You might know Megan Burch. Megan is a freshman here at Jamestown College. She graduated from Our Redeemer’s Christian School in Minot and is currently majoring in music. Something that you may not know about Megan is that she is very lucky to be alive.

In February of 1999, shortly before her 9th birthday, Megan almost lost her life. She was snow tubing at her sister’s birthday party at a camp called Crossroads near St. John, N.D., when she was nearly scalped. At this camp there is a hill that people can tube down and get pulled back up the hill by a rope on a pulley system, much like on a bunny hill at a ski resort.

Megan, like all the other kids, was riding up the hill and tried to roll off the tube as she approached the top of the hill. As she tried to get off, her scarf got caught on the rope and she proceeded to be dragged further up the hill and through the pulley system. During this, her hair got stuck and it ripped off a large part of her scalp.

According to Megan, the camp they were tubing at was supposed to, by law, have a stop point that causes the machine to shut itself down if a person goes too far. This machine was very old and had no such thing, so Megan was dragged by her neck and hair in minus-40 degree weather while someone figured out how to shut the machine off.

When it finally shut off, Megan had passed out several times and awoke to find someone cutting off her scarf and putting her feet in their shirt so she wouldn’t get frost bite. At this point, Megan’s face was blue and a large part of her scalp had been torn off.

Megan was only 8 at the time, but she remembers thinking, “This is so weird. I know I’m in danger, but I feel like I’m on a roller coaster.”

Megan suffered many injuries from her accident, including a broken arm and a torn-off scalp. When she first came in, they thought that she may be paralyzed and was hospitalized for a week. Megan says that they had to staple her scalp back on, and it had come off her head so much that the nurse lost count at sixty staples.

Although Megan recovered physically from the accident, the emotional scars remain. For example, Megan can’t wear scarves anymore, or any shirt or sweatshirt that makes it feel like her neck is being restricted. On one occasion, her brother jokingly wrapped his hands around her neck and she attacked him and passed out.

Megan attended therapy but says that it had little effect on her. “I would just sit there and play with toys,” she says. The one thing that she claims helped the nightmares was learning the violin.

Although her family could have easily sued, they agreed to an out-of-court settlement.

After this, Megan went on to be homeschooled from grades 5-10. She then started school at Our Redeemer’s and she was excited to participate in activities like volleyball. Unfortunately, her second day of school put an end to that hope.

On August 4, 2008, Megan and her sister Ashley were driving to school. They were listening to music and talking about the radio, when suddenly they ran into a military truck.

Megan and her sister were going 70 mph, which was the speed limit. However, a truck at a stop sign pulled out to take a left just as they were coming to the intersection, giving Ashley no time to avoid a collision. They T-boned the truck and their minivan’s front was crushed, smashing the dashboard into Megan and Ashley.

According to Megan, the minivan went from 70 mph to a complete stop in less than 30 feet. Although the truck rolled three times, no one in it was seriously harmed. The same couldn’t be said for Megan.

“I was stuck in the car for over an hour,” says Megan. The van was so crushed, that they had to use the “Jaws of Life” to get her out.

When they got to the hospital, Megan had no feeling in her body from the waist down and they thought, once again, that she might be paralyzed. Megan had a compound fracture in her right femur, crushed hands (including a shattered thumb and middle finger), severe whiplash, and her hip bone had broken off.

She was hospitalized for a week and they had to use six screws and metal rod for her hip. Ashley was not injured as badly, but had torn muscles, and still has bad ankles and glass fragments in her wrist.

Megan’s recovery was difficult. They were not sure if she would be able to walk again, and she spent a lot of time in a wheelchair. She eventually moved on to using a walker, and can now walk, although it pains if she walks too much. Megan says that more than walking, she feared that she would not be able to play the violin again.

“I don’t care if I never walk again, but please just fix my hands,” she remembers telling the doctors. Luckily, she recovered enough and to her joy, plays the violin here at Jamestown College.

The men in the military truck that Megan and Ashley crashed into were on active duty, and were on a confidential military errand. In order to get financial help for her medical bills, Megan’s family had to sue the government, and the settlement is still pending.

Megan says that she holds no hard feelings toward the men that pulled in front of them. She understands why her family had to sue, but does not wish the men involved to get in trouble. She says that the driver of the truck came in visited her in the hospital, and would sit beside her crying.

When Megan looks back on the incident, she knows she is very lucky to be alive. Something that still baffles her today, is that she recalls having what she refers to as "a vision" right before the accident.

Megan says that she can remember having an aerial view of the accident right before it happened. “I felt someone tell me, it’s going to be OK,” Megan says. “So then I told Ashley, it’s going to be OK.” Ashley recalls Megan saying this, seemingly out of nowhere, and right afterward they hit the truck.

“I definitely know that God saved me through this.”

-- Corissa Zimmer