Katelyn McGill

Throughout my entire life, my sister, Katie, has been there for me, tricking me into doing things like walking through an electric fence with my thumbs on the dog collar, or making me believe that if you turn left in a car, and you’re sitting in the middle, you’ll die. Katie has been an important part of every minute of my life. It’s hard to think of her not being here with me. One day last summer her life was threatened by a car accident that changed all of our lives.

I was watching TV that morning when Katie, 17 at the time, was going to help a neighbor move things to another place in a van. I said a casual goodbye, not knowing it could be my last. I went into the shower and when I got out my sister, Shannon, told me what happened. We didn’t know how it happened until later but somehow she ran herself over with the van. I ran outside not planning to see what I did. Her face was blue and I could tell she was in a great deal of pain. All the neighbors came out when they heard sirens. The paramedics arrived and took Katie to the hospital.

My mom went in the ambulance with her. I was afraid I was going to throw up. That ride to the hospital was the longest of my life. When we got there, Katie went in for a cat scan and the report was amazing. She ended up with a collapsed lung, broken collarbone and bruises on her face. That’s all. Sure, they were still breathing for her with a tube and pumping air out of her lungs with a chest tube in her side (which by the way, was very painful for Katie), but she was doing amazingly well for having been run over by a van. After they took the tube out of her throat, she could tell us what happened. She was backing out of the driveway not knowing that the emergency break was on, she got out of the car and released the break. The car started rolling down the street and she tried to stop it. The car door hit her in the face, knocked her down, shoved her under the car and the front tire ran over her abdomen.

She showed a great deal of perseverance through it all. I never heard her complain more than once. She never really knew that her life was in danger. She didn’t know there was a risk. My sister, Katie McGill, is still alive today thanks to the talent of her nurses and doctors and her own perseverance. Katie has been such a support for me over the years, and I am glad it will stay that way. Wherever we go together people are constantly saying how much we look alike, and that’s a compliment. I still look up to her today for her constant support for me. Katie has changed my life in so many ways, and definitely for the better.