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Winter road in the province of Alberta, Canada (symbolic photo)
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Andy Clark / Reuters/ REUTERS
A Canadian paramedic who was called to a road accident in Alberta last week to help a teenage crash victim was unknowingly treating her own daughter.
This is reported by the news agency The Canadian Press.
Due to the severity of the injuries, Jayme Erickson was unable to recognize her daughter.
Erickson struggled for almost half an hour to extricate the girl from the vehicle and stayed with her until she could be flown to a nearby Calgary hospital.
She assumed the injuries would probably be fatal.
Cops rang after the shift
Shortly after Erickson got home at the end of her shift, her doorbell rang.
It was the police who informed her that her 17-year-old daughter had died in the accident.
“The badly injured patient I was tending to was my own flesh and blood.
my only child
My mini me.
My daughter, Montana," she wrote on Facebook.
"While I'm grateful for the 17 years I got to spend with her, I'm shattered and I ask myself: what would have become of you, my little girl?
Who would you have been?'
The paramedic's daughter was walking down an icy country road with another teenage girl.
They were returning from a dog walk, Richard Reed, a colleague of Erickson's, told reporters, visibly shaken.
The car lost control and was hit by an oncoming truck.
The driver was able to exit the vehicle, but the passenger, Erickson's daughter, was trapped.
Her mother was the first to arrive at the scene of the accident.
"As both a parent and a first responder, I can tell you this is a nightmare that none of us could have imagined," Reed said.
Erickson said she wanted the world to know about the daughter she lost.
She wanted to study law, as a competitive swimmer she was able to give "one last gift" to those in need.
"She was able to donate her organs, and two of her organs were life-saving," Erickson said.
"We are so fortunate that our little girl is alive through others and that she saved the lives of others after this tragedy."
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