Paramedic Jaime Erickson, center, who was called to a crash last week and didn’t know she was trying to save her daughter because the injuries were so severe, is comforted by her husband, Sean Erickson, as she speaks to the media in Airdrie, Alberta, Tuesday. (Jeff McIntosh, The Canadian Press via AP)
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Calgary, Canada — A Canadian paramedic who unknowingly treated her daughter after a fatal car crash is tearful as she remembers a beautiful girl who fought to the end.
Jaime Erickson was called to the North Calgary crash on November 15 and sat with a seriously injured girl who was removed from the car and taken to the hospital, where she died. It was difficult to recognize her due to injuries.
It wasn’t until Erickson got home at the end of the day that she was met by RCMP officers, who told her the patient was her 17-year-old daughter, Montana.
Erickson shared her grief with reporters on Tuesday, describing her daughter as successful in everything she is interested in and an avid swimmer with aspirations of becoming a lawyer.
“She was a fighter and she fought until the day she died and she was beautiful. She was so beautiful. If she ever made an effort she would always succeed,” Erickson said at Airdrie Fire Hall with family and paramedics. Police officers and firefighters stand behind her to show support.
Richard Reed, a friend and flight medic, collapsed several times when Erickson recounted attending the scene of an accident where the car lost control and collided with an oncoming truck.
Reid said the driver managed to get out of the car but the female passenger was trapped with serious injuries. Erickson was the first person on the scene. He said Erickson knew the girl was in trouble and she sat there until she was pulled out and taken to hospital by air ambulance, still not knowing who she was.
“On the way back, she expressed her grief and frustration to her partner, knowing that at a later date the family would likely lose a daughter, a sister, and a grandson. Shortly after she got home, there was a knock on the door. It was the RCMP,” Reed said. .
“Going into the room, to her horror, she found the girl she had sat with in the back of the wrecked car still alive, so the family could say goodbye, and because of the extent of her injuries beyond recognition, Jamie was her own daughter.”
“Jamie was unknowingly keeping her daughter alive,” Reed said.
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