Ramona Pierson: An unexpected place of healing

Translator: David J. Kreps Finnemann Reviewer: Anders Finn Jørgensen

Jeg vil dele noget med jer som jeg faktisk

I'm actually going to share something with you

ikke har talt med nogen om i over 10 år.

I haven't talked about probably in more than 10 years.

Så bær over med mig

So bear with me as I take you through this journey.

mens jeg tager jer med på denne rejse.

When I was 22 years old,

Da jeg var 22 år,

I came home from work, put a leash on my dog

kom jeg hjem fra arbejde, satte min hund i snor

and went for my usual run.

og tog afsted på min sædvanlige løbetur.

I had no idea that at that moment,

Jeg anede på det tidspunkt ikke,

my life was going to change forever.

at mit liv ville blive forandret for altid.

While I was preparing my dog for the run,

Da jeg gjorde min hund klar til løbeturen,

blev en mand færdig med at drikke på en bar,

a man was finishing drinking at a bar,

picked up his car keys, got into a car

samlede sine bilnøgler op, satte sig ind i sin bil

og kørte sydpå,

and headed south,

or wherever he was.

eller hvor end han nu var.

Jeg løb over gaden,

I was running across the street,

og det eneste jeg faktisk kan huske

and the only thing that I actually remember

er denne følelse af at en granat eksploderede i mit hoved.

is feeling like a grenade went off in my head.

Og jeg kan huske jeg satte mine hænder på jorden

And I remember putting my hands on the ground

og følte mit livsblod

and feeling my life's blood

tømme sig ud af min nakke

emptying out of my neck and my mouth.

og min mund.

Det der var sket

What had happened is, he ran a red light

var, at han kørte over for rødt og ramte mig og min hund.

and hit me and my dog.

She ended up underneath the car.

Hun endte under bilen.

Jeg fløj ud foran bilen,

I flew out in front of the car,

and then he ran over my legs.

og så kørte han mine ben over.

My left leg got caught up in the wheel well --

Mit venstre ben blev fanget i hjulbrønden --

drejede den rundt.

spun it around.

Bilens kofanger ramte mit hals,

The bumper of the car hit my throat,

slicing it open.

skar den op.

I ended up with blunt chest trauma.

Jeg fik kvæstelser i brystet.

Your aorta comes up behind your heart, it's your major artery --

Ens aorta kommer op bag ved ens hjerte.

Det er ens store pulsåre, og den blev skåret over,

and it was severed, so my blood was gurgling out of my mouth.

så mit blod gurglede ud af min mund.

Det skummede,

It foamed, and ... horrible things were happening to me.

og der skete forfærdelige ting med mig.

Jeg havde ingen anelse om hvad der skete,

I had no idea what was going on,

men fremmede greb ind,

but strangers intervened,

sørgede for at mit hjerte bevægede sig, at det slog.

kept my heart moving, beating.

I say "moving," because it was quivering,

Jeg siger bevægede, fordi det skælvede

og de prøvede at sætte det i gang igen.

and they were trying to put a beat back into it.

Nogen var så smarte at de satte en Bic pen i min hals

Somebody was smart and put a Bic pen in my neck

for at åbne mine luftveje, så jeg kunne få noget luft ned.

to open up my airway, so I could get some air in there.

Og min lunge kollapsede,

And my lung collapsed,

so somebody cut me open and put a pen in there as well,

så nogen skar mig op og satte også en nål derind,

to stop that catastrophic event from happening.

for at stoppe den katastrofale begivenhed fra at finde sted.

Somehow I ended up at the hospital.

På en eller anden måde endte jeg på sygehuset.

Jeg blev pakket ind i is

I was wrapped in ice,

and then eventually put into a drug-induced coma.

og på et tidspunkt lagt i et kunstigt koma.

18 måneder senere vågnede jeg.

Eighteen months later, I woke up.

I was blind, I couldn't speak

Jeg var blind, jeg kunne ikke tale,

and I couldn't walk.

og jeg kunne ikke gå.

I was 64 pounds.

Jeg vejede 29 kilo.

The hospital really has no idea what to do with people like that.

Sygehuset havde egentlig ingen anelse om

hvad man gjorde med den slags mennesker.

And in fact, they started to call me a "gomer."

Og faktisk begyndte de at kalde mig Gomer.

That's another story we won't even get into.

Det er en anden historie, som jeg ikke engang vil begynde på.

