Canadian paramedic unknowingly treated daughter in fatal car crash

Paramedic Jayme Erickson, center, who was called to a crash last week and didn't know she was trying to save her own daughter because the injuries were too severe, is comforted by her husband Sean Erickson, as she speaks to the media in Airdrie, Alberta, Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2022. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press via AP)
Paramedic Jayme Erickson is comforted by her husband Sean Erickson (right) as she speaks to the media Credit: The Canadian Press via AP

A Canadian paramedic unknowingly treated her own teenage daughter in a fatal car crash.

Jayme Erickson attended a crash in north Calgary, Alberta, on 15 November and sat with a seriously injured girl who was trapped in a car and unrecognisable because of her injuries. She later died in hospital.

When Erickson returned home at the end of the day, she was met by police officers who told her the patient was her 17-year-old daughter Montana.

Erickson had been the first person on the scene of the crash, where a car had lost control and was hit by an oncoming truck.

On Tuesday, Richard Reed, a friend and flight paramedic, said the driver was able to get out of the car but Montana, the passenger, was trapped with serious injuries.

He said Erickson sat with her until she was freed and transported to hospital by air ambulance, remaining unaware of who the girl was.

Paramedic Jayme Erickson was the first on the scene of her daughter's fatal car crash. Credit: The Canadian Press via AP

Reed said: “On her way back she expressed her grief and frustration to her partner, knowing that later a family would likely lose their daughter, sister and grandchild.

"A short time after arriving home, there was a knock on the door. It was the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

“On entering the room, to her horror, she found the girl that she had sat with in the back of the crumpled vehicle keeping alive, so the family could say goodbye, and due to the extent of her injuries was unrecognisable, was Jayme’s own daughter.

“Jayme unknowingly was keeping her own daughter alive."

Erickson said that Montana wanted to become a lawyer and was successful at everything she set her mind to.

Erickson said: “She was a fighter and she fought until the day that she died and she was beautiful. She was so beautiful.

"If she ever put an effort into anything she would always succeed at it."

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