And She’s Getting Ready to Drive a New Vehicle Designed Especially for Her
One of the most prominent traits associated with Texans is their strength and resilience. Texans have a reputation for being tough, hardworking, and determined. Whether it’s facing down a natural disaster like Hurricane Harvey or overcoming personal challenges, Texans have shown time and again that they have what it takes to rise to the occasion.
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One Texan in particular, 20-year-old Brooklyn Boyer of Lubbock, Texas, has faced – and overcome – more challenges in the past few years than most of us will face in a lifetime.
Brooklyn before the accident at the pool | Source: Brooklyn Boyer
On June 10, 2020, Brooklyn’s life was changed forever when she went down a pool slide headfirst and ended up hitting her head on the bottom of the pool.
The impact shattered her C5 vertebrae and damaged her spinal cord. “I know that God was watching over me that day because my boyfriend who I just started dating had finished lifeguard training a week before my accident, so he knew all of the correct safety procedures to use until the EMTs came.” Since that time she has undergone intensive rehab and now enjoys being involved in Lubbock Christian University’s campus life, listening to music, reading, and hanging out with friends and family.
She now steers her motorized wheelchair from her dorm room to classes, enjoys study sessions at Starbucks and is working toward having her own vehicle so she doesn’t have to rely family and friends for rides.
She recently worked with Strowmatt Driving Rehabilitation Services in order to learn how to drive in a modified van and – after 45 hours of training in the modified van – she passed her test and earned her driver’s license. Friends have started GoFundMe to help purchase the $175,000 van that would allow Brooklyn to drive on her own. We recently caught up with Brooklyn and were lucky enough to learn more about this remarkable young woman.
Brooklyn Boyer at the hospital | Source: Brooklyn Boyer
Nice to meet you Brooklyn. You have been through so much and overcome so much but can you take us back to the early days following your accident and describe what that was like for you?
I was rushed into emergency surgery and was in the SICO for two weeks until going to rehab at Craig hospital in Denver Colorado for three months. After returning home from my rehab hospital, I was able to successfully graduate high school and I now currently attend a university.
Brooklyn at the hospital with her family | Source: Brooklyn Boyer
Your story has gained attention due to the resilience and strength you’ve shown at such a young age. Where do you find that power to overcome obstacles?
My injury has taught me the importance of resilience and leaning on God, family, community, and friends. It has also taught me to never take things for granted and that no day is promised to us so we should make the most of each day! Through my injury, I have been able to see God work in amazing ways through the people I have met along the way, the organizations and hospitals that have aided my recovery, the communities that have supported my family and me, and how He has comforted us and given us reason after reason to keep going. He is who strengthens me.
Brooklyn with her boyfriend | Source: Brooklyn Boyer
Can you tell us about your day-to-day life now, more than three years after the accident?
My day to day life typically involves attending classes and doing my schoolwork, working on campus, exercising, and hanging out with my family, boyfriend, and friends. As I said before, I was at a rehab hospital for three months after my initial injury, and I’ve done physical, occupational, and speech therapy since being back home.
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Can you take us through some of the challenges you’ve had to overcome as you’ve gotten back into the stream of life?
Over the past three years there have been many challenges and setbacks including learning how to do school differently with assistive devices, having to get a feeding tube because I had Superior Mesenteric Artery Syndrome, having to be intubated and getting a tracheostomy due to pneumonia, two hospitalizations because of sepsis, and having to navigate life differently now that I am a quadriplegic. The mindset that I try to maintain revolves around gratefulness.Although my life looks different now after my injury, I try to be grateful for all of the things that I’m still able to do and for the love and support I’ve received since my accident. Choosing to see everything as a blessing is not easy whatsoever but it is so rewarding!
Family surrounding Brooklyn | Source: Brooklyn Boyer
Along with your faith in God, where else have you found support in order to get where you are today?
My main support group has been my family, boyfriend, friends, and community in my hometown. My family has been with me through every surgery, hospital stay, and they continue to take care of me. My boyfriend saved me on the day of my accident and continues to show me unconditional love. My friends are always there to cry with me or to make me laugh and bring me Joy. My community has played a huge role in my recovery from their continuous prayers to their financial support. My support group has impacted and sustained me greatly and I would not be who I am today without them.
What are some of the pivotal moments that you remember from along the way?
I remember getting in a pool again for the first time since my accident. I was terrified to even be around big bodies of water but my therapists at Craig Hospital were so patient and comforting throughout the whole process. Getting in the pool again taught me that I was still capable of overcoming obstacles, fear, and anxieties.
Brooklyn at her graduation | Source: Brooklyn Boyer
What are your dreams for your future and how does social media, where you’ve already found an audience, tie into that?
Professionally, my hope is to become a licensed professional counselor in order to help others who might be struggling. Overall, I just want to do my best to reflect Jesus’s light, love, and joy to others. Social media has played a huge role in connecting me with others who are a part of the disabled community as well as helping me advocate for the disabled community. Social media holds great power in the way that it allows me to reach way more people than I ever thought possible in such a quick and efficient way.
Brooklyn’s GoFundMe was set up for her friend’s to help her purchase a vehicle | Source: GoFundMe
Can you tell us where you are in terms of acquiring your own vehicle?
The Texas Workforce Commission has been helping me through the process of getting me on the road again. I have reserved my specific vehicle and it will be examined by a group of engineers to make certain modifications for the specific equipment such as the hand controls that will eventually be installed. After the equipment is installed, I will travel to the metroplex to get fitted to my vehicle so that it is adjusted uniquely to my needs. After all of the modifications and assistive technology is where it needs to be, I will then complete some more driving hours in my newly modified vehicle.
Learning how to drive again after my injury has been such a fun and freeing experience. I have really missed being able to drive myself around, having the freedom to run errands by myself, and the ability to pick up friends in the past three years. Getting my own vehicle will be such a blessing because it will give me the complete independence to go places without someone else having to drive me. I truly feel beyond overjoyed, thankful, and blessed by this opportunity!
Click to donate to Brooklyn’s GoFundMe
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