Jennifer L. Nielson

This was going to be a story about the Nelly Furtado concert I attended on April first. But I didn’t make it that far.

My trip instead involved visiting the St. Francis Hospital in Shakopee, Minn.

The day started out all right as my three friends and I left Brookings in the early afternoon. Soon after we crossed the Minnesota border, the weather turned bad. While traveling down Highway 169, the driver lost control of her vehicle, and we crossed the median and hit a semi truck.

It was the scariest thing because we all saw the truck, and we knew we were going to hit it. There was just nothing we could do about it.

Soon after the impact, we became conscious of our surroundings. From my position sitting behind the driver, I could see that we had been hit pretty hard. There were people who came to see if we were ok. One lady even held my hand.

Medical professionals arrived soon after. It took them 20 minutes to get all four of us out of the vehicle. We were ambulanced to St. Francis in Shakopee where we received emergency care.

After an ultra-sound, a cat-scan, several X-rays, getting blood taken and receiving an I.V., I was finally given pain-killers and admitted to the hospital. Two of my friends weren’t as lucky. They were air-lifted to Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis for their extensive injuries. One friend broke both her shoulders, suffered a bruised kidney and had some broken ribs. The other friend had both of her ankles crushed and broke her nose. The other girl in the accident received a broken pelvis, broken wrist and a laceration under her knee. She was admitted to St. Francis with me.

As for me, I only received minor injuries from my seat belt. Still, I had to stay in the hospital for two days.

The day after the accident was my mom’s birthday, and she joked how she at least got to eat dinner in Minneapolis. It was nice having my parents dote on me, considering the fact.

Two days worth of broth, Jell-O and crackers was really enough for me. You would not believe how much free stuff you get when you stay at a hospital. I got a free big water jug, slipper socks, baby powder, lotion, vomit bucket, lotion, bath supplies, vomit bags and more. (Actually I am pretty sure it will be on the hospital bill.) So for any of you who may be staying in the hospital any time soon, remember to get your semi-free stuff. It is already in the room when you get there.

The irony of missing the concert was seeing Nelly Furtado on not one but three different channels while laying in my hospital bed. So even though I was missing the concert, I got to hear “I am like a bird” several times.

Returning to school has been kind of hard. I cannot walk very fast, and I cannot carry my backpack yet. Today my roommate and I went to UPD to see if we could obtain handicapped parking decals. Yeah, that was a fiasco. First they made us get a doctor’s note, so we hobbled over to Student Health, got our notes and hobbled back. Then UPD proceeded to tell us we had to pay $6 since we did not have on-campus parking passes. The reason we didn’t purchase parking passes is because we live right behind Harding Hall. I just think it is rally pathetic that the University thinks that they need to charge handicapped people to park. Do we also have to pay Wal-mart to park in their handicapped spots? I don’t think that we should have to pay because we are temporarily disabled. Even if it is $6.

Anyway, I am very thankful that we all lived through this accident and that all of the damages are fixable. I am also very thankful that we were all wearing our seat belts. After missing a week of school, I am ready to be back. It has been a pretty stressful week for all of us, and our road to recovery is not quite over.

I would like to thank my boyfriend John for all of his help and for putting up with my crabbiness, my family for taking care of me (especially my mom, since I ruined her birthday), the SDSU faculty for their support, my sisters in Chi Omega for being there, the greek system for all of their concerns, the hospital staff at St. Francis, my friends and all of the people who kept us in their prayers.

This is a note for everyone who reads this: WEAR YOUR SEAT BELTS! It saved the lives of four college girls. It could save yours.

And this is a side-note for Nelly Furtado: if you could hook us up with some autographed pictures or some t-shirts or something, you have four unlucky fans would really appreciate it.