Shelbi Nicole’s Accident Fund

If you’ve ever met Shelbi you’d know she is one of the most genuine, funny, quirky people you’ll find. She is a gentle soul, an animal lover who has rescued cats, dogs, and bunnies and given them a better life. In January of 2018, she decided to take a risk, sell her failing car, and move with her mom to Colorado where her sister had also relocated a couple of years before. Always a hard worker, she applied everywhere and after working in a couple restaurants she landed a great job doing customer support for an airline. She has worked so hard this past year, sharing a home and car with her loving mom in order to chase her dreams.

Fast forward one year. Out of nowhere, her grandpa in California told her and her mom that he had acquired a 2008 used car and would like to gift it to Shelbi. Ecstatic, she used a voucher from her airline job that she had been saving and flew to California to drive the car back.

Shelbi wanted to get back to work in Colorado as soon as possible, so on Wednesday, February 6, after a brief visit with close family and friends in California, she started the long drive back early in the morning with only her beloved cat, Peyton, as her traveling companion. Roughly six hours later, about an hour outside of Las Vegas, she had a terrible accident. According to a truck driver that was behind her car, who was also the first person on the scene, her car lost control when she hit black ice and ran off the road, hitting an embankment while going the speed limit. The car went airborne and flipped three times from head end to tail end before impacting on its rear and slamming onto the tires. When the truck driver reached her she was coherent enough to mumble her moms phone number and she asked for her cat, Peyton. After being airlifted to the University Medical Level 1 Trauma Center in Las Vegas, the full extent of her injuries became clear. She had broken her pelvis, femur, arm, sternum, two vertebrae in her neck, and multiple vertebrae in her back. She had lacerations to her liver, spleen, and bowels, a damaged carotid artery, and internal bleeding.

So far, the amazing surgeons at UMC have performed four successful surgeries and repaired the broken bones, stopped the internal bleeding, repaired her organs, and removed some damaged intestines. She has been so strong through it all! However, this is just the start of the road towards recovery for Shelbi. She is still currently in critical condition at the Level 1 Trauma Center and the timeline of recovery is unclear, but we do know there will be staggering hospital bills and she is far away from home. Her mother, father, & stepmother are there with her and her mother can’t work during this time because the incident happened states away from their home. Her beloved cat has also been missing since the accident.

We want to help this family focus on what is important right now, the care of Shelbi, and less on the unpredictability of their current and future financial situation due to this tragedy. We may not be able to heal the emotional trauma, but we can try to ease the financial burden a bit. Anything helps, even a warm thought or some love sent. Thank you for taking the time to read this, her family and friends appreciate it.