by A Canadian paramedic who unknowingly treated her own daughter after a fatal car accident wiped away tears as she remembered a beautiful girl who fought to the end.
Jayme Erickson was called to the accident north of Calgary on November 15 and was seated with a seriously injured girl, who was extricated from the car and taken to the hospital, where she died. She was unrecognizable due to injuries.
It was only when Erickson returned home at the end of the day that she was met by officers from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who told her the patient was her 17-year-old daughter, Montana.
Jeff McIntosh/AP
Erickson shared her sorrow with reporters late Tuesday, describing her daughter as a success in everything she set out to do, an avid swimmer who wanted to be a lawyer.
“She was a fighter and she fought until the day she died and she was beautiful. she was so beautiful If she ever tried to do something, she would always make it,” Erickson said in an Airdrie fire department with family and paramedics, police officers and firefighters stand behind her and show their support.
Richard Reed, a friend and flight paramedic, broke down several times while recounting Erickson’s participation in the scene where a car lost control and was hit by an oncoming truck.
Reed said the driver was able to get out of the car, but the female passenger was trapped with serious injuries. Erickson was the first person at the scene. He said Erickson knew the girl was in trouble and sat there until she was freed and taken to the hospital in an ambulance, not knowing who it was.
“On the way back, she expressed her sadness and frustration to her partner, knowing that a family would later likely lose their daughter, sister and grandchild. Shortly after she got home, there was a knock on the door. It was the RCMP,” Reed said.
“Entering the room, she was horrified to find that the girl she had been sitting with in the back of the wrecked vehicle remained alive for the family to say goodbye and was unrecognizable due to the extent of her injuries, it was Jayme’s daughter,” he added. “Jayme unknowingly kept her own daughter alive.”
In an emotional Facebook post last week, Jayme Erickson wrote, “My worst nightmare as a paramedic has come true.”
“The seriously injured patient I had just treated was my own flesh and blood,” she wrote. “My only child. My mini me. My daughter Montana. Her injuries were so terrible I didn’t even recognize her.”
“Today we officially said goodbye to my little girl,” she wrote. “I can’t help but be angry for the short time I’ve been given with her. 17 years wasn’t long enough.”
