sierras-tbi-story-blog

[sierras-tbi-story-blog]

Sierra's TBI Story

Sierra is our oldest daughter of three. Sierra lives in Tok, Alaska as a single mother of three beautiful children.  On October 13th, 2018 in Tok, Alaska our daughters gathered to have a baby shower for our youngest daughter, Julia's first child. On October 14th, 2018 Sierra was returning from ice fishing when she hit a patch of black ice. The vehicle rolled and Sierra was ejected from the vehicle. Sierra was medevac'd to ANMC in Anchorage, Alaska. She suffered brain damage, seizure, stroke, punctured lung and multiple fractures. Sierra's brain started to swell. The doctors removed her right bone flap to let the brain swell. After a few weeks her brain did not reduce swelling on its own so a Shunt was installed. Swelling immediately reduced. Two weeks later the doctors replaced the bone flap. We spent two months in ICU. The doctors told us the brain does not repair its self and Sierra may never walk, talk, or have any normal life.

We were transferred to Spokane, WA for rehabilitation for two weeks. We were told Sierra would need 24/7 care for an undetermined amount of time. December 22nd, 2018 we arrived in Arizona with Sierra and her children 1,5,&7 years old. After being away fro two and a half months we did our best to give Sierra and the children a special Christmas. We were all thankful Sierra was alive.

The last few months of rehab have been very successful. Sierra is able to walk with only some balance issues. Sierra's left arm and hand are still not working but is slowly coming back. Sierra's brain does not think left. This has affected her sight in both eyes. So, that causes a whole group of issues.

Sierra's children have been attending school and doing great. The baby has learned to walk and is changing daily. The children are thankful to be with their mother during her recovery.

My husband and I have been long haul team truck drivers for 30 years. Sierra needs 24/7 care as do the children so returning to truck driving is not feasible for us at this time. This has put an extreme hardship on our family. We have put our family house in Tok up for sale. We have 10 treed acres and a beautiful three story house. We need to sell it to sustain us while we care for Sierra and the children.

We did a GoFundMe in October when Sierra had her accident. We thank all our friends and family who donated. The financial need has increased. We do not feel we can ask our friends and family for more than they are already doing. We are trying to sell our property in Alaska to help with current bills and Sierras recovery needs.

We thank everyone for taking the time to read our story. Please share Sierras Story in social media as we are not familiar with it. Any help would be greatly appreciate. Sandy   tok49@frontier.com