Eight months after surviving a rollover east of Williams Lake, Christine Fernandez said she is grateful to be alive.
鈥淢y sister, who is a doctor, said that there is no medical reason why I should have survived,鈥� she told the Tribune during a phone interview. 鈥淧eople think that it is the power of prayer that saved my life. The hospital in Kamloops calls me 鈥榯he miracle kid.鈥欌��
On the morning of Nov. 6, 2024, Fernandez was driving home to Miocene after she'd dropped her daughter off at school and done some grocery shopping.
Suddenly she hit black ice, lost control of her vehicle and rolled off the Horsefly Road just past Redl Ranch.
"I remember flying over trees and thinking, 'this is going to hurt.'"
The next thing she remembers is lying in the snow in a field just before Miocene Hall and watching people stop by her vehicle.
"They couldn鈥檛 hear me calling because I had a punctured lung.鈥�
She also remembers turning her heated coat on to stay warm.
鈥淚 kept saying, 鈥榩lease don鈥檛 let me die like this.鈥欌��
What happened next she does not remember, but when she got back to Williams Lake in January, she met up with the woman who found her in the field and stayed with her until BC Emergency Health Services arrived.
鈥淪he said to me that the first thing I said to her was to get someone to make sure my dog was alive and so she did and flagged down the next car and put the dog in her truck to stay warm," Fernandez said.
鈥淪he said I told her my name, about my daughter and where I lived. That I didn鈥檛 walk here I flew here and she said I kept crying and begging for my life. She said there were two men that held my hands, one on each side, and people kept showing up from Horsefly with blankets, standing around me and praying.鈥�
Fernandez hopes to meet those people who came to her aid that morning so she can learn their side of the story and say thank you to them in person.
Road to recovery
She was released from Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops mid-January and moved in with her boyfriend, Scott Pilkington, who was taking care of her in Williams Lake because she could not return home to her rural property.
In the crash she ended up breaking her back in three spots, as well as her left femur, her sternum, five ribs in the back and two in the front.
鈥淚 ruptured pretty much every organ inside, as well as had head trauma,鈥� she recalled.
For about five months she wore an ileostomy bag.
Now she is able to walk without a walker, and has had eight surgeries to date. During a recent follow-up with her surgeon, she was told she will probably need another back surgery because of how her lower back is healing.
She returned to hospital for a month, this time in Surrey, to have her thyroid removed and was back in Royal Inland for a couple of weeks in May to have the ileostomy reversed.
There may be future surgeries needed for her internal organs and possibly on her ulnar nerve that goes from the elbow to the pinky and ring fingers.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 have use of my right hand really so I cannot cut hair and had to close my barber shop down,鈥� she said.
She鈥檚 almost lost her home at Miocene as well because she cannot live there on her own, especially in the winter months. When she can she鈥檚 been working on the house, but said she can only do so much.
Coma experience
Fernandez was in a coma for three-and-a-half weeks.
When she came out of the coma she couldn鈥檛 talk because she had a tracheotomy in her neck and her limbs were paralyzed.
Her family brought in a board and she鈥檇 point to different letters to communicate with them.
鈥淚 said to my mom, 鈥榙id I die?鈥� and my mom鈥檚 face went as white as a ghost. I told her I know I died because I saw my grandfather and I saw my dog that had passed away last year.鈥�
Two times she had to be resuscitated during the first back surgery.
鈥淲hile in the coma I knew I died, but I also knew I wasn鈥檛 going to die," she said. "Losing three-and-a-half weeks of my life in a coma is still hard to comprehend.鈥�
Thankful for all the support she鈥檚 had from her family, boyfriend and the community, she said she was told in the hospital most people do not pull out of that type of situation like she did.
鈥淭hey told me 鈥榶ou must be extremely stubborn鈥� and I said 鈥榶es, I am.鈥�
