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A young Penticton-area single mother will never be the same after a devastating car crash last week.
Tlell LaRose, 27, was alone in her car in the early evening of Friday, June 26 when she hit a curve in the road and crashed, her vehicle flipping over.
She had headed out on White Lake Road because her ex-partner and co-parent of 4-year-old son Jakob had crashed his motorcycle nearby, and she wanted to be sure he was alright.
"There are long stretches and then slow curves that turn into a very tight curve, and by the time you realize, if you're not used to it, it's too late to keep control of the vehicle," Tlell's father Gary Birch said, adding that a neighbour across the way said the area is prone to crashes.
Just before she left, Tlell decided to leave Jakob at home — but after the crash, dazed and disoriented, she couldn't remember that, and thought her son had been in the vehicle.
She frantically asked first responders to find him. His car seat had been found ejected from the vehicle, and volunteers fanned out to search.
Meanwhile, Jakob's father was being transported for treatment from his own crash and heard over the ambulance radio that a 27-year-old female had flipped her car just up the road, and that a young boy was suspected missing at the crash site. He knew it might be Tlell and Jakob, and feared the worst.
"So he called Tlell on his phone, and luckily they have their phones connected also to [Jakob's] iPad, and [Jakob] actually picked up the call," Birch explained. "So that was a huge relief."
Tlell was airlifted from the scene and is currently in the ICU at Vancouver General Hospital, facing severe injuries that have left her paralyzed from the chest down and with potential neurological damage. She spent 7.5 hours in an operating room while her family anxiously waited for news.
"There's metal all up and down her spine, and she's paralyzed from about the mid-back down," Birch said. "She has full use of her arms, her lungs are still weak but the break wasn't so high that she would have to be on a respirator ... she did have a significant head injury, but she's incredibly with it considering what has happened."
But her paralysis is likely permanent. Tlell won't be able to work anytime soon, and even when she is ready, her abilities will likely be very different.
"It will be a tough road to adjust to but with everyone's support, we can set her up for success and healing so she will remain the Mom and woman she has always been," wrote Tlell's aunt Gisele on a GoFundMe set up to support her recovery.
Thousands of dollars have already been donated, and Birch said his daughter was shocked Tuesday afternoon when he told her.
"She was genuinely surprised and overwhelmed by the generosity of not just her family and friends but complete strangers," Birch said. "There's just so many people that love this girl ... she's so selfless."
He describes his daughter as an incredible mother, whose mission in life is to provide her son with happiness and safety.
"She is the ultimate mom, she is such a good mother," Birch said, with emotion in his voice. "She is overly giving and positive and she's going to be somehow better through all of this, and that's through her words, she feels that things will be better. She's already decided that this will be a positive thing in her life."
Tlell's GoFundMe can be found here.
