Summer 2010
Departments
A Life Changed
Erika Amfahr was a junior at Simpson when her life, as she described it, "turned upside down."
Driving home to Grundy Center in a winter storm in January 2007, Erika was involved in multi-car accident. Her vehicle was hit head-on.
The accident left her in a coma, unresponsive and unable to move the left side of her body. She was hospitalized in the ICU at Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines with a traumatic brain injury, and doctors warned her parents she might never recover.
Yet, a little over three years later, Erika walked across the stage at the Simpson College Commencement to receive her diploma.
Her mother calls her "a miracle."
"[Graduation] has been a goal of hers, and she is just so proud," said Cathy Amfahr. "I got the information for graduation, and I started to cry because this is just a dream."
The journey, of course, hasn’t been easy.
After spending about five weeks at Mercy, Erika was transferred to On With Life, a brain injury rehabilitation center in Ankeny, where she spent the next five-and-a-half months. Though Erika has little memory of her accident or recovery, her mother said it was like starting life all over agai n. Erika had to relearn even the most basic skills. Through all the ups and downs, Cathy said the family never gave up hope Erika would get her life back.
"Every time we’d wheel her past the doors [at On With Life], we told her she would be walking out of there," said Cathy. "And she did. She is a tough little cookie."
Erika and her family never gave up on the goal of her returning to Simpson, either.
"I just wanted it back to how it used to be," Erika said of her desire to finish her degree at Simpson.
After leaving On With Life, Erika continued to work toward that dream. In the fall of 2008, she enrolled in one class at Simpson before moving back to campus in the spring of 2009.
Last semester, she took two classes and worked three internships — at Victoria’s Boutique in Indianola, in the sports information office at Simpson and at the Residence Inn in Des Moines — to finish the credits needed to graduate.
Erika isn’t sure what the future holds but said she would like to begin a career in retail in Des Moines. For now, she is taking it on e day at a time, moving forward with a newfound appreciation for the little things in life.
"Looking back on that, it was a devastating thing that happened, yes," she said. "It completely changed my life, but it also made me value and app reciate the things I hadn’t in the past."