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Alyssa's Story


Alyssa Headley was just 24 when her world was literally turned upside down. A normal 24-year-old, working two jobs, looking at apartments, living her life until the night that it all changed. Driving home from work as she entered an intersection she noticed that the truck coming up to the stop sign wasn’t slowing down. “I’m not sure if I was knocked out or just closed my eyes but when I opened my eyes something didn’t feel right, I took off my seat belt and I fell, I was upside down in my car.” Alyssa was taken to the trauma unit with injuries including a dislocated left knee and a shattered left ankle that needed surgery. “One of the police officers at the scene who had followed the guy to the hospital went through his phone and determined he was texting while driving. He was distracted, that’s what caused him to run the stop sign and put me in the hospital, recalls Alyssa. “I was at the hospital for 4 nights and 3 days. I had to have surgery the next day on the ankle to put plates and screws in. I also had to have what we call the ‘twin towers’ for 3 months to help the bones heal and stay where they need to. The surgeon had to put my ankle bones back together. He kept saying if it was 10 years earlier I would have lost the ankle.” After her second major surgery came lots of physical therapy. Walking was difficult Alyssa recalls “I was in pain, it was uncomfortable, and I didn’t want to do anything that would cause the ankle any pain because sometimes it was unbearable. The physical pain didn’t even come close to the mental pain I go through to this day. I still will not drive and have troubles even getting in a car. So here I am almost 4 years after the accident, still struggling with walking and constant pain in the ankle. I am 27 years old, I don’t have a job and I still live with my parents; all because I was at the wrong place at the wrong time and a text message was more important to someone than paying attention to the road and the signs.”

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