GoFundMe campaign started for the Erikson family on November. 21, 2022 (Photo: GoFundMe/LNN)

By Sarah Jones

Alberta

Paramedic mother responds to fatal crash involving her daughter

Nov 22, 2022 | 4:51 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – It’s a parent’s worst nightmare.

While attending a vehicle crash just west of Airdrie, Jayme Erickson, a paramedic with Alberta Health Services (AHS), didn’t realize that the critically injured patient she was helping was her own daughter.

Erickson says on November 15, 2022, she and her EMS partner were dispatched to the scene of a collision to attend to two individuals who were trapped inside a car.

While fire crews attempted to extract the passenger, Erickson said she did whatever she could to help the young girl, who she didn’t recognize due the extent of her injuries.

When STARS air ambulance arrived to take over patient care, Erickson was finished her shift for the evening and went home. She said minutes later her doorbell rang.

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“My life was changed forever,” explained Erickson in a Facebook post.

“RCMP were at my door, to inform me that my daughter had been in an accident,” she said. “The critically injured patient I had just attended to, was my own flesh and blood. My only child. My mini-me. My daughter, Montana. Her injuries were so horrific I did not even recognize her.”

Erickson was taken to Foothills Medical Center (FMC) to see her daughter and was informed that her injuries were not compatible with life.

“We are overwhelmed with grief and absolutely gutted. The pain I am feeling is like no pain I have ever felt, it is indescribable,” she wrote.

She went on to express the heartbreak she feels not being able to see her 17-year-old daughter grow up, but she said she will cherish the memories they made.

“I am shattered. I am broken,” she said. “I am missing a piece of me. I am left to pick up the pieces and expected to carry on.”

Erickson finished her post sharing song lyrics of “Til You Can’t” by Cody Johnson.

‘If you’re going to love somebody, hold on as long and as strong as you can… til you can’t.’”

A GoFundMe campaign was set up on November 21, 2022 to help the Erickson family grieve, free of financial stress and to help Montana’s legacy live on.

In the first five hours, they raised over $16,000 with numerous comments from people sharing their condolences and sympathies.