Tennessee Woman Hurt in Freak Accident While Swimming with Dolphins in Jamaica: 'We Need Her Home'
A Tennessee woman's family is raising money to bring her back to the U.S., after she was injured in a freak accident while swimming with dolphins in Jamaica this week.
Cierra Stockard recounted the dolphin encounter to ABC affiliate WKRN on Thursday, March 20, revealing that while she was spending time with the mammals during her spring break just days earlier, she landed on one's dorsal fin and wound up with a large hematoma. She was later taken to a local hospital in Montego Bay.
Her sister, Nevaeh Garton, wrote in a GoFundMe description that Stockard slipped as the dolphin lifted her in the air on Monday, March 17. The "blunt force trauma" left her sister with a hematoma the size of "three apples."
'It just felt like I got into a car accident,' Stockard said, calling WKRN from the hospital in Jamaica. 'The force of it — It felt like boom! Something just happened really bad.'
'I was just in so much pain,' she added. 'Tears were just running down my face.'
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Stockard — who is still in Jamaica with some family — then underwent emergency surgery and two blood transfusions since the incident, as she has sickle cell disease, her sister wrote. She told WKRN that she was scared she'd never see her two young children again.
'We need her home because this is just not a good circumstance,' Stockard's aunt, Kimberley Watkins, told the outlet. 'This is just not a good situation.'
'We've tried to contact the embassy,' Watkins added. 'Basically, they can just direct us. I'm not going to say they've not been a help, but we've been doing things ourselves.'
According to the GoFundMe, Stockard has been using "medication from home" to manage her sickle cell disease, but "can't manage it all by herself." She now reportedly requires another transfusion, despite her hospital not having compatible blood available.
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Stockard is now out of her second surgery, with her loved ones telling WKRN that she's in good spirits. Still, as her sister wrote, they "just want her home to her babies" and her insurance does not cover "international emergency travel" — as loved ones are hoping to raise a total of $55,000 toward expenses, including a medical flight.
"My family and I hate to see my sister in this state of condition considering where's she's at and the fear she has of not being able to get back home to her babies," Garton wrote. "She is missing her daughters, cats, family and clients."
"Thank you all so much for the help and prayers, we ask that you keep the prayers coming for her during this difficult time!"
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So far, Stockard's family has raised more than $10,000 to have her return to the U.S. In a Facebook update on Thursday, March 20, she wrote that she was "fresh out of surgery" and thanked loved ones for their "prayers and support."
"I just got back to the ward and got those clots removed and some blood in my body. Thank GOD! I am still needing 2 more units but one bag is better than NONE ❤️ still no pain medications, so I'm literally thugging this pain out with a smile on my face," she wrote. "2 surgeries with no pain meds… make sure yall tell my kids their momma is a gangsta 🥳 I hope this is one step closer to getting my butt back to Tennessee."
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