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SALT LAKE — Laramie Riggs, a University of Utah student, was working as an intern in Ecuador when she nearly lost her life on July 6, and family members are relieved to have her back.
Riggs survived a bus crash in the early morning hours of July 6 in Ecuador, where she had a summer internship. Seven people were killed. Riggs suffered seven broken ribs, shattered and cracked vertebrae and two collapsed lungs.
Riggs traveled from Ecuador to Utah by Air Evac, arriving just after 3 a.m. on July 13. When she reached Intermountain Medical Center, doctors discovered Riggs had even more injuries — including a broken sternum and fractured bones in her neck — but Riggs can still move her legs and wiggle her toes.
Riggs and her family members are amazed and grateful that she survived the crash.
My friends were looking for me, and if they would have tried to pull me out, I could be paralyzed, or worse.
–Laramie Riggs
"I remember getting on the bus, and then I was awake for a little while, sitting next to my friend. And then I'm sure I fell asleep for part of the time, and then I remember waking up on a gurney," Riggs said.
Riggs looks good, considering what she's been through, and she has an amazing attitude and desire to recover.
"Firefighters had to find me in the bus, and everyone is talking about how much of a miracle that was, because my friends were looking for me, and if they would have tried to pull me out, I could be paralyzed, or worse," she said.
One of Riggs' professors from the University of Utah, Carolan Ownby, visited Riggs.
"When I see her, I feel like I'm seeing a member of my family. And she's getting better and better and better, and that's a miracle," Ownby said.
Every gesture of kindness is helping Riggs' recovery. Her friends and fellow classmates at the University of Utah made the floral arrangements with messages of love and hope that litter Riggs' hospital room. Even strangers came to the hospital in Ecuador to pray for her.
"I was in a foreign country and nobody knew who I was, yet I had people coming and praying for me. It was global almost," Riggs said.
Her bright countenance masks the extent of her injuries, but Riggs is determined in her recovery.
She even laughed as she described her new haircut. She said she wore her long hair in a braid before the accident, but when she reached back to touch it in the hospital, it was gone. She learned that when the firefighters cut her clothes off to rescue her, they also had to cut her hair.
Riggs is not sure how long she will be at Intermountain Medical Center, but she will go to rehab when she's released.
"There's a lot of pain. I have some days where it's just a terrible day, but today's been a good day, so I can't complain," Riggs said.
