"Back in my high heels again!"
Marie Wallace was in high spirits when she left Ft. Lauderdale on October 20, 2016. She was driving north on I-95, heading to a celebratory business meeting in Palm Beach when she recalls feeling the impact when an 18-wheeler struck her car. She never made it to the celebration. Instead she awoke to find herself surrounded by medical professionals at the Trauma Center at Delray Medical Center. She still has no memory of her first three weeks there.
The crash left her with two collapsed lungs, a lacerated liver, seven broken ribs, a fractured sternum and bleeding on the brain. Less than seven months later in May 2017, Marie stood proudly before a crowd of trauma survivors at the hospital’s annual event for Trauma Awareness Day. She praised the hospital’s trauma team and the dedicated professionals within the county’s lifesaving and nationally-recognized trauma system who helped her to recover.
The mother of two grown children is now back at work with a home health care agency and grateful for every day. Flashing a wide smile, she told the audience, “I left in a wheelchair and now I’m walking, talking, and back in my high heels again!”