08/02/2026
What a PERFECT story to share with our friends on 2/7/2026 which is MY MOMMA’s 12 ANNIVERSARY to the day of her accident which is always such a hard and trying day for me! This article was written by me (Kelly) with the help of Ms. Patti G Foster. This is a little run down of how things took place and the aftereffects. Our article published by Patti Foster...I know it’s long, but it explains our whole life changing experience!!!!
Afternoon Tea with Kelly and “Super Woman”
On the night of February 7, 2014, at 9:07 p.m., I received a phone call that I never dreamed I would receive. “Kelly, your mother has been in an accident.” That is all I can pretty much remember other than trying to get it across to my mom’s best friend, Laurie McLendon, that I was on my way!
At some point during the evening, my mother and a friend decided they would drive to Clarksdale, MS for dinner. As they were traveling along highway 1 near Friars Point, MS, a Ford F-350 ran a stop sign and hit my mother’s side of the vehicle causing the truck that she was riding in to flip five times ejecting mom out of the back glass and landing her in a muddy field. A car that was coming in their direction saw the accident and stopped to offer help to my mom, and little did we know, they would be two guardian angels sent to us. Rose and Deloris, who were from the Clarksdale, MS area, were both in the nursing profession. Rose called for help while Deloris took mom’s vitals and made sure mom stayed flat, and together they waited patiently for help to arrive.
As soon as they got her to Northwest Regional Medical Center in Clarksdale, MS, they took her immediately for a cat scan as it was visually noticeable that there was some head trauma. As soon as the results from the scans came back, they said she would need to be transferred to a higher level of care facility, and the nearest one was The Med Trauma Center in Memphis, TN. As time went on that night, the weather started to change and they were not going to be able to transport her to The Med by helicopter. The ambulance ride was going to play a crucial role in her care, so they prepped the ambulance with extra blood because one scan showed she was bleeding internally from her spleen.
I immediately called my dad, who lived about 40 minutes away from the hospital, and told him what had happened to mom and that she was being stabilized for the transport to the hospital. I frantically packed my bags. I live in Laurel, MS., which is about a five hours from where I call home, West Helena, Arkansas. Even though my parents have been divorced for over 15 years, without any hesitation, my dad left his home to be by my mom’s side until I could get there. He even helped Ms. Laurie get home due to the severity of the winter weather that was moving in so fast. I started out at about 9:30 that night driving to Memphis, TN. During the drive, Interstate 55 was shut down around Grenada, MS for about three hours due to the weather. We were finally able to driving again and reached The Med about 6:30 that next morning. As I entered that hospital, I had no clue what I was about to see. The clerk at the front desk asked me if he could help me, and I immediately told him that I was there to see my mom who had been in an accident. He asked my name and other information and then shortly afterwards told me that mom was in surgery, and I needed to go to the critical care waiting room on the second floor to wait. As I arrived in the waiting room, I looked around at everyone sleeping in the recliners with their pillows and blankets. I never realized that I was about to be me of those people sleeping in that room for the next month.
Shortly after being in the waiting room, they took me and dad to the trauma intensive care unit to be by mom’s side and to hear about all of her injuries. A doctor came in and introduced himself to us stating, “That woman is one heck of a fighter,” as if I didn’t know that already. Mom suffered a hematoma above the right eye which was going to require an ENT doctor to come in and place a drainage tube in to help reduce the swelling. She also had bleeding on the brain which was short terminology for a diffuse axonal brain injury. Her other injuries included a broken bilateral collar bone, all the ribs on the right side were fractured, a collapsed right lung (which later required a drainage tube), lacerated spleen which was removed during surgery, L 1-3 and T 6-13 compression fracture of the spine (which did not require surgery). After receiving all of this news, I sat there holding my mom’s hand as she drifted off into a medically induced coma and constantly telling her that I was there and everything was going to be OKAY!
Immediately after mom’s spleen surgery was complete, she was placed on the breathing machine as they knew she needed to be in a medically induced coma to help with the healing process. She had severe trauma to the head and also a lung that was filling with blood. Being on the breathing machine and getting as much rest as possible was the best thing at that time for mom.
