LUMBERTON — Britny Taylor claims not one but two miracles in her lifetime.
The first was surviving a major childhood accident, and the second the birth of her son.
“There’s things in our lives that we take for granted every day and we don’t even realize that we’re taking it for granted,” said Taylor.
She’ll never forget the day — June 11, 2001. Her mother was taking her grandmother to surgery in Pinehurst and left Taylor in the care of an older cousin who lived near Carthage Road in Lumberton. She was 11 years old at the time.
“Being the older, cool cousin, she asked me if I wanted to back the car up,” Taylor said. “It really wasn’t far at all.”
Being short in stature, Taylor was unable to see through the rear-view so she opened the door and peered out of it to see. Taylor, who had never driven a car before, slowly backed it toward her uncle’s truck, and the open door crash into its windows. She learned from her mother to use the emergency brake.
“It was just a freak accident. I put the emergency brake on and then I stepped one foot outside of the car,” she said.
Taylor was prepared to exit the car when the emergency brake failed and the car rolled back until it hit a utility pole and wedged her between the pole and the car. The door, which had been forced open by the impact with the truck, quickly swung back and struck her leg, which was outside of the car.
“I don’t remember freaking out,” Taylor said. “I remember at first being calm. I just remember it feeling like someone very large sat in my lap.”
While the husband of Taylor’s cousin tried to release the emergency brake so he could pull the car off her, Taylor looked down and realized the severity of the situation. It wasn’t until later, hearing the 911 call, that Taylor realized she was screaming for her mother.
“I don’t remember screaming,” Taylor said. “I remember bits and pieces.”
Her mother, Jennifer Cain, will not forget.
“It was terrifying. That was my worse nightmare,” Cain said. “It’s something a mother should never have to go through. I promise you that.”
Once at the Southeastern Regional Medical Center, Taylor went through six blood fusions before she was transferred to Chapel Hill. She and her family learned that her injuries included a ruptured bladder, dislocation of both hips, and a compound fracture in her femur.
Taylor spent 13 days in the hospital, although doctors had predicted three to six months.
“She’s strong. She comes from strong stock,” her mother said.
She was confined to a wheelchair for four months and endured strenuous physical and occupational therapy.
Taylor was told after the surgeries that she was unable to have children, something she did not see as a problem at the time.
“I was 12,” she said. “I remembered taking care of little brothers, which was a pain.”
It wasn’t until Taylor reached early adulthood and experienced her first serious relationship and saw friends having babies, that she realized the magnitude of her infertility. But on Oct. 10, 2010, she got the news.
“I was pregnant,” she said. “I didn’t expect to carry to term.”
But she did.
On June 18, 2011, 10 years and a week after her accident, she went into active labor and days later her second miracle arrived. Addison Alexander is now 7.
Taylor has been living in Raleigh for the past five years. She said the incident has helped her see just how fragile life is.
“I was a kid, and I think part of that really helped me to get through,” she said. “At 11, I didn’t have any concept of the prominence of life and how severe it was. It never crossed my mind that I could die.”
During Taylor’s pregnancy, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Dealing with nurses throughout her struggle with the disease and the effects of the accident inspired her to pursue a career in nursing.
“The relationship I developed with the nurses and working with them and their compassion and how great they were, that put it in my mind that that’s what I wanted to do,” Taylor said.
Taylor, now 29, plans to go back to college next year and focus on clinical research. Her plan is to start at Wake Technical Community College and later transfer to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“If I hadn’t gone through the experience I did as a child, I would have never learned that I could have that kind of passion for something,” she said.
“She is my hero,” Cain said. “She is the strongest, most beautiful and intelligent woman. She’s got a caring heart and is going to make a great nurse.”
