Where I Needed To Be

I don’t remember anything about the car accident that nearly took my life.

 

      I would have left the house around 7:15 a.m. that day – February 5, 2008 – to give myself lots of time to get to work. I know I was eager to be there. I was 23 years old and three weeks into a new job as a flight instructor out at St. Andrews, and my first student was scheduled to take his first solo flight that day.

 

      From what we’ve been able to reconstruct, it seems I lost control of my car while exiting an on-ramp on the north Perimeter Highway. A bank of snow acted like a ramp that carried my vehicle onto the bridge’s barrier where it teetered for a moment, before plunging 15 metres to the partially frozen river below.

  

      The car landed upside down... breaking through the ice and trapping me inside.

 

      Apparently I was still conscious after the impact, and began yelling for help as water began to flood the car. I confess… I’m kind of glad I don’t remember that moment. Thinking on it now, that was the moment I began my fight for life.

 

      I would have lost that battle right there and then if people hadn’t stopped to help, but they did, risking their own safety to save me. They tell me I was probably under water for about five minutes before my rescuers got to me.

 

 

      Someone used a tree branch to break the car window, and then tried to keep my head above water. Another cut through my seatbelt with a fishing knife he happened to have in his vehicle. Together, they managed to free me from the car, perform CPR and keep me warm until the ambulance arrived.

 

      Without these tools – the branch and the knife – and the initiative to use them, they might not have been able to save me.

 

      The ambulance took me to the Health Sciences Centre – Manitoba’s trauma centre. I don’t think I’d ever been through the doors of HSC before that day, certainly not as a patient.

 

      I do remember the moment I became aware that I was in the hospital – HSC’s Intensive Care Unit – with my family beside me and a tube in my throat. By then I’d been through the Emergency Department.

 

      They had taken x-rays and hooked up IVs. My lungs had been drained – I guess I had ingested some river water. CT scans had been ordered, and I had been intubated so that I could breathe.

 

      I didn’t know any of that, except for the obvious tube down my throat. Actually, I was thinking about my job. I wrote a note to my mom – the first of many – insisting that she call my boss right away to tell him I wouldn’t be in that day, and make sure someone else would be available to assist my student. I felt bad about letting him down.

 

      It’s clear now that HSC was where I needed to be; a place with the tools and technology, and the expertise to use them well.

 

      I had broken my nose, my pelvis, and two vertebrae in my lower back. They were worried about the possibility of brain damage – thankfully that question was resolved early. I found out later that the doctors were most concerned about my lungs; taking in that river water led to severe infections in both lungs. My fight wasn’t over.

 

      My family was told to hope for the best but prepare for the worst. I can’t imagine what that moment must have been like for them. What I do know is that, for awhile there, it seemed like my doctor barely left my side.

 

Looking back, I can only describe my time at HSC as extraordinary. The grace, compassion, respect, good-nature and – when needed – humour with which my doctors, nurses, and other caregivers performed their duties each day is the stuff of legend.

 

They are incredible people who went above and beyond, and the intangible tools they used are as important as any other. I cannot thank them enough for all that they did for me and my family.

 

      Thanks to that amazing care and the prayers of so many, the lung infections cleared and my bones began to heal. I actually had to learn to walk again… my left side was very weak, and quite painful. Even so, incredibly, after only two weeks at HSC, I was able to go home.

 

      My journey wasn’t quite finished yet; I developed severe vertigo, affecting both ears.

 

      It may not sound like much, after what my body had already been through, but it was a potentially devastating condition for a young pilot like me. It would have been the end of my flying career.

 

      My HSC physiotherapist devised a treatment and worked with me through physically draining physiotherapy sessions until this challenge, too, was overcome. Just one more thing I’m so grateful for.

 

      By the way, my first student did get to take his solo flight that day. He even came to visit me at the hospital to give me the good news. Thanks to the incredible team at HSC, I’ve been given the chance to help more students, just like him, make real their dreams of becoming pilots.

 

      And after that, who knows. I’m told it was a miracle that I survived, that I wasn’t paralyzed, that my brain wasn’t damaged. I only know that there is a reason I survived, and am strong and healthy today.

 

      Even though I don’t remember most of what happened that day, the impact of that moment on the river will be with me always. To experience, firsthand, the unbelievable and unfailing support from family, friends, and complete strangers, including the staff at HSC… it was almost overwhelming.

 

From the people who were on the ice with me that day, to the doctor who stayed by my side those first frightening hours, to the therapist who held me steady as I took my first steps – what can I say about people who impacted my life so dramatically.

 

There are really no words beyond thank you.

 

      It is a gift I don’t take lightly. That’s why I’m sharing my story with you today, so you can know, like I do, what happens each and every day at the Health Sciences Centre.

 

      It’s simple. HSC made the difference – all the difference in the world – for me that day, and many days after. And today, just like yesterday, just like tomorrow, those same doctors, nurses, therapists, and caregivers are making that difference for someone else.

 

      You can help.

 

      The HSC Foundation provides vital support that helps make it possible for HSC to provide the complex and compassionate care that is the hallmark of this hospital, investing in tools and technology; providing opportunities that enhance the knowledge and expertise of HSC’s medical and scientific teams.

 

      When you give to the HSC Foundation, you help provide the tools to foster vital research, provide innovative technology, and enhance the team-focused expertise at HSC that has immediate impact on people in their care right now.

 

      Today, I’m asking you to help the HSC Foundation make a difference in the lives of the patients, families and caregivers at HSC. You may never know the impact that your gift has made in someone’s life, but I know that someone’s gift made a difference in mine.

 

      And so, again, I say… thank you.

 

 

 

                                                                                    Lisa Klassen

 

 

P.S.      When I needed them, the people at HSC were there for me and for my family. I hope you

            never need to experience HSC like I did, but if you do, I know you can count on them to

            be there for you, too.