OUTLOOK: ‘GOD IS REAL’: Addison Anderson’s near fatal accident proved there’s no need to stress over tresses – The Vicksburg Post

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Addison Anderson, 14, defied the odds and cheated demise pursuing a around-lethal motor vehicle wreck in 2021. (Picture by Larry Walker | Distinctive to The Vicksburg Put up)

Addison Anderson in recovery after a around-fatal automobile accident in 2021. (Image Courtesy of the Anderson and Flaggs households)

Anderson in a photograph taken by Larry Walker.

Addison Anderson’s life was unquestionably not a tangled mess.

Factors had been likely effectively, and she experienced relatives and mates who cherished her. Having said that, like numerous teens who are coming of age, Anderson did practical experience a little bit of apprehension when it came to how her friends perceived her visual appearance. And for the then-13-year-previous, it experienced been all about her hair.

“My hair was me. It was like the only matter I cared about: hair, hair, hair. If my hair was not correct, I was not heading anyplace and if my hair didn’t glimpse how I desired it, I was upset. Simply because my hair was my hair,” she claimed.

But that transformed following Anderson experienced a head injuries from a car wreck and had to have portion of her head shaved.

“I sense like it (getting rid of my hair) taught me how to be humble, due to the fact you can have some thing currently and get rid of it tomorrow and you just have to be blessed for what you have,” she mentioned.

And in Anderson’s circumstance, that blessing was surviving a in close proximity to-deadly auto incident.

On Aug. 21, 2021, Anderson along with her mom, Emmarie Flaggs, were being driving household from a loved ones birthday occasion when Flaggs swerved to maintain from hitting another car or truck. This, Anderson stated, then caused their vehicle to operate into a ditch and strike a fence.

“We hit a gate when we swerved attempting not to strike the back of a different auto, and a pole that was related to the gate strike my brow,” she reported.

Anderson was taken to the College of Mississippi Professional medical Center, the place she underwent operation to repair service what she termed “a piece of my brain,” that experienced been dislodged. During the surgical procedures, she explained, “some kind of mesh or something” was utilised to protected this displaced piece of skull.

Anderson remained in the ICU following the surgery but was ultimately moved to a typical room.

It was then she stated that she started to question issues.

“When I initially woke up, I wasn’t knowledgeable of where by I was, simply because I was underneath medication and I didn’t know what was likely on, and I asked how I received in the medical center,” she claimed.

To defend her daughter, Anderson reported her mother did not in the beginning convey to her what was occurring.

“She didn’t want to set tension on my mind considering that I just experienced mind surgical treatment,” she reported.

But when Anderson’s mom at last did convey to her what had transpired, she started “putting the pieces together” — remembering the incident and becoming taken absent in an ambulance.

Anderson reported she experienced also been inquisitive as to her appearance following the incident and medical procedures.

“When I was in the hospital, I wanted to see how I appeared. That is all I requested,” she stated. “I asked if I could go home, and I want to see how I seemed.”

She realized a little something was amiss when a nurse routinely came into her home to test her head.

“I realized some thing was heading on with my head and I could feel a thing was not ideal with my head,” she claimed.

And she was right, one thing was going on with her head. The surgeons had to cut her scalp from ear to ear to conduct the surgical procedures. Staples experienced been applied to suture it again and the nurse was checking on the healing development right after they had been removed.

Right after her regular pleading to see how she appeared, Anderson was given a mirror.

“When I appeared in the mirror, I claimed, ‘Oh my gosh, my hair is long gone,’” she reported.

Not all was gone, she reported, “Just the best component of my hair was absent, but the back again was still there, so I explained to my mom, ‘Just reduce it all off,’ and she was like, ‘Are you severe?’  And I stated ‘Yes,’ for the reason that I didn’t want to glimpse funny with a single piece of hair and the rest gone.”

Reckoning with the point she was now bald was an emotional working experience, Anderson reported.

“It was like each and every day you wake up to brush your teeth and you have to see on your own in the mirror, so I was viewing myself in the mirror. I was going by means of not (necessarily) melancholy, but I was sensation like I wasn’t a woman anymore mainly because I did not have hair,” she reported.

Getting no hair was not the only challenge Anderson would confront next the auto accident. Thanks to her head injury, she also had to have speech and actual physical remedy.

“I experienced to master how to walk again, and I had to study how to communicate for the reason that I had experienced a feeding tube,” she mentioned.

There was also restoration she had to endure from an eye personal injury she sustained in the accident.

Anderson reported she was explained to she would be in the medical center for a year. But with perseverance and the like and support from her mother and grandmother, Linda Anthony, who stayed with her in the hospital and her grandfather, Mayor George Flaggs, Jr. who, however he was not allowed in the healthcare facility owing to COVID restrictions, came each individual other working day to just sit in the parking good deal so his granddaughter would know he was there to assist her, defied the prognosis and came residence two months next the accident.

Anderson admitted heading again to faculty after the incident and with no hair gave her pause.

“I considered people today at school would be teasing me. But when I bought back to college everyone was happy to see me and I was shocked simply because I obtained a reaction I was not searching for, which was ‘I am pleased to see you,’ and ‘We do not treatment how you seem, we are just glad you are in this article,’” she stated. “That manufactured me happy.”

Now a freshman at Vicksburg Significant College, Anderson is completely recovered. She is a member of the school’s Color Guard and observe groups and is also sharing her encounter with some others.

“My tale wasn’t for me,” she mentioned. “It was for me to do what God preferred me to do. I want them (those people I talk to) to know God is serious. Everything is God. Like even when you wake up in the early morning, God is there. I come to feel like it (my incident) wasn’t a slip-up and I’m not questioning God. At initial, I was and inquiring God, ‘Why me?’ But when I begun pondering, I considered anything is for a rationale, so I come to feel like my purpose or what I want the environment to know about my situation is, God required me to continue to be humble and clearly show the planet that He is real.

“People believed I was not likely to wake back again up, and physicians instructed me I couldn’t when I confirmed them I could,” she extra. “I want persons to know if you have a sturdy faith that everything is doable if you just believe that.”

A video clip made by Larry Walker on Anderson’s around-dying harm can be viewed down below:

About Terri Cowart Frazier

Terri Frazier was born in Cleveland. Soon afterward, the family members moved to Vicksburg. She is a component-time reporter at The Vicksburg Put up and is the editor of the Vicksburg Living Journal, which has been awarded Initially Put by the Mississippi Push Affiliation. She has also been the receiver of a Very first Place award in the MPA’s Improved Newspaper Contest’s editorial division for the “Best Element Story.”

Terri graduated from Warren Central High School and Mississippi Point out College exactly where she acquired a bachelor’s diploma in communications with an emphasis in public relations.

Prior to coming to function at The Article a very little a lot more than 10 years ago, she did some freelancing at the Jackson Cost-free Press. But for most of her existence, she relished becoming a total-time remain at household mother.

Terri is a member of the Crawford Avenue United Methodist Church. She is a life time member of the Vicksburg Junior Auxiliary and is a earlier member of the Sampler Antique Club and Town and State Back garden Club. She is married to Dr. Walter Frazier.

“From being educated with area governmental difficulties to listening to the tales of its folks, a hometown newspaper is crucial to a neighborhood. I have felt privileged to be element of a committed group at The Submit throughout my tenure and hope that with theirs and with local assistance, I will be equipped to proceed to grow and hone in on my abilities as I support share the stories in Vicksburg. When requested what I like most about my work, my reply is normally ‘the folks.’

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