Erica's Story: A Journey of Resilience & Survival

I didn’t have it good since I was little, I’ll start there. My parents divorced when I was 3-4 years old maybe younger. My Dad was always working to provide & he always made sure we were taken care of. My mother on the other hand she was never around, she would usually pick us up & drop us off at my Grandmother’s house, who I call my Mom since her & my Dad took care of us mostly. 

I unfortunately lost her on Thanksgiving Day in 2006. Ever since then, I felt like my life went spiraling out of control. I ended up dropping out of school & started doing what I wanted. My Mother was never home & when she was she was usually verbally & physically abusing me. I got out as soon as my Dad quit his job traveling for work & got a job at home. I, then, moved in with him & made my fair share of bad choices, but he NEVER turned his back on me.

Speeding up to June 30th of 2015, we went to get a spot for the 4th of July at one of my most favorite places to be “East Fork”. I ended up breaking my back in 5 places, puncturing both of my lungs, & breaking all my ribs but two of them. 3 years later, I had massive pain radiating from my back to my front right of my stomach. I probably went to the doctors & ER rooms 35+x, they kept telling me nothing was wrong. They ended removing my hardware they had placed in my back when I broke it hoping it would fix the problem, but it didn’t in the least it just made things worse, way worse.

I woke up 2 weeks later in agonizing pain, crawling my way to the bathroom. I started puking up blood so much I didn’t have any energy in me. I remember falling back & catching myself with my hands on the toilet set. I pulled myself back to my bedroom. At this point I thought that was it, I was going to die. I started pounding on the wall & yelling for my Dad. He came rushing back asking what was wrong. At this point I’m pretty much lifeless on the floor, I told him shaking in a blanket still puking up blood to call 911.

When they got there I was fading in & out, I had lost so much blood at this time I couldn’t even communicate with the EMT’s. We arrived at the hospital & they couldn’t administer an IV in my arm because my veins were so small from losing so much blood. They ended up putting these huge needles in both of my legs that takes blood out & I remember it hurting so bad but I had nothing left in me to even react to the pain. They ambulanced me to the nearest town where I ended up getting 5 blood transfusions.

The next day they administered a tube down my throat to find a huge stomach ulcer. When they tried to cauterize a huge blood vessel over it, I started to bleed internally. They rushed me to Emergency Surgery. They cut my open from my breast bone down below my belly button. I had finally awoken that night to not knowing what was going on because it was dark. The nurse showed me what they had to do in order to save my life. I was shocked to say the least, but at least my Father was their to save my life once again.

I was in the hospital for almost a month or more & he would always come down after work, it was a 154 mile round trip. But he always made sure to come see me even after working all day & not to mention he is also disabled. My Father is my savior, I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for him & I couldn’t be more thankful.

This is my story & I’m very grateful to still be here for my 4 kids.