"I used to say, that life was something worth living. However, in a flash, your entire world could come crashing down around you, instantly destroyed. I lived through this once before, and it's happening again." 

_________________

I sat in the front seat as my husband drove down route 6 on our way home to Highland Falls. When we met, I was fresh out of the Academy and beginning medical school, he said that one day he'd build us a home. He didn't lie. Since I seperated from the Army, our life has been nothing but pleasant. We were living the opitomy of the American dream. We had three kids, a dog, and a custom house he built when I was deployed in Afghanstan for a year. It even had a white picket fence. 

I looked back at my daughters as they played with their new toys from the Natural History museum. Jane asked for a Triceratops plushy,  while Kyle had asked for the Space Shuttle backpack. Katy, had asked for the Palentologist Doll - she has the mind to be one in real life. 

"OH SHIT!" I heard my husband say, quickly turning back, I only saw stars before everything turned to black. 

"Mommy!" I heard. As I tried to sit up, I felt immense pressure on my chest. 

"I hear you baby!" Looking at the water pooling over my head, I quickly came to realize that we were in the river. Turning to my right, I saw my husband ackwardly slumed forward. Reaching over with my freed arm, I felt for a pulse but felt nothing. 

"Mommy the water!" I saw the water slowly seeping forward over the dash as the car slid slowly into the river. 

"Katey, can you reach the old phone?" 

"No. I can't move my arms." As I turned around, I felt pressure and stining in my neck, and looked at her. She was sitting there in her car seat, barely moving but talking. Looking to the left, I saw the left side where Kyle and Jane had been sitting was caved in, and they weren't moving. As the water slowly edged forward into the car, I felt the freezing temperature as it began to hit my neck.

"It 's going to be okay baby." I said. Forcing the glove box open, I reached inside for a a cutter, before taking the opposite side. "Two inches in..." I said to myself. Hitting the window, it burst outward, exposing us to the harsh winter air. Cutting the seatbelt, I felt myself immediately fall onto the roof of the car. 

As my hands began to tingle, and with a numb foot, I dragged myself out of the car and into the river as the car began to quickly sink. After a few seconds, I watched as the car rapidly began to enter the water as high tide approached.

I heard Katy yelling. 

"I'm coming!" As I walked forward, I felt my foot drag on the ground.

"Are you okay?!" I heard from above. Looking up, I saw a man standing on the cliff above me.

"No, I need you to call 9-1-1. tell them they need to send a helicopter to life flight my daughter to New York - Presbytian. I think she has a broken neck!" I said. I watched as the man picked up his phone. Looking as the car began to sink deeper into the water, I began to wade futher in, with my tool in hand. Grabbing onto the door handle, I didn't feel it.

"Katy, close your eyes, okay?" I watched as my daughter closed her eyes, before hitting the window. As I reached into the car, I felt her neck, and realized it was the worst case scenario. Her head was unusually loose off her body. Yelling outside of the vehicle, I looked up at the man standing above me.

"Do you have tools, something I can make a neck brace with, anything!"

"Let me go check!" The man yelled from above. As I looked around the car for anything of use, I saw the bloody space shuttle backpack. Reaching in, I grabbed it and looped it around my daughter before grabbing my jacket, and putting it underneath her neck. 

"Katy, don't move okay."

"Okay mom." As the car began to slip deeper in to the water, I prepared myself for the worst. I knew I couldn't move her. I began to run the number. There was a 70% chance she'd die from this, a 15% chance she'd die in the emergency room, but a 100% chance if I left her. I wouldn't leave my own child to die. Reaching inside the car, I felt the door lock and pulled it up. Pulling with all my might, I felt the door budge, before opening. 

"It's going to be okay." I said. As I said that, the tingling in my hands began to get worse. "I promise you, it will be okay." As the car began to slip deeper into the water. I put my feet on the top of the door. "Deep breath." As my daughter slipped below the waves, I immediately plunged myself below the water, and cut away her carseat straps. Grabbing her shoulders. Getting underneath her, I supported her neck with my hand. Pushing off from the car, my head crested above the Hudson river. Pulling my daughter, I heard a breath of air from her.  Looking behind me, I saw a few other people climbing down the embankment to get to us. As I hit the shore line, I crawled onto the ground, continuing to support her neck. 

"You jacket!" I yelled at a women. The women quickly took off her jacket as I put it under my daughter, before using the hood to pull, continuing to support her head. 

"Is there anyone else in the car?" The man who called from above asked.

"My husband, and two of my other children. There's nothing I could do." I said. 

Laying on the ground, I looked up at the night sky as I heard sirens in the distance. Another person covered me with their jacket trying to keep me warm. I could hear other people making their way into the river trying to save them. I cried out for them. As one of the people held my daughters head still, I could hear her crying. 

"It's going to be okay, it's going to be okay, it's going to be okay..." I said, trying to reassure her. I cried out as the pain in my hands and feet got worse. As the paramedics made their way down the embankment. 

"Treat my daughter first" I yelled out. "She needs a C-Collar, I think she has an atlanto-occupital dislocation. She needs to be medivaced to either Children's Hospital of Phildelphia, or New York-Presbyterian. Inform them that it's a Level 1 trauma alert. She needs to see Doctor Callaway at the children's hospital, he's the best, and has dealt with severe neck trauma."

"Ma'am, we will take care of your daughter." Said a Paramedic, as she put a c-collar around my neck. "First we need to get both of you both to an area to evacuate you from." The EMT said. 

"Okay." The Paramedics rolled me to the side and put me on a backboard cage, as they winched me above and onto the road. A few minutes later, my daughter followed. 

"Ma'am, we gave your daughter a slide sedative so she stops moving." As they loaded us into the back of the ambulance, we continued to drive. I could tell we were heading south. A sudden turn later, I felt us come to a stop.

"Where are we."

"Fort Hill Park." Hearing the rotars of a helicopter, I watched as the paramedics took my daughter and loaded her onto the helicopter. 

As we were above the sky in the helicopter, the entire time we were up there it felt like an eternity. Soon, the helicopter pilot was landing at New York-Presbyterian. As they unloaded us, I saw two entire teams of hospitalists, trauma specialists, and Doctor Callaway. As the hospitalists unloaded us and put me onto a different gourney, Hashem looked down at me.

"You're going to be okay Allisa."