Teresa Zearfoss

On March 16th, 2023, my twin daughters and I were on the way home from school/work when someone who was texting and driving ran a stop sign and hit the driver side of my car. My daughters were only four years old at the time, but they were very big for their age, and they were still in 5-point restraint seats even though they kept telling me they were too big we fought all the time about how “big girls” can still be in those type of seats. That day I am thankful that I was the “mean mom” who wouldn’t let them pick out new seats like they wanted. We flipped five times and finally were stopped by a section of trees on the side of the road that was about 200 feet away from where we were hit. My daughter Amelia took most of the impact from the car. She was immediately unconscious and would not respond to me calling for her. My daughter Bailey had a broken arm and visible wounds to the face from the accident and would speak to me. An off-duty EMS worker came across our accident and saw us trapped in the car and she immediately cut the airbags and jumped into the rescue. She calmed Bailey and me as much as possible before she took over with Amelia. With her training she knew that something had to happen to her neck or head to cause unconsciousness. She called for fire, EMS, and helicopter. That day was the scariest of my life. I had to choose between my daughters. Bailey couldn’t go with us on the helicopter to the children’s hospital that was an hour and half a way. I was in a town that was almost two hours away from home. I had to trust complete strangers with my child while they took Bailey to the hospital until my husband and mother could arrive. We flew out and I had no way of contacting anyone to let them know where we were going or what was going on. Upon arrival we were separated and assed separately. In the five hours we were separated I was shattered. I had one child who I didn’t know the condition of and my other daughter who I just found out was internally decapitated and they didn’t know if she would survive. My Mom finally made it to me and was able to see me around 3 am and that was the first time I seen my daughter since 5pm that following afternoon. The next three days were very critical for Amelia. Bailey had a dislocated elbow and broken arm, and she had cuts and bruises to her body. Amelia had developed an infection in her lungs and without us being able to move her it was hard to get them healthy again. We tried two different halo methods, and both were still too risky to move her. Finally, after not being able to do the c1&c2 fusion and inserting hardware to reattach her skull to her spinal column the surgery was successful on March 31st, 2023. We slowly had to wean her off the paralytic and the medical induced coma and were able to remove the breathing tube on April 7th. That was the best birthday present I have ever received. From that day till May 5th, when we got to come home from rehab it was something new to learn every day. That is from how to take care of her, things we can and can’t do, things that upset her, learning to swallow again, getting her voice back, and regaining leg muscles to walk again. She is a true inspiration to my family and our local community for her strength and perseverance she has shown through this. We still have to take it day by day as now we are homeschooling because it was the safest option this first year after surgery but I wouldn’t trade a single experience. This has brought us closer as a family and in our faith.