Support from around the world is pouring in for a South Sound woman who's traveled the globe to help those in need.
Countless surgeries and weeks in a Singapore hospital bed is never where Rachel Taylor, 33, expected to be.
"I describe various things across this process as nightmarish, and that was definitely nightmarish," she said.
Over the past 12 years, Taylor has spent more than 5,000 hours volunteering around the globe. She's been to Ecuador, Peru, Puerto Rico and across the U.S., responding to floods in Colorado and fires in Gatlinburg.
“There's something really special about being with people and, kind of, the rawness of tragedy,” she said.
Sept. 13 she was in Indonesia when her life changed forever.
"I was on a demo team that day and something went wrong and a structure, part of a structure, collapsed on me," she said. "I had a skull fracture, a shoulder fracture and, essentially, my lower leg was crushed."
Doctors amputated the lower part of her left leg. Taylor knew her life would never be the same.
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"Some days are devastating. Trying to understand what my life will be like moving forward and what's going to change and what my capacity and mobility is going to be in the future is a shocking thing to have to wonder as a perfectly healthy 33-year-old,” Taylor said.
These days, Taylor commutes from her home in Olympia to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle for physical therapy.
Pretty soon, she'll be fitted for a prosthetic leg, which should give her back some of the mobility she lost in the accident.
"The cost of prosthetics is staggering, it's absolutely staggering, so I'll continue to have medical costs for the rest of my life," she said.
Taylor said she was told she’s not eligible for disability or unemployment benefits and she doesn’t have disability insurance. Following the accident, she hasn’t been able to return to her job as a stagehand.
To help with mounting medical costs, her sister started a GoFundMe account. In three weeks, they've raised more than $50,000, which is getting them close to their $75,000 goal.
Taylor said she is thrilled to see the support.
"I just felt like, for a while, I was living on love fumes,” she said.
Despite everything that happened, she's stayed strong and optimistic.
“I was just so happy to be alive and so happy that I was going to see the people I loved again,” she said.
Taylor said she's taking 2019 one day at a time and she's not letting her injury hold her back.
Taylor's GoFundMe page – https://www.gofundme.com/aid-rachel-rocky-taylors-amputation-recovery?fbclid=IwAR1r9OhaVDRGP5EUOjzEQZcwuBy8n6v-IgUbXe2t8Y24vBlE3FN4eQDYViU
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