SALEM, Mass. (WFXT) – A Massachusetts nurse who nearly died in a moped accident on vacation in Thailand is thankful to be back home, but she is facing a long road to recovery.
Sierra Fairhurst, an intensive care unit nurse at Salem Hospital, was on vacation in Thailand with her friends a few weeks ago. She remembers seeing elephants and ziplining. But after renting a moped, everything goes dark.
“We were on the road, and then, we weren’t,” Fairhurst said.
The nurse doesn’t remember the accident, but she woke up in a small hospital in Krabi with severe injuries. She suffered a brain bleed, a broken collarbone and lost most of her teeth.
“My eye socket is broken. I almost lost my eye. My cheek bones and nose were broken, so that’s all metal now,” Fairhurst said. “I talk with a lisp now, and people often ask me to repeat myself a few times.”
Zoe Rose, Fairhurst’s mother, flew to Thailand to help her daughter get the facial surgery she needed in Bangkok before the two finally headed home to Salem.
“She’s very self-conscious in regards to the scarring on her face and the missing teeth, but she still came out of this alive, her brain is healing and doing well and she’s still beautiful,” Rose said.
She says all that matters is getting her daughter back.
“I can breathe,” Rose said.
Fairhurst says she’s thankful to continue her recovery at the hospital where she works and hopes she’ll soon get back to doing the job she loves.
“It’s unfortunate. I would definitely like to heal quickly and be able to get back to work and see my coworkers and my friends and take care of my patients. But I know that I need to be able to pour from a full cup, and if my cup isn’t full, I can’t help anybody else,” she said.
The family is also thankful they flew back home just a couple days before a 7.7 magnitude earthquake rocked Thailand.
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