Please Buckle Up

Okay, so last night I went out to deliver some products to a few of my clients. I knew that the roads were a little snowy, but they didn't seem too bad. But, of course, as soon as I decided to leave the house, it started to snow really hard again, and the temperature dropped, making the roads pretty slick. Even in my 4 wheel drive SUV, I was sliding a bit. So after I made my second drop at a subdivision right around the corner from mine, I called my husband to say that the roads were getting bad and I was going to head on home.

I hung up the phone and headed my way out of the subdivision. I was about to turn left onto the main road, when I looked to my right and saw a black Chevy Tahoe, flipped completely upside down, the wheels still spinning. I immediately threw my car into park and called 911. The dispatcher was asking me a million questions "how many people are inside the car? Has anyone been thrown from the vehicle? ..." I ran up to the car and couldn't see anyone. As I ran around to the other side though, I crouched down and saw the driver, a woman in her mid 30's, laying completely lifeless on the ceiling of her car. She must not have been wearing her seat belt. A horrible feeling came over me, and I started to panic. I thought she was dead. "Is she breathing?" the dispatcher asked.

"Mam", I said, leaning in through the broken window, "are you okay?" She opened her eyes and whispered "I was just going to pick up my baby." I looked in the back seat and saw a car seat hanging from it's buckles. My heart stopped. I ran around to the other side, but thankfully, it was empty. She hadn't picked up the baby yet. I ran back around to her and tried to get her to open her eyes again. She did for a brief moment, then, her eyes closed and she went into a seizure.

"What do I do!?" I was yelling at the phone. "Do I get her out of the car!? Do I leave her there, what do I do?"

"Just assure her that help is on the way and try to get anything dangerous out of her way."

I started pulling things out of her way as her body jerked around the car. I just kept saying "they are on their way, it's going to be okay."

About that time, a man came up behind me and said he was a volunteer fire fighter. I got out and let him take my place, I figured he would be much more useful than me. He was... he was able to talk to her calmly and try to stabilize her. The dispatcher told me to keep her on the phone until the EMS got there. She was quiet for a while and then said "tell me right away if she stops breathing and I'll instruct you what to do." I got a horrible lump in my throat and prayed that it would not come to that. Thankfully, it didn't.

The ambulance got there pretty quickly, though it took them a while to get her out of the vehicle. As they were putting her into the ambulance, she was still seizing. The snow was blowing really hard by this time, and all I had on was a lightweight jacket. I must have looked frozen and scared out of my mind because two police officers came up to me, looked me over and asked if I was okay. I was fine, just worried and shook up.

It took me forever to drive home on the icy roads, I think I shook the whole way until I was finally safe in my driveway.

I hope that she is okay. I couldn't sleep last night. I just kept picturing her, laying there, and her body jerking uncontrollably. I kept thinking about her baby, her husband, and how they would feel, rushing to the hospital. Then I started to think about what I would do if that had been my husband, my mom, my friend.

Please, drive safe. And always, always, always

wear your seat belt.