Jessica: And I just kept repeating the word no, because I thought that was going to be when I died.
On September 20th, 2018 my husband attacked me. I was lured into the garage of our family residence and he was hiding behind the door waiting for me. He asked me for one last hug and I thought that was going to be my last moments, but he had seen my phone and had ran for my phone. So I ran for the door. He had grabbed me from behind and had choked me until I passed out, and then he stabbed me. Before I even opened my eyes, I couldn't remember what had happened or why I was there and something was telling me to get up. I was able to make it to my car and I had backed out rather quickly.
I had noticed lights and I lived on a very dark road and so I slammed the brakes, not knowing what the lights were and my mirror came into focus his car and it was him I almost hit. I put it in drive and started driving through the yards trying to get away from him. And he started chasing me and I was able to make it to a gas station. I jumped out of the car, I didn't even put it in park. I just jumped out and he had driven around the pumps and I ran to the front of the car because I was going to try to make it into the gas station. But I had actually blocked the door so I couldn't make it. But he had driven around and tried to hit me and crashed into the front of my car. I went and tried to get in someone else's car to get away from him and that person had gotten out of their car and he had decided to leave. He'd driven away.
CareFlight 1: We were called to Springfield Regional Hospital. So we fly out there, landed, walk in, I pulled the curtain back and I was pretty surprised at what I saw. Jessica was laying there, a lot of dressings on her neck, a lot of blood everywhere. So of course we just jump into action getting report on what the mechanism of injury was and trying to then support her airway breathing circulation like we're trained to do.
CareFlight 2: Well, we do a lot of things simultaneously. So they were already working on controlling the bleeding. They'd already established an airway for her. So when we get in, we were immediately re-assessing those injuries, reassessing the airway and listening to what the situation was and what happened. With her case, there was a very significant injury and we knew that time was a factor to bring her back.
CareFlight 1: We were talking to the police as well as the physicians there finding out, "Hey, so the person that did this, are they in custody?" When I spoke to one of the deputies, she said that we were not able to get him yet and they pinged his cell phone to the Springfield Regional Campus there. They weren't sure where this person was. They formed a perimeter around us, the Sheriff's department and the police department there, a perimeter around us moving quickly to the helicopter.
CareFlight 2: Once we landed, we did do a hot offload, we came straight down here to the emergency department received by the full trauma team. So the trauma attending staff, the residents, the [inaudible] team, we transitioned care, updated any other questions that we had or that they had. And then at that point, we stepped back.
Dr. Ekeh: As we typically do in these situations, the whole trauma team assembled and went down to the trauma bay ready to receive the patient. It was clear at this time she had lost a lot of blood by reports. She came into the trauma bay, we took the dresses down, and we saw this very large wound in her neck. It was very clear at this point we had to take her upstairs to the operating room. Within a few minutes we up in the operating room, which is just a floor above the trauma bay, and proceeded to explore her neck and take care of her surgically.
Jessica’s Aunt: She was so hurt, and she just kept saying it. "Beth, I don't know what happened." I didn't know how much she even knew what happened to her, and I wanted to just ... she's such a delightful person, but I couldn't stand seeing her like that. I mean, I just started crying and my daughter started crying like, "What can we do?"
Dr. Ekeh: Any type of trauma can be very life disrupting and apart from the physical recovery, an injury is a lot of emotional, psychological stress that can result from these injuries.
Jessica: I was so afraid. Noises, people, shadows. It didn't matter. Everything scared me. Miami Valley had people come into the room and when they did, they would reassure me that I was okay and no one was there.
Jessica’s Aunt: They were protecting her. Miami Valley hospital did a fantastic job at protecting Jess, that's for sure.
Jessica: I feel they saved me. I feel like I wouldn't be here right now if it wasn't for Miami Valley Hospital.
Dr. Ekeh: She did very well. I thought she had such a great spirit and such a resilient spirit and that was very inspiring to see that.
Jessica: I've learned that I'm strong. I got my own place. I got back to work within two months. What's next? Happiness. Freedom. I can do anything I want.