I had so many surgeries to put my neck back together,

Jeg fik så mange operationer for at sætte min nakke sammen,

for at reparere mit hjerte et par gange.

to repair my heart a few times.

Some things worked, some things didn't.

Nogle ting virkede, nogle ting gjorde ikke.

Der blev sat en masse titanium i mig,

I had lots of titanium put in me;

lig knogler

cadaver bones,

to try to get my feet moving the right way.

for at prøve at få mine fødder til at bevæge sig rigtigt.

And I ended up with a plastic nose,

Og jeg endte med at få en plastik næse og porcelæns tænder,

porcelain teeth and all kinds of other things.

og en masse andre ting.

But eventually, I started to look human again.

Men til sidst begyndte jeg at se menneskelig ud igen.

But ...

Men det er nogle gange svært at tale om disse ting,

It's hard sometimes to talk about these things,

så bær over med mig.

so bear with me.

I had more than 50 surgeries.

Jeg fik mere end 50 operationer.

But who's counting?

Men hvem tæller?

(Laughter)

Så i sidste ende, besluttede sygehuset

So eventually, the hospital decided it was time for me to go.

at det var tid til at jeg smuttede.

They needed to open up space for somebody else

De havde brug for pladsen

til en anden, som de troede kunne komme tilbage

that they thought could come back

from whatever they were going through.

fra hvad de end oplevede.

Everybody lost faith in me being able to recover.

Alle mistede troen på at jeg kunne komme mig.

Så de satte dybest set et kort på væggen, kastede en dart,

So they basically put a map up on the wall, threw a dart,

og den landede på et plejehjem her i Colorado.

and it landed at a senior home, here in Colorado.

And I know all of you are scratching your head:

Og jeg ved I alle klør jer i hovedet:

"Et plejehjem? Hvad i alverden vil du lave der?"

"A senior citizens' home?

What in the world are you going to do there?"

Men hvis man tænker over det,

But if you think about all of the skills and talent

alle de evner og talenter der er i dette lokale lige nu,

that are in this room right now,

det er det et plejehjem har.

that's what a senior home has.

Så der var alle disse evner og talenter

So there were all these skills and talents

som disse pensionister havde.

that these seniors had.

The one advantage they had over most of you

Den eneste fordel de havde i forhold til de fleste af jer

er visdom,

is wisdom,

because they had a long life.

fordi de havde haft et langt liv.

And I needed that wisdom at that moment in my life.

Og jeg havde brug for den visdom, på det tidspunkt i mit liv.

Men forestil jer hvordan det var for dem,

But imagine what it was like for them

da jeg stod på deres dørtrin?

when I showed up at their doorstep.

På det tidspunkt, havde jeg taget to kilo på,

At that point, I had gained four pounds, so I was 68 pounds.

jeg jeg vejede 31 kilo.

Jeg var skaldet.

I was bald.

Jeg havde en kittel fra sygehuset på.

I was wearing hospital scrubs.

Og nogen havde doneret nogle sportssko til mig.

And somebody donated tennis shoes for me.

And I had a white cane in one hand

Og jeg havde en hvid stok i en hånd

og en kuffert fyldt med journaler i den anden hånd.

and a suitcase full of medical records in another hand.

Så pensionisterne blev klar over

So the senior citizens realized

that they needed to have an emergency meeting.

at de skulle have et nødmøde.

(Laughter)

(Latter)

So they pulled back and they were looking at each other,

Så de trak sig tilbage og kiggede på hinanden,

and they were going, "OK, what skills do we have in this room?

og de sagde, "Okay, hvilke evner har vi i dette lokale?

This kid needs a lot of work."

Denne unge har brug for en masse arbejde."

So they eventually started matching their talents and skills

Så i sidste ende begyndte de at

matche deres talenter og evner

med alle mine behov.

to all of my needs.

Men en af de første ting de havde brug for at gøre,

But one of the first things they needed to do

var at vurdere hvad jeg havde brug for med det samme.

was assess what I needed right away.

Jeg skulle regne ud

I needed to figure out how to eat like a normal human being,

hvordan man spiser som et normalt menneske,

since I'd been eating through a tube in my chest

eftersom jeg havde spist gennem et rør i min brystkasse,

og gennem mine årer.

and through my veins.

So I had to go through trying to eat again.

Så jeg skulle begynde med at prøve at spise igen.

And they went through that process.

Og de gik igennem den process.

Og så skulle de vurdere:

And then they had to figure out:

"Well, she needs furniture.

"Jamen hun har brug for møbler.

She is sleeping in the corner of this apartment."

