Fort Worth Nurse In I-35W Pileup Crawled Out Of Her Vehicle, Went Straight To 6-Hour Shift
FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - On Thursday, Ryan Benson received a call no one ever wants to get.
"I heard in her voice, something was up," Benson said. "She said 'I'm okay, I was in an accident, I am going be here a while.'"
The call was from his wife, Rebecca Benson.
But at the time when he received it, Ryan didn't know the magnitude of what his wife and many other North Texans had just endured.
"She said it was like walking through an apocalyptic movie," Ryan said.
On what seemed to be a normal commute to work, Rebecca Benson and her maroon Durango ended up in the very center of Thursday's 133-vehicle crash.
"She was dead center," Ryan said. "She said to herself she was going to die from someone hitting her from behind... she thought those were her last few minutes."
Luckily, she landed in between cars and wasn't hurt. But it was what she did next that shocked many.
"I am not surprised she wanted to go to work, that was her decision," Ryan said.
She crawled out of her car, got to safety and headed straight to her nursing shift at Cook Children's downtown. She was able to get a ride from a co-worker who was also driving to work.
"For her it was... this is what I do! I am OK!" Ryan said.
In a year where we have so often talked about health care heroes, Ryan Benson says there's a bigger lesson to be learned.
That brushing yourself off and taking care of others is just what nurses do.
"I want my kids to learn about these moments, and how we walk through them," Ryan said. "She is my best friend, she is my soul mate, she is the mother of my children, she is my world. I am very grateful that's still intact."