On day three, the trauma surgeon doctor called me on the phone and informed me that mom was still very critical, and that if I was even able to take her home, I would have to quit my job or put her in a nursing facility because she was never going to be the same. In fact, he told us that more than likely she was going to be a vegetable. I informed the doctor at that point that, “He didn’t know my momma, and that she would show him exactly what she was capable of doing.” Through many of the procedures to clean her lungs out and many setbacks, on February 28th, mom was FINALLY able to move to the fourth floor and out of the trauma ICU. In that room, I was able to sleep with her beside her bed, have visitors come see her at any time, and get all of the lovin’ that I could ever dream of getting! While on the fourth floor, she was weaned off of the breathing machine and onto the trach which was one step closer than what she was from the beginning of this ordeal. Then we decided, from the nutritional side of things, that a PEG tube was for the best thing for her because there would be one less tube on her face!
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The morning of March 10th came. Pretty early that morning, mom was loaded onto the ambulance as it was going to take about six to seven hours to go from Memphis, TN to Hattiesburg, MS. Soon after three that afternoon we arrived at the hospital and was greeted by the best nurses that I have ever met in my entire life! I never knew I create such a bond with them and that bond still continues to this day! Within thirty minutes after our arrival, the neurosurgeon, Dr. Richard E. Clatterbuck, came in to see mom. He looked at her chart, assessed her, and looked at me in shock! “You do have a SUPER WOMAN on your hands.” The word traveled fast about my Super Woman, as I called her from day one! He explained the process of the rehab unit and the next few days to come. Starting the next day and the days after that, were going to be some pretty intense days. He told me to just stay strong because they were going to get mom on the right track to being home and back to her old self soon.
That next morning was the first morning of rehab for mom, and she was not a happy camper to say the least. She went through physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy over a four hour period each day for the next three weeks. After three weeks of inpatient care, we finally received the word that we could go HOME! Despite having the PEG tub in her stomach, mom was able to slowly eat by mouth, take a shower with assistance, and walk with a walker.
After spending a few weeks at my home in Mississippi, mom decided that she was ready to get to her home in Arkansas and start the healing process there. So off we went to Arkansas. Though it was a very intense ride with her having to wear a back brace, we finally made it home and to unpack all of her things. Many of her friends and family came to check on both of us. They brought meals and cards for the next several weeks and to this day, we are forever grateful for them! With doctor’s orders, we followed up with speech and occupational therapy at the local hospital in Helena, AR all to find out that it was not necessary for mom to have. I could not believe what I was hearing, but at the same time, I thought to myself, “Well, this is Super Woman we are talking about here.” Next was physical therapy there in Helena with Curtis Gregory, who if anyone was going to get mom to listen, he would be the one! Over the next few weeks, I helped my mom get back to her daily routine and arranged with several people to help take her to therapy and several other appointments as my time for medical leave was coming to an end.
I could not believe what all I was seeing after being told on day three that mom was going to be a vegetable. She was a true miracle as I was told by so many. During my whole experience as a caregiver of a diffuse axonal brain injury patient, I learned that you have to take things day by day. Every day is a stepping stone to the next. Even though some days were not as good as others, as that caregiver, you have to learn to never give up and that is exactly what mom and I did!!!!
After six months from the time of the accident, my mom, Paulette Parker a college instructor, is back working full time. As of today, she is a mother, grandmother, and an inspiration to many people who followed her journey not only in our community but also from several states surrounding us and beyond. From the second day of the accident, I kept a journal and also created a Facebook prayer page under “Prayers for Paulette Parker.” Knowing what I know now about brain injury and wishing I would have known more, I would love to see more people get a better understanding of just exactly what can if this was to unfortunately happen to one of them or a family member.
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*Note from Paulette Parker, aka “Super Woman”
To this day, I have no memory of the accident or the hospital stay at The Med. I started coming around when I went to Forrest General Hospital which was approximately one month after the accident. All I have as a memory are a few scars from the many surgeries that I had. While I was in rehab, I did what I was told to do because I knew something very serious had happened to me, and I wanted to get well and make everyone happy especially my daughter, Kelly Faye. I know this was a very painful and emotional moment in my daughter’s life and if I could erase all of this from her memory, I would. I am truly grateful that she was there by my side through all of this. It makes me wonder what do people do who have no one like her to take care of them or look after them when something so traumatic as this happens to them? Thank God, I did.
