My Second Chance in Life

Saturday, March 4, 2017, I threw a small birthday party for my friend. I invited our friends, we played some games and stayed up late. That night we were talking about going to one of my favorite restaurants in Woodland the next day. Sunday, March 5 we were heading to the restaurant and we were singing along to the music. We had about an hour drive and we were singing and talking the whole way there. When we got there, a Mariachi was outside getting ready to go play inside the restaurant. We went inside and we got seated right where the mariachi was going to play.

Once the Mariachi started playing we starting singing along to their songs and we started to dance, we were having a good time. When it was time to head back home my brother asked me to drive because he had one drink. I was driving home and we were singing on the way home, we were passing Texas Roadhouse and I was in the far left lane, I was going to switch lanes to the right. As I was switching lanes, I was halfway in the lane when a red truck tried switching lanes when I was halfway into the lane already. My brother yelled out “watch out” and I turned the wheel the other way but unfortunately I lost control of the car. We spun out of control and hit the center divider on the freeway.

As soon as we hit the center divider the car flipped about 3-4 times, the car landed and my brother reached over to unbuckle my seatbelt and then unbuckle his. He got off the car and he went to open all the doors so all 5 of us in the car could get off. Once I stepped out the car I fell right away, I couldn’t feel my legs. Random people picked me up and took me to the shoulder lane on the freeway. The ambulance and police got there so fast, I was asked a lot of questions by the police. When the paramedics tried standing me up to put me on the bed I couldn’t get up. They picked me and put me on the bed and put me in the ambulance, once we were inside the ambulance I was crying so much to the point where I couldn’t breathe. They put a mask on me to give me oxygen, my eyes started to close and one of the paramedics was tapping my cheek and saying “stay with me hun.”

We arrived at the hospital and they asked me what my name was, how old I was and where I lived. I was so confused and I only told them my name. I wasn’t able to see straight, I was seeing double. They took me into a back room where you have to wait until another room becomes available. A policeman, my parents and a paramedic came to where I was and the police and my parents started asking me questions but I couldn’t answer any of them. I got taken into a room and the doctor comes in, and asks me what parts of my body hurt and I told him that my neck was hurting and I couldn’t really feel my legs.

The doctor did what he could do and gave me a neck brace, it came to the time where I was discharged and taken to my sister in law's room. I got taken to her room in a wheelchair and there was a therapist in the room telling her that we were all lucky to be alive. The lady turned to me, kneed down and grabbed my hand. She said, “Honey I'm sorry you had to go through something this hard but you are very lucky to be alive.” I started crying even more and she hugged me, a couple minutes pass and my sister in law went to hug me as well. I hugged her as tight as I could and I started apologizing but she kept telling me it wasn’t my fault.

My sister in law got discharged and we were able to go into my brother’s room, his arm was bleeding and his head was bleeding as well. When I saw him I started crying immediately, he grabbed my hand and told me, “Jaz don’t say anything, it wasn’t your fault, don’t cry sis.” I squeezed his hand and he asked the doctor if I could stay in the room with him. My parents and sister in law waited outside as my brother and I were waiting for his results of the CT Scan. The doctor came in and said everything looked good in the CT Scan, so they wrapped his arm and put a bandage where his head was bleeding. My brother got discharged as well and as we were exiting his room, the nurse came in to push my wheelchair and take us where our family was waiting for us.

When we got to where our family was, we saw my sister in laws parents and my oldest brother left work to go to the hospital. The other two females that were in the accident as well were taken to Sutter Solano. As we were leaving Kaiser, my dad was pushing my wheelchair and stopped and asked me if I was okay to get back into the car and I said yes because I knew I had no other choice but to get into the car. We were heading to Sutter Solano where my other friends were taken, once we got there they were waiting in the waiting room. They came outside and they were fine, they didn’t even have one scratch. The got into the car and we all went home, the next day we had to go take out everything that was remaining inside the jeep.

Later on that day, we went to my sister in laws house and as soon as we got there and I saw everyone, I didn’t say anything, I just cried and we all hugged. My nose was hurting since the morning and my dad looked at me and told me, mom, “her nose is broken.” My mom scheduled an appointment that same day and the doctor looked at me and said, “I don’t have to touch your nose to tell you it’s broken, I’d recommend you to get surgery so it won’t affect your breathing.” The next day I had to get surgery on my nose, my family, my sister in law and her family went as well. After surgery everyone was waiting for me to wake up, the doctors had told me before I went into to surgery that it was going to take about an hour for me to wake up but it took around 3, I woke up to my dad kissing my forehead.

We all arrived at my house and they told me to lay down on the couch, I was still very dizzy from the medication. We were all talking about what happened and I apologized again but everyone told me not to apologize because it wasn’t my fault and I tried to do everything I could. I didn’t realize how fast things can happen when you least expect them until that day. Even before the accident I would pray and now I pray even more, it’s important not to take life for granted because you never know when it can be taken away from you.

This car accident has changed my life because the lives of 5 people, we’re nearly about to be taken away. The 5 people in the car were Maricela Cabezas, Vanessa Manzo, Gabriela Manzo, Adrian Rubio, and me, Jazmine Rubio. Til this day I think to myself, how did we get out that car alive. Other accidents have happened that we’re not as bad as my accident was and the people, unfortunately, pass away, I ask myself how did we get so fortunate.