A crashing car pinned her to the ground. After escaping death, this woman is rebuilding her life
For Nicole Kieley, everything changed in an instant
What started as a regular shopping trip for Nicole Kieley last May quickly became the moment her world was turned inside out.
In seconds, she was pushed through a pharmacy window by an out-of-control car, nearly killed and left in precarious health. Eight months later, she is recovering, and able to describe the horror of a how life can change in an instant.
Kieley, the deputy mayor of Mount Pearl, was running some afternoon errands in preparation for the Victoria Day long weekend. It was a Friday. The skies were blue and roads were clear.
She was picking up supplies at a Shoppers Drug Mart on LeMarchant Road in St. John's with the intention of hitting the highway to spend the weekend relaxing at her cabin with family and friends, who were waiting for her arrival.
"You do what you do as a Newfoundlander. May 24 is about getting your supplies, getting out of town, getting outside, having some fun," Kieley told CBC News. "And that was what I wanted to do. Just pop into a store and grab some supplies and back out onto the road."
Kieley parked her car and walked inside the store. Realizing she had forgotten her wallet, she turned around and ran back outside.
I held onto the hood and I think that moment absolutely saved my life.- Nicole Kieley
"On my second way back in there was an open parking space that was close to mine, parallel to my car," she said. "I noticed another car, kind of jaggedly going in. It had hit another car coming in and then that kind of, for a second, had me stop and pause."
The car kept coming, directly toward Kieley, who was standing on the sidewalk just outside the store's front door.
Time froze, she said, as she braced for the impact.
"I held onto the hood and I think that moment absolutely saved my life," she said.
"Because if I had just taken the impact on that point, I would have just fallen back onto the sidewalk, and the car would have kept going right over me."
The driver was a 77-year-old man, who was not hurt in the crash. His licence was suspended and he was ordered to pay a fine.
"I held on as long as I could, and once I was in the store the little bevel that's holding the glass kind of tripped me up and I fell forward," she said. "[The car] was roaring, that's the best way to describe it."
'Turn the car off. Turn the car off'
The car kept moving, taking Kieley right through the store's front window.
She ended up underneath the vehicle as it squeezed further into the building.
She said her leg and parts of her body were wedged under the car as it continued to push forward.
Her head was near the still-spinning wheels.
"I put my hand up. I took a lot of damage on my arm, but it saved my head, it saved the essential parts of you," she said.
"I had screamed, I think, a couple of times — that's your reaction with anything — 'can somebody turn the car off. Turn the car off. Turn the car off.'"
'I was out of there'
Kieley recalls thinking she might not make it out of the situation alive.
Bystanders held her hand and reassured her that she would be OK. Emergency services arrived shortly after and used an inflatable device to raise the car off of her.
As the EMS crew began to drag her out, her mood shifted.
"Even before that, I started squirming out, whether I was supposed to do it or not. As soon as I felt a release, I was out of there," she said.
"Even in that moment I was feeling, 'Yes, OK, I'm making it and everything after this is just gravy.'"
She had been conscious through the entire event, only blacking out from the medication given to her in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.
The long path to recovery
In hospital, she was put in an induced coma. Her first memories after waking were the sounds of other patients and medical staff — and her sister calling her name.
"That kind of perked me up and I opened my eyes," she said.
By that point, Kieley had been in a coma for a week. The first faces she saw were her dad and her sister, and their big smiles.
"I was completely grateful to be awake and alive," she said.
"They were going through hell. They had camped out by my side," she said.
"Literally there was a room that my aunts, uncles, friends would use to just sleep. Dad was barely sleeping and they were the ones who had been having those difficult conversations with doctors."
But the realities of her injuries began to sink in.
Kieley ultimately lost her left leg above the knee, something she says was a hard decision made between family and surgeons. Her arm was saved.
"Luckily it was less of a decision and moreso a discussion informing it had to be done," she said. "It was going to be the best route for my recovery, the best route for my health and safety and my quality of life."
She said she knew immediately her life would be different.
Changing the mind, changing the body
Her recovery began with a change in mindset.
Kieley said the mental component included realizing that no matter where she was in the recovery process, things will happen one small increment at a time.
That included relearning how to sip from a cup and being able to move her head.
Kieley is now walking with a cane and new prosthetic leg. She's also regularly training to rebuild her strength.
"Like anything, you're going to have those really difficult thoughts. You work through them. You look at them, you be curious about them, you feel your feelings around them," she said.
"Like anything else, you decide, 'Will I carry this? Or will I just put this down right now?' Sometimes it will come back up. I will absolutely say that's a normal feeling and thought."
Today she's back at home with her cats, Scully and Mulder, and is relearning the tasks of her previous life, including how to walk again.
"I have fallen. I have experienced frustration. I have experienced pain," she said.
"I'll get to a path again. I'll get to a beautiful walk, outside with nature. I will have my backpack on again. I will get there."
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
With files from Anthony Germain