Hun sover i hjørnet af denne lejlighed."

So they went to their storage lockers

Så de kiggede i deres lagerrum

and all gathered their extra furniture --

og samlede alle de ekstra møbler --

gave me pots and pans, blankets --

gav mig potter og pander, tæpper,

alt.

everything.

And then the next thing that I needed

Og så den næste ting jeg havde brug for

var en makeover.

was a makeover.

(Laughter)

Så de grønne kitler røg ud

So out went the green scrubs,

og ind kom polyester og blomstermønstrene.

and in came the polyester and floral prints.

(Latter)

(Laughter)

We're not going to talk about the hairstyles

Vi kommer ikke til at tale om de frisurer som de prøvede at påtvinge mig

they tried to force on me once my hair grew back.

da jeg fik mit hår tilbage.

Men jeg sagde nej til det blå hår.

But I did say no to the blue hair.

(Latter)

(Laughter)

So eventually, what went on is,

Så det der skete i sidste ende

var at de besluttede at, jamen jeg skulle lære at snakke.

they decided that, well, I need to learn to speak.

Så man kan ikke være en uafhængig person,

You can't be an independent person

hvis man ikke kan tale eller se.

if you're not able to speak and you can't see.

So they figured not being able to see is one thing,

Så de vurderede at ikke være i stand til at se er en ting,

but they need to get me to talk.

men at de skulle få mig til at tale.

So while Sally, the office manager,

Så mens Sally, kontorchefen,

was teaching me to speak in the day --

lærte mig at tale om dagen --

it's hard, because when you're a kid, you take things for granted.

det er svært, fordi når man er barn,

tager man tingene for givet.

You learn things unconsciously.

Man lærer ubevidst tingene.

But for me, I was an adult and it was embarrassing,

Men for mig, jeg var en voksen og det var pinligt,

og jeg skulle lære hvordan jeg skulle koordinere

and I had to learn how to coordinate my new throat with my tongue

min nye hals med min tunge

and my new teeth and my lips,

og mine nye tænder og mine læber,

and capture the air and get the word out.

og fange luften og få ordet ud.

So, I acted like a two-year-old,

Så jeg opførte mig som en to-årig

and refused to work.

og nægtede at arbejde.

Men mændene havde en bedre ide.

But the men had a better idea.

They were going to make it fun for me.

De ville gøre det sjovt for mig.

Så de lærte mig bandeords Scrabble om aftenen,

So they were teaching me cuss-word Scrabble at night.

(Latter)

(Laughter)

og så, hemmeligt,

And then, secretly, how to swear like a sailor.

hvordan man bander som en sømand.

(Laughter)

Så jeg vil overlade det til jeres fantasi,

I'm going to just leave it to your imagination

as to what my first words were --

hvad der var mine første ord

(Laughter)

when Sally finally got my confidence built.

da Sally endelig fik opbygget min selvtillid.

(Laughter)

(Latter)

So I moved on from there.

Så jeg kom videre derfra.

And a former teacher who happened to have Alzheimer's

En tidligere lærer der tilfældigvis havde Alzheimers

took on the task of teaching me to write.

pådrog opgaven at lære mig at skrive.

The redundancy was actually good for me.

Overflødigheden var faktisk ret god for mig.

So, we'll just keep moving on.

Så vi forsætter bare.

(Laughter)

(Latter)

Et af de afgørende tidspunkter for mig

One of the pivotal times for me

was actually learning to cross the street again

var faktisk at lære at gå over gaden igen

as a blind person.

som en blind person.

Så luk jeres øjne.

So close your eyes.

Now imagine you have to cross a street.

Forestil jer nu at I skulle gå over gaden.

I ved ikke hvor bred den gade er

You don't know how far that street is,

og I ved ikke om man går lige over,

and you don't know if you're going straight.

And you hear cars whizzing back and forth,

og man hører biler der suser frem og tilbage

og man har haft et forfærdeligt uheld

and you had a horrible accident

that landed you in this situation.

der fik en i denne situation.

So there were two obstacles I had to get through.

Så der var to forhindringer som jeg skulle gennem.

One was post-traumatic stress disorder.

En var posttraumatisk stresstilstand.

Og hver gang jeg nærmede mig gadehjørnet eller kantstenen

Every time I approached the corner or the curb,

I would panic.

gik jeg i panik.

And the second one

Og den anden

was actually trying to figure out how to cross that street.

var faktisk at prøve at finde ud af hvordan jeg skulle gå over gaden.

