Features Editor

One minute Jessica Scott was riding happily along, thinking about stopping for a mid-afternoon snack. The next minute, she was trapped inside a crumpled car with a sharp, stabbing pain in her side.

Jessica and her family were returning to Decatur from a Gulf Coast vacation on Sunday, when an approaching car hydroplaned, crashed into their vehicle and sent it into a spin on Highway 231 between Brundidge and Troy.

As the car came out of the spin, it hit the shoulder of the highway and flipped, said Jessica’s mother Debbie Morgan.

Mrs. Morgan, her husband, Steve, and son, Cory, were able to walk away from the accident. Jessica could not.

"The car was on its side and the front seat was jammed back on Jessica," Mrs. Morgan said. "She was in pain, but we couldn’t get to her. But, a young man came up and crawled into the car from the back and stayed with Jessica until the ambulance arrived."

Mrs. Morgan said because the extent of Jessica’s injuries were not know, the paramedics took every precaution in removing her from the car.

"It seemed like an eternity before they got her out, but I believe it was probably close to 30 minutes," she said. "All that time, the young man, Chris DuBisivar, was with her. Jessica told us later that he prayed with her and sang to her. He did a wonderful job keeping her calm."

Jessica was transported to Edge Regional

Medical Center and treated in the emergency room. Later, she was taken into surgery for the removal of her spleen.

Mrs. Morgan was able to contact other members of her family, who had been on vacation with them, and they detoured through Troy to be with Jessica.

The surgery went well, but the family found themselves in a strange town where they knew no one.

Mrs. Morgan was very apprehensive when she arrived at Edge Regional.

"We didn’t have our family doctor and I didn’t know if there was a doctor on staff at the hospital that I would want to treat Jessica," she said. " But, I could not have been more pleased. Dr. John Crosby is an outstanding doctor and a very caring person. He was wonderful. In fact, everyone at Edge has been wonderful. We could not have asked for better treatment. They have seen to our every need, even before we asked."

Mrs. Morgan said she could not count the number of people on the hospital staff who have come by to check on Jessica and offer assistance to the family.

"Nurses, doctors, people from the emergency room and ICU have been by, Jennifer Ventress (chief nursing officer) and even the hospital CEO (Rusty Eldridge) have stopped by three or four times," she said. "These people seem to genuinely care about Jessica and about us.

"We have a hospital in Decatur that is much larger than Edge and, if the staff of Decatur General would be half as helpful in a situation like this as these people have been, I would be very proud of my hometown hospital. This has been amazing."

Jessica’s room is filled with stuffed animals and balloons, most of them from family and friends from home, but some of them from strangers who wanted to let a 10-year-old girl know that people care about her and wish her well.

"This was a tragic end to our vacation, but we will always have warm memories of the people at Edge Regional Medical Center and the people of this community," Mrs. Morgan said. "We found ourselves in a troubled situation, far from home, but we found ourselves among friends. We will always be grateful and we want to say ‘thank you’ to everyone of them for caring about us."