By Amber Jurgensen | Associate Editor
Nothing seemed out of the ordinary for Jaretha Fletcher when she left her house for church Nov. 14. She showered, got herself ready, grabbed her purse and drove away in her 2002 Ford Explorer. The 62-year-old lives in Turkey Creek and was headed for Whitehurst Road Baptist Church when she suffered a seizure, blacked out and crashed into a tree.
Police estimated she hit the tree at 60 mph. An eyewitness said Fletcher was maintaining a constant speed and then suddenly started accelerating before crashing into the tree.
Fletcher suffered a compound fracture in her leg and a broken arm. She was able to give the police her information, but in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, she went into shock.
Fletcher was then airlifted to Tampa General Hospital.
The police contacted Fletcher’s family.
“It was really, really hard,” her grandson, Trey Fletcher, said. “I’m really close to my grandma. I see her every day, and in a second, everything changed.”
The police told the family she had a broken arm and leg fracture, but when they arrived at the hospital, a doctor told them she also had more serious internal injuries.
“That’s when it really hit me,” Trey Fletcher said. “When we got to the hospital and found out what was really going on.”
Her small intestines were ripped into three sections, but the surgeons couldn’t operate until her body temperature was raised.
That wasn’t the last of her troubles. Jaretha Fletcher got an infection in her compound fracture, which was causing her blood pressure to lower. To stabilize her pressure, doctors amputated her right leg below the knee. Her blood pressure is still is low.
Several days after the accident, her brain began to swell. Fletcher awoke from the coma two weeks ago, but she is weak from lying in a hospital bed.
Doctors still are trying to find out what caused her seizure. About 14 years ago, Fletcher had a similar accident in Walden Lake. She blacked out at the wheel of the car and almost crashed into a swimming pool. Her daughter-in-law, Brittony Fletcher, grabbed the wheel to steer the car, and the car ended up crashing into a home.
“The nurses tell us to stay positive; don’t give up on her,” Trey Fletcher said. “We’re all thinking positive. She is going to get better. She’s come so far.”
Contact Amber Jurgensen at ajurgensen@plantcityobserver.com.