“My worst nightmare as a paramedic has come true,” Erickson wrote, detailing the Nov. 15 collision that killed one of her children.
As an emergency responder, Erickson was the first to arrive at the scene of a major car accident in rural Airdrie, Alberta, where he and a colleague found two young children, walking home from the dog, was injured when their car collided with a car. truck.
The passenger was trapped, badly injured and had to be extricated from the vehicle by firefighters, Erickson said. As the crew worked to extricate them and fly them to a nearby hospital, Erickson stayed in the car, next to the patient, for more than 20 minutes, tending to him, making sure his airway was clear and doing it, he finally remembered, “whatever I can.”
After the air ambulance flew the passenger to Calgary’s Foothills Medical Center, Erickson returned home at the end of his shift.
Within minutes the doorbell rang. It was the police, telling him that his daughter Montana had an accident, so he rushed to the emergency room.
“When he entered the room, to his horror, he saw the girl with him in the back of the wrecked car, holding on for life … was Jayme’s daughter. Jayme did not know that – keep her daughter alive,” fellow paramedic Richard Reed told reporters at a news conference on Tuesday.
Montana died on November 18, three days after the accident, after doctors told Erickson that Montana’s injuries were “not life-threatening.”
The driver and passenger of the truck survived, according to local media. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the investigation into the accident is ongoing.
Erickson wrote: “The pain I feel is like no pain I’ve ever felt, it’s indescribable. “The seriously injured patient I visited was my flesh and blood. My only child. Little me.”
Erickson wrote on social media that when he and his daughter were “grateful” for 17 years that she could not die, but he thought: “What would you have become, my daughter? Who would you have been?”
In the Montana deaths, other first responders have described the emotional impact of being an emergency worker, with many paramedics fearing that they may one day be called to an emergency. they know the victim.
Several emergency responders joined Erickson, her husband and Reed, who is acting as the family’s spokesman, at a news conference Tuesday to show their support. Many were emotional as they spoke to reporters.
“Jayme’s tragic news is affecting first responders across this country,” said Paramedic Deana Davison. “It makes it clear again that this nightmare can happen to any of us.”
Speaking to reporters after her daughter’s death, Erickson said Tuesday that Montana was very beautiful. He said the youth was listed as an organ donor so his death gave others a chance to live.
Erickson said, “We are very happy that our daughter is living through others and that it has happened because of this tragedy that others have been saved.”
