Nursing student shares her experience as a spinal surgery patient
TUPELO — Ryleigh McVay watched the Jeep Wrangler she'd been driving flip end-over-end after she was ejected through the soft top roof on the morning of Nov. 1, 2022.
McVay, 20, had just begun taking online classes at Itawamba Community College that August and was heading to work in her mother's vehicle when her phone fell from her seat into the floorboard. When she reached down to pick it up, she ran off the road and over-corrected, causing her to lose control. All she could do was close her eyes and hold on to the steering wheel.
"I had never been in a wreck before, so my senses were so heightened," McVay said. "I remember hearing the Jeep still flipping, so I sat straight up and I watched it going down the hill, and then I just laid down. I remember seeing people running up, because I was in a line of traffic."
Driving behind her were three health care workers — a registered nurse, a flight care nurse and a school nurse. Within minutes, the fire department responded, and her father was there.
After being driven by ambulance to the emergency room in Pontotoc for an initial assessment and X-rays, McVay was transferred to the North Mississippi Medical Center-Tupelo.
She had two bruised lungs, a broken tailbone and seven fractured vertebrae in her spine, along with more external bruising.
Though she could walk, McVay was given a back brace, which she had to wear nearly 24/7. She underwent spinal surgery on Jan. 4, 2023.
Two vertebrae had been nearly crushed, and doctors had to perform a kyphoplasty, a minimally invasive procedure to treat spinal compression fractures. Surgeons insert a balloon into the fractured vertebra and inflate it to create space. Once the balloon is removed, they inject cement into the space cleared by the balloon.
After the wreck, everyone prepared McVay for the worst. But as soon as her treatment was complete, and she was cleared to stop wearing the brace, she was immediately back to driving and working.
She resumed classes at ICC, opting to take in-person classes on campus rather than online. She made new friends and was even selected for the homecoming court.
"It opened my eyes," McVay said. "I was closed off. I was trying to work two jobs and do school. I just wanted to get my education and leave. But it opened me up to actually get out there."
Looking back, McVay identified small things that happened leading up to the crash that signaled a change was coming.
McVay had been spiritually witnessing to a friend, and she texted her mother the night before, saying, "I think the Lord has bigger plans for me. I can feel him working."
Her mother responded that morning: "I can see him working in your life, too. It's a daily thing. Drive safe."
McVay didn't open that text until after the wreck.
In the moments leading up to it, Carrie Underwood's rendition of "Hallelujah" was playing. When her dad returned her phone in the hospital, she pressed play and the song picked up right where it had left off.
Everything seemed to fall in line in the following months, she said.
McVay graduated from ICC with an associate of arts degree. She previously intended to earn a business degree, attend cosmetology school and own a hair salon, but the accident inspired her to change career paths.
She is currently a first-year nursing student at ICC working toward an associate degree in nursing. She plans to work as a travel nurse and eventually become a nurse practitioner.
"Even though it was pain and hard times, and definitely change, it opened up my world completely," McVay said. "Looking back, I can see the good and the bad. I don't wish it on anybody, but at the same time, it really changed my perspective for the better."