So one of the seniors just came up to me,

Så en af pensionisterne kom bare op til mig,

and she pushed me up to the corner and said,

og hun skubbede mig op til gadehjørnet og hun sagde,

"Når du tror det er tid til at gå, så bare stik stokken derud.

"When you think it's time to go, just stick the cane out there.

Hvis den bliver ramt, så gå ikke over gaden."

If it's hit, don't cross the street."

(Laughter)

(Latter)

Gav god mening.

Made perfect sense.

(Laughter)

Men da den tredje stok

But by the third cane that went whizzing across the road --

fløj hen over gaden,

(Laughter)

var de klar over at de skulle samle ressourcerne

they realized that they needed to put their resources together,

og de samlede pengene

and they raised funds

so that I could go to the Braille Institute

til at jeg kunne gå på Braille Institute

and actually gain the skills to be a blind person,

og jeg opnåede faktisk evnerne

til at være en blind person,

og også til at få en førerhund

and also to go get a guide dog,

der forandrede mit liv.

who transformed my life.

Og jeg var i stand til at komme tilbage til universitetet

And I was able to return to college

på grund af pensionisterne der investerede i mig,

because of the senior citizens who invested in me,

and also the guide dog and skill set I had gained.

og også førerhunden og de evner jeg opnåede.

Ten years later, I gained my sight back.

10 år senere fik jeg synet tilbage.

Ikke på magisk vis.

Not magically --

Jeg valgte at få tre operationer,

I opted in for three surgeries,

og en af dem var på forsøgsstadiet.

and one of them was experimental.

Det var faktisk robot kirurgi.

It was actually robotic surgery

that removed a hematoma from behind my eye.

De fjernede en blod ansamling bag mit øje.

Den største forandring for mig,

The biggest change for me was that the world moved forward,

var at verden havde bevæget sig fremad,

at der var innovationer

that there were innovations and all kinds of new things --

og alle mulige nye ting --

mobiltelefoner, bærbare,

cellphones, laptops,

alle disse ting jeg aldrig havde set før.

all these things that I had never seen before.

And as a blind person,

Og som en blind person,

your visual memory fades,

blegner ens visuelle minder

og bliver erstattet af hvad man føler om tingene

and is replaced with how you feel about things

og hvordan tingene lyder

and how things sound

og hvordan tingene dufter.

and how things smell.

So one day, I was in my room

Så en dag jeg var i mit værelse

og jeg så denne ting sidde i mit værelse

and I saw this thing sitting in my room.

og jeg troede det var et monster.

I thought it was a monster,

so I was walking around it.

Så jeg gik rundt om det.

And I go, "I'm just going to touch it."

Og jeg tænkte, "Jeg rører bare ved det."

And I touched it and I went,

Og jeg rørte ved det og tænkte,

"Oh my God, it's a laundry basket."

"Åh gud, det er en vasketøjs kurv."

(Latter)

(Laughter)

Så alt er anderledes

Everything is different when you're a sighted person,

når man er en seende person

fordi man tager det for givet.

because you take that for granted.

Men når man er blind,

But when you're blind, you have the tactile memory for things.

har man taktile minder om tingene.

Den største forandring for mig var at se på mine hænder

The biggest change for me was looking down at my hands

and seeing that I'd lost 10 years of my life.

og se at jeg havde mistet 10 år af mit liv.

I thought that time had stood still for some reason

Og jeg troede på det tidspunkt, at tiden havde stået stille af en eller anden årsag

and moved on for family and friends.

og var gået for min familie og venner.

But when I looked down,

Men da jeg kiggede ned,

I realized that time marched on for me, too,

og jeg blev klar over at tiden også gik for mig

and that I needed to get caught up.

og at jeg havde brug for at blive indhentet,

So I got going on it.

så jeg gik i gang med det.

Vi havde ikke ord som crowdsourcing og radikalt samarbejde

We didn't have words like "crowdsourcing" and "radical collaboration"

da ulykken skete.

when I had my accident.

Men konceptet virkede --

But the concept held true --

people working with people to rebuild me;

mennesker der arbejder med mennesker for at genopbygge mig;

people working with people to reeducate me.

mennesker der arbejder med mennesker for at omskole mig.

Jeg ville ikke stå her i dag

I wouldn't be standing here today

hvis det ikke var for ekstrem radikalt samarbejde.

if it wasn't for extreme radical collaboration.

Thank you so much.

Mange tak.

(Applause)

(Bifald)