A Black Tennessee girl’s journey to Jamaica didn’t go as deliberate. Now, she’s questioning how and when she’ll have the ability to return residence.
Final week, whereas having fun with her time in Jamaica with household, Cierra Stockard thought it will be a good suggestion to swim with some dolphins, who’ve a repute for being one of the mild and pleasant sea creatures. Nevertheless, she discovered rapidly that it’s best to method the mammals with warning.
In an interview with WKRN, Stockard recalled how one of many dolphins lifted her into the air, inflicting her to fall and land on the animal’s dorsal fin.
“It simply felt like I acquired right into a automobile accident,” Stockard instructed WKRN. “The pressure of it — it felt like increase! One thing simply occurred actually unhealthy.”
She later added, “I used to be simply in a lot ache. Tears have been simply operating down my face.”
The blunt-force trauma of the accident reportedly left her with a hematoma, which is a localized assortment of blood outdoors of blood vessels, sometimes brought on by damage, the Nationwide Most cancers Institute described, that’s the dimension of “three apples.”
Extra from WKRN:
She underwent emergency surgical procedure and mentioned she was scared she’d by no means see her two younger daughters once more. Stockard additionally instructed Information 2 she suffers from sickle cell anemia, which impacts the form of pink blood cells.
“We want her residence as a result of that is simply not a great circumstance,” her aunt, Kimberley Watkins, mentioned. “That is simply not a great state of affairs.”
Though Stockard is in “good spirits,” she’s having hassle getting stateside.
In a GoFundMe organized by Nevaeh Garton, Stockard’s sister, she wrote, “At this level we simply need her residence to her infants! We’ve seemed into the whole lot to see what’s the most effective protected possibility for her.”
She continued, “Her insurance coverage doesn’t cowl worldwide emergency journey so we must come out of pocket for the emergency medical flight to select her up tomorrow and take her again to the states to a hospital there. Medical Flights have been quoted $45,000. My household is doing what they will to give you the cash however this isn’t one thing all people has laying round. I ask that if anybody can donate any quantity that it’s greater than appreciated proper now.”
As of Monday, March 24, $25,000 of its $55,000 objective has been raised to assist carry Stockard residence.