“Code yellow,’’ beamed over the hospital intercom into the empty hallways and patient filled rooms.

“What’s going on?” asked the doctor as he walked into Charley’s ICU hospital room. Charley was in a bad ATV accident. She is about 19 years old and average height, 5’6’’. Charley has bleach blonde hair with bright blue eyes. She’s dressed in a hospital gown.
“Charley is starting to wake up from her coma,” the nurse explained.
“That’s a very good sign!” whispered the doctor. “She needs to be moved to the recovery room while she wakes up. After she is awake, she can be moved to the fifth floor.”
“Okay, I will go let her parents know what is going on with Charley,” the nurse said.

Charley has been on the fifth floor for 11 days now and she is improving every day. She is even talking some, which is really rare, considering what had happened to her. She’s also starting to eat solids. Her fifth floor room has been all decorated with posters and pictures from her childhood, and pictures of her and friend and family. Out her window, you can see the three Sisters Mountains. Stuffed animals fill Charley’s room. While the scent of hand sanitizer floats in the air and the beeping sounds of her machines is all you can hear.
“Why can’t I move my legs?” Charley questioned in a scared voice
“Honey, you were in a very bad accident. You wrecked your quad. That’s why you are here. You can’t move your legs because when you got in the accident, you were paralyzed from the waist down.” Christine told Charley trying to hold the tears back.
Charley’s mom, Christine, is a fairly tall lady with brown hair and blue eyes. She was dressed in sweat pants and a sweat shirt from the gift shop. Christine was a fairly lanky woman, who always looked very nice and classy.
“How did I wreck? Like what happened? Did I wreck into something or somebody?” Charley questioned as she started to tear up. She was very confused.
“We aren’t quite sure what happened. All we heard was a scream and all we saw was a cloud of sand and the four wheeler laying on top of you. There was nobody else around who saw you wreck either.” Christine said. You could tell all of this was wearing Christine down. Christine thought back to everything that had happened the day of the wreck.

“Mom I’m going out on a ride,” Charley shouted to her mom who was in the camper.
“Okay, but you need to be back in an hour. We are going to eat dinner soon.” Christine insisted as she walked over to Charley, “And wear your helmet, and your chest protector!”
“Okay,” Charley said in a very happy voice. Charley hasn’t been riding in two months and she couldn’t wait to get back out on the sand, and feel the breeze in her helmet. There was just something about riding that took all the stress away and made her feel free.
Christine turned around and walked back to the trailer where everyone was standing, and all of a sudden they heard a scream.  Everyone turned around and all they saw was a big cloud of sand. So everyone ran over to her to find that she was not breathing.
“Call 9-1-1!” yelled Charley’s dad, Miles.
Miles was a tall guy who was also a little stocky.  He has brown hair that flows in the wind and blue eyes that twinkle like stars. He smelt of gas and four wheeler exhaust, and was dressed in riding pants and boots, and a fox shirt covered in oil, he had been working on the quads all day long.
Charley’s mom didn’t have service on her phone so Christine, Miles and Charley’s uncle Willard put Charley in the car and drove up the road till they had service and were able to call out.
By the time life flight arrived, Charley’s parents had gotten the sand out of her mouth.  They flew Charley to the Bend hospital.  She was in a medically induced coma for 3 weeks and that’s when she started to wake up.
“I don’t remember anything.  The last thing I recall was that you told me to wear a helmet, and I said okay.”  Charley said. She was so confused, and mad that she couldn’t remember what had happened to her that day.
“Well since you have brain injuries you won’t remember everything.  It may come back after a couple of weeks or months. That will just take time, now because of your legs, you will have to go to physical therapy for a couple months or years, and you still may not be able to move your toes, or have feeling in them ever again.”  Christine said in a voice that sounded like she had been crying.  “You will also never be able to ride again.”
Those word right there just broke Charley, and tears started falling from her pale face.
Christine thought in her head “my daughter can never ride again.  What are we going to do?  It has been so hard because we weren’t even sure if she would live. I don’t know how we are going to get through this. This is crazy. I don’t get how this happend”
“No that’s not fair!  Why did this happen.  I don’t get it.  I don’t do things I’m not supposed to.”  Charley said as she was bawling. She was confused and raging with anger.
“I know.  I am sorry honey, but everything happens for a reason.  Even if it doesn’t seem like it now.  Something good will come out of this I promise you that.”  Uncle Willard exclaimed.
“Everything is not going to be okay!  I’m paralyzed!  I will never be able to do my favorite thing in the whole world again!  And oh my gosh if one more person tells me that everything happens for a reason, or this is just the path I’m intended to take in life, I’m just going to break down and cry.”  Charley said in a sad voice that sounded like she was about to cry.  Then all of a sudden she just started bawling. Charley was very scared, and stressed. She didn’t know how she was going to get through this difficult time. How could she live the rest of her life without riding? It was everything to her. She was just glad that her family was there with her, to help and support her.
“That’s why it is important that you wear gear when you ride.” Said Charley to a crowd of people, waiting to take their rider safety class. Charley now goes around and talks about her experience and the importance of wearing riding gear.
It’s now been 4 ½ years since the wreck.  Charley is now 23 and married to her boyfriend who she met while she was in the hospital. He was in the room next to her. They went through everything together and stuck by each other the whole time. She has been going to physical therapy and she can just barely move her toes, which is incredible because the doctors told her she would never be able to move then again, or even have any feeling in them.  She has really grown up since then. Charley didn’t think she was going to be able to get through her wreck, but she did. Now that she has got through this, she knows she can get through anything life throws her way.
“I used to always think wearing gear was stupid, I mean I never thought I would be the one to wreck. But to think back to that day, and if I wouldn’t of had gear on, I wouldn’t be standing here talking to you guys today. Trust me, please wear you gear. Do you guys understand me?”
“Yes!” the class full of kids shouted.
“Do you guys have any questions for me?” questioned Charley. A little girl with brown hair and brown eyes, who looked to be about 12 raised her hand. “Yes you with the blue shirt”, she was pointing to the little girl.
“If you could go back in time and change what happened to you, so that you didn’t get into the wreck?” the little girl asked.
“You know, if you would’ve asked me that the day I woke up, I probably would have said yes. But, now to look back on what I’ve been through, and everything I’ve learned, I don’t think I would change it. I learned that I can get through anything, and I met and married the love of my life. People told me every single day, while I was in the hospital that God has a plan for me and that everything happens for a reason, but I didn’t believe them.  I have gone through so much and I do realize now that they were right. But to answere your question, no I wouldn’t change what happened. Plus I know and get now, that this is the path God intended me to take. The number one lesson I have learned, things may not seem like they are going well right now, but I promise that things will come around.”