Getting to know about a relative’s or a loved one’s death can be quite harrowing. But the entire situation turns even more traumatic when they pass away before one’s eyes. Recently, a paramedic in Canada experienced this trauma when her daughter died in her arms while she was trying to save her life. The paramedic was simply doing her job- as she never realized that the person she was trying to resuscitate was her own daughter.
It was during post-mortem when she came to this information. The deceased, a 17-year-old Montana Erickson from British Columbia, and her friend had suffered a car crash after they lost control of their vehicle and rammed into an ongoing truck near Calgary. The injuries that the teenager received were so grotesque that her own mother couldn’t recognize her while she lay trapped inside her car.
One can understand that the life of a paramedic isn’t one where you expect rays of sunshine and daisies. They come across death every day- but what could be the condition of a woman who saw someone die and then came home to the knowledge that it was her own daughter who passed away? The heartbroken mother experienced then penned down her heartbroken heart in a Facebook post. [1]
Paramedic finds out the girl she airlifted out of a car crash was her daughter
She wrote, “The critically injured patient I had just attended to was my own flesh and blood. My only child […] mini-me. My daughter, Montana.” The teenager and her friend were passing through a highway in the north of Alberta when she lost control of the car on an icy passage of road. An oncoming truck then collided with them. Jayme Erickson was the first paramedic on the scene.
There, she found a girl that was trapped in the passenger seat. The injuries were so gruesome and likely fatal that the only thing Jayme could do was provide the girl with emergency support until an airlift came to take the victim to Calgary.
In her Facebook post, the paramedic further wrote, “Although I am thankful for the 17 years I had with her, I am shattered and left wondering. What would you have become my baby girl? Who would you have been? I will never see you graduate and walk across the stage, I will never see you get married, and I will never know who you would have been. I love you more than anything in this world.”
Later, she talked about her grief in an Airdrie Firehall on November 22nd, where she mentioned, “She was a fighter and she fought until the day that she died and she was beautiful. She was so beautiful. If she ever put an effort into anything she would always succeed at it. Anyone that knew Montana, they’d call her firecracker. She loved fiercely if you were her friend. She’d love you to the end of the world and back, and she would do anything for you. She was a fighter, and she fought until the day that she died. She was beautiful, she was so beautiful. We are so happy to know that our baby girl is living on through others. In the wake of the tragedy, she saved other people. We know that’s what she would have wanted and we are so proud of her.” [2]
Jayme penned an emotional post on Facebook
One would get goosebumps if they read the paramedic’s Facebook post “The critically injured patient I had just attended to was my own flesh and blood. We are overwhelmed with grief and absolutely gutted. The pain I am feeling is like no pain I have ever felt, it is indescribable. My worst nightmare as a paramedic has come true. I will cherish the memories we made and the time we had together […] am shattered […] broken. I am missing a piece of me […] left to pick up the pieces and expected to carry on.” The final words of the Facebook post focused on the lyrics of Cody Johnson’s ‘Til You Can’t’, “Love with all your heart. Hold those close to you. Make memories. ‘If you are going to love somebody, hold on as long and as strong as you can… til you can’t.’”
A fellow paramedic, Richard Reed, was with Jayme while she was trying to save her daughter. During the ensuing interview with the reporters, he broke down quite a few times while recounting the entire incident. Speaking about the ordeal the mother went through just a few hours later, Reed stated, “On entering the room, to her horror, she found the girl that she had sat within the back of the crumpled vehicle keeping alive, so the family could say goodbye, and due to the extent of her injuries was unrecognizable, was Jayme’s own daughter. Jayme unknowingly was keeping her own daughter alive.”
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Sources
- “‘My worst nightmare’: Alberta paramedic responds to crash that fatally injured her daughter.” CTV News. November 21, 2022.
- “‘My worst nightmare has come true’: Paramedic tried in vain to save a teenage crash victim who was so badly injured she was unrecognizable – discovered hours later it was her daughter who died.” Daily Mail. Alyssa Guzman and Christian Oliver. November 24, 2022.