One of Brittany Knop’s small goals in life right now is to be able to sit on the living room floor like she always did before the car accident that nearly claimed her life five days before Christmas.
The Lovell 21-year-old, recovering from a broken pelvis, knee and other injuries, can’t yet get her body to do her favorite relaxation position after spending more than a month in a Montana hospital and then rehabilitation facility.
“I want to be able to sit criss-cross applesauce,” she said. “I’m someone that sits criss-cross applesauce everywhere on the floor, in the recliner, on a kitchen chair, it didn’t matter. So I haven’t been able to do that. I know it’s really, really silly.”
Knop said the “criss-cross applesauce” position is when she can put her feet on top of her knees while sitting cross-legged.
The Lusk native said she just recently got crutches from her doctor and is taking her first steps since the accident. She hopes to return to work at the bank where she was employed at before her Dec. 20 crash.
On that Saturday, Knop was headed to Cody to meet with friends at a Chinatown restaurant and then to go to Walmart where she was doing Christmas shopping for two children who were part of the Angel Tree gift project being sponsored by the bank.
The project is where community members "adopt" children in need and purchase toys or clothing for them.
She stopped in Powell to get a chai tea and remembers driving through Ralston on U.S. 14A and seeing a car speeding ahead of her and thinking “you can go get yourself into a car accident. I am not doing that.”
“And that’s the last thing I remember,” she said. “I’m told that I spun out on ice, I don’t know how much I believe that … I have pictures of the roads, and they’re just wet it was like 60 degrees that day.”
Knop said while her car was spinning, she was hit head-on by another vehicle and T-boned by a second. On her wrist was an Apple Watch that she doesn’t remember setting on crash detection mode. But it was.
Apple Watch Crash Detection
It sent an alert to her dad and stepmom, who just happened to be in Cody, and to her mom who lived six hours away. Her dad tried to call Knop and then decided to drive out to the accident location that was listed in the notice he received.
“He got there and I was still all crunched up in my car. The first responders were still trying to figure out how they were going to get me out,” Knop said. “My dad called (her mom) once they had me all loaded up in the ambulance and told her she needed to get to Billings right away, because nobody thought I was going to survive.”
After being taken to Cody to be stabilized, she was air lifted to St. Vincent Regional Hospital in Billings. From the crash scene through her transfer and then at the Billings hospital, she said they kept pumping blood into her body.
Knop said her small intestine was torn, her pelvis was broken in three places, she had a couple of broken ribs, a shattered femur in her left leg, and a concussion. Operations to repair her broken parts ensued.
She spent four days in the hospital’s ICU and three weeks in its trauma recovery unit.
When she woke up on Christmas Eve, she had one thought on her mind, did anybody step in and get the gifts for those Angel Tree kids she had gone to Cody to shop for?
“I knew that I was responsible for getting those kids those presents,” she said. “All the other kids had been chosen and had their presents sitting at the bank. These two kids, they didn’t.”
The answer was, yes.
Gifts Provided
A coworker and family friend stepped in to get the gifts and make sure the children’s Christmas was happy. Knop said the same coworker has a police scanner and was listening when her accident occurred.
“I think she went to Billings the next day to do the Christmas shopping,” she said.
Knop said she had been part of the Angel Tree project the previous year and looking out for those in need at the holidays was something her mom would do as she grew up.
So, ensuring those Angel Tree children got the gifts was important to her.
While at St. Vincent, Knop said she received physical therapy as she slowly started to heal from her injuries and surgeries. After three weeks there she was transferred to the Rehabilitation Hospital of Montana for more therapy.
As someone who donated blood even as a teenager in Lusk, Knop is thankful for those who make it possible to receive the 18 units of blood she received during her hospital care. Her loss of blood was mainly inside her body due to the broken pelvis and femur bone.
She said she also recently visited the hospital to thank all the staff whose efforts saved her life.
A message sent out by the hospital after her visit emphasized the importance of blood donations.
St. Vincent Trauma Medical Director Dr. Barry McKenzie said the staff is grateful to see patients like Brittany on the road to recovery.
“We rely on community blood donations every single day to provide lifesaving care,” McKenzie said. “That’s why we regularly host blood drives at Intermountain St. Vincent in partnership with Vitalant, to encourage our community to become donors.”
Fundraiser Help
While in the hospital, a friend of Knop’s started a GoFundMe campaign to help defray her medical bills. Knop said she is not the kind of person to ask for financial assistance, but her bills are piling up and she is thankful for the support she has received.
Her bill for her life flight from Cody to Billings is $25,000 and she does not yet have all the bills for the medical imaging at Cody, her stay at St. Vincent or the rehabilitation center.
“These medical bills are insane,” she said. “It’s like student debt that you will be paying off for the rest of your life.”
For now, Knop is thankful to be reunited with her three cats, Potato, Meatball and Melon and hopes to get a medical release to return to work in the next couple of weeks.
Right now, she is allowed to put 35 pounds of pressure on her left leg.
A return to the Bighorn Mountains to hike the Porcupine Falls trail possibly this summer is also a motivation.
“Hopefully I will be able to try to hike this summer,” she said. “My left knee is the big issue. It’s too weak to do a lot of stuff right now. … I’ll probably spend quite a bit of time in the gym and quite a bit of time in the swimming pool somewhere just working on getting strength back so I can create goals and have future plans for what I can do.”
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
