Local nurse grows in faith, finds her career after tragedy
Maben native Heather Hughes may seem like any other nurse on the surface. However, her drive to care comes from a deeper place.
In the early morning hours of Jan. 24, 2008, Hughes, then 27, was ejected from a Jeep at the Noxubee Wildlife Refuge along with two others. She was the only one of the three to survive. The driver of the Jeep, former game warden Ryan Crick, was later sentenced to 60 years in prison for two counts of aggravated DUI and one count of leaving the scene of an accident.
After the Oktibbeha County Coroner heard Hughes trying to breathe, EMS personnel began lifesaving procedures, eventually getting blood pressure back right before arriving at OCH.
“At the hospital, I then coded eight more times,” Hughes said. “From that last time I coded, they stabilized me and got me flown to Tupelo.”
Hughes had broken vertebrae, all her ribs, shoulder blades, right leg and left hand, as well as lacerating her liver and collapsing both lungs.
“I had chest tubes, I had a trach,” Hughes said. “I was in a medically induced coma in a paralytic state for three days, then in critical care for a couple of weeks, then on the floor for another month and a half.”
Hughes credits her survival to a higher power. Calling her experience a “God story,” Hughes said she was a Christian before the accident, but surviving brought a new importance to the role faith played in her life.
“I had thousands of people praying for me,” Hughes said. “It was pretty profound. If I hadn't had hope, I wouldn't have gotten healed. I wouldn't have gotten better.”
In addition to deepening her faith, the accident and aftermath saw Hughes answer a new calling.
“I wanted to be on the other side of the bed than I had been, and do exactly what the nurses had done for me to make a difference, to care for someone else, to be a servant,” Hughes said.
After recovering, Hughes began applying to nursing schools despite being told by doctors that she would have trouble with language and information retention.
Hughes applied for five years, but kept getting rejected, eventually being accepted into the Mississippi University for Women associate degree nursing program.
She said the program was a good fit, and that her experience worked to her advantage.
“That kind of gave me more of an edge on understanding the other side, the patient's side of the recovery part of it. I kind of understood a lot and could relate to the patients we were serving through nursing school.”
While doing her nursing school clinical rotation, Hughes ended up assigned to the North Mississippi Medical Center Critical Care Unit, where she stayed for two weeks after the accident.
“It was pretty profound knowing I was healthy and whole,” Hughes said. “Knowing I was in a place where my family was once told I had 24 hours to live.”
Prior to graduating from the MUW program in 2015, Hughes was named outstanding nursing student for the state by the Mississippi Association of Associate Degree Nurses.
She said she was called to the stage, along with the other nominees for the award, then the emcee began reading her story before announcing her name.
“I didn't see a dry eye,” Hughes said.
After nine months working at OCH, in the same emergency
room she was brought to on that January night, Hughes is now employed by Camilla Hospice of Columbus. She said she has found her calling as a hospice nurse.
“I'm able to care for the dying patient, and I'm able to care for them and spend time with them and help them and their families in that process of letting go,” Hughes said.
Hughes has two children, Larkin Sage Pritchard, 18, and infant Wyatt Mitchell Hughes, born this year.
“With Sage, he grew through the story,” Hughes said. “He was nine years old when it happened,”
Hughes said as a result of the accident, she wants her children and all other young people to know that it is never OK to drive drunk, or get into a vehicle with a drunk driver. She also said she makes sure her children keep God first in their lives.
“God has a purpose for every person's life, not to live on our own accord, live for Him and pray daily,” Hughes said.
Hughes said the main way the accident has changed the way she looks at life is in the way of knowing that time on earth is only temporary.
“I'm not here to serve myself, but I am here to serve others,” Hughes said. “We have a higher purpose in being here, and it's not just for gratification of self.”