TBI Chatroom & Homepage, brain Injury, TBI, ABI, closed head injury, survivors & caregivers

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Erika Wheeler
In 1990, I was five weeks into my sophmore year at College (Ferris State Univ.). I was active in a sorority and having the greatest time I had ever had. It was homecoming time and we were doing activities with one of the fraternities; one of the activities was going on a hayride. There were sixty of us so they had to split us up on two different wagons. One of the wagons had built-in lights and sturdy reflectors. The other wagon, which I was on with 25 other people, had hanging lights and tacked on reflectors. This wagon got stuck in a hole in the middle of the field. Everyone had to get off of the wagon in order for the horses to "jolt" us out. When we got back on, we didn't even have a chance to sit down before the horses pulled forward again really strongly. At this point, we all went flying against the back gate which broke off as we all fell to the ground. Two people were injured on this accident. Well, after they were taken away, the riders of the horses wanted to keep going since we were very close to the stables. All of the students suggested that we hold the gate up on the back of the wagon; considering it was eleven p.m. and we were alone at this point. The other wagon was already back at the stables, unloaded, and ready to go (not being aware that something had occured). The riders responded, "No, just leave it in the field and we will come and pick it up tomorrow."

So at this point, we were back on the wagon, all alone in the middle of a 55 mph. dirt road. There were two boys from the fraternity walking behind the wagon waving at any cars that went by. Keep in mind, this is approximately 11:30 on a Friday night. This road is not heavily traveled but two or three cars had passed us successfully. All of the sudden a full-size truck was approaching and did not see us. It struck our haywagon going approximately 60 mph. The two boys that were walking behind saw the whole thing happened and explained that it looked like popcorn. Everyone went flying out of the wagon upon impact.

Here is where my devestation occured:

I happened to land on the ground in between the two horses that where pulling the wagon. If you know horses, you know that they get spooked quickly and when this happened, they were trying to get away as quickly as possible. One of the horses freed himself right away while the other one was trapped in the reigns tied to the wagon. Every time it tried to get away, it would be jerked back by the reigns and fall over on to me. It attempted this four or five times and was a 1200 pound horse.

Aeromed was called to the scene to remove the most seriously injured. When they got to the scene, I had no pulse or vital signs. They flew me to Grand Rapids where they are better equipped to handle this type of tragedy. I was in Coma for two days, unconsiouss for two weeks and in the hospital for two months. In the first week after it happened, I got Pnemonia and my right lung collapsed. When it was "all said and done" I ended up with:
Fractured left femur bone
Fractured right pelvis (three places)
Fractured right clavicle
Fractured ribs (right side)
Fractured skull (frontal lobe)
chipped teeth

Believe it or not, the hayride place was not insured at all. But yet they continued the ride after our first accident had occured.

It has been 10 years since and all of the fractures heal, except the head injury. I have life long eye injuries, i.e.-paralyzed nerves, double-vision, blown pupil. They are constant reminders of that terrible day. I could go on and on about the after-effects but I 'm still trying to deal with them and am looking at this website for help. It feels good to tell my story, even though I do not and never will remember. I hope this touches someone, that would feel great! Thanks for taking time to read about it.

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