle into my face. It was supposed to numb me and it did but I could still feel the movement of every stitch they were doing. When they were finished they began prepping me for the helicopter. We were on our way to a funeral in Florida when the accident happened in South Carolina. Due to the severity of the injuries they weren't able to keep us at that hospital. As they started taking me towards the helicopter one of the nurses told me my mom was going to be flying too. I was happy but by this time her eyes were covered in gauze and I think they drugged her so she could sleep. I'm scared of heights so a helicopter ride, strapped down wasn't very appealing to me. Once we got to the other hospital they separated us again. I went to the children's wing of the hospital and my mom went to downstairs to the adult wing? I was only there for four days and I managed to sleep through them all. Except for those random times I'd wake up and find people in my room or that clown who just wanted to 'be my friend.' Needless to say I was ready to go but they wouldn't let my mom go just yet. She was there for weeks by herself, my grandparents were there some times and so were her brothers and sisters but it wasn't the same. They could leave whenever they wanted but she couldn't do that. After numerous surgeries to try and fix her eyes they decided that maybe they would take the right one because it didn't respond the way they thought it would. But, they waited and good thing they did because it did start to respond. She needed to get cornea transplants for over two years and even though they're not her eyes anymore she can still see and drive, just not at night. As for me they wanted me to have plastic surgery on my scar. I thought it was unnecessary so I never got it done. Even though I always looked at my scar every day in the mirror, I’ve never really thought about what happened…until now.