Sydney Beekmann
Change of Mind
An unexpected accident in Iceland that caused her to gain new eyes.
A little known hazard to us Americans is the plethora of geysers under the hills of Iceland. In July of 2017, my family and I headed to Iceland for a summer vacation. We were also planning on going to Scotland, London and Paris. Iceland was so amazing, it is the most beautiful place I have ever visited. There are these insane waterfalls and big cliffs everywhere and colorful buildings all over the city of Reykjavik.
Another thing that Iceland has a lot of is geysers and natural hot springs. I did not know this about Iceland at the time. So, we had spent about three days in Reykjavik and on that last day we had gone horseback riding and we went on an awesome hike and had a great lunch. It was getting towards the end of the day so we decided that we were going to drive back to the place that we were staying to pack up our stuff so that we would be ready to head out in the morning.
While we were driving back, something caught our attention. We saw a bunch of cars parked to the side of the road and we saw steam rising, from what we could see was the ground. We decided to pull over and check it out and once I got out of the car I could see that the steam was coming from all these hot springs, they were everywhere it was basically just a field full of them.
My family and I were wandering around this field and at one point I started walking up this hill and it was very hard to see because of the steam and I was also not watching my step very carefully. I turned my body around to talk to my mom when suddenly, as I was still walking, I tripped and slid into one of the hot springs.
I was only in it for about fifteen seconds when my brother and mom were able to get me out, and once I was out I didn’t really know what to expect or think because all of the geysers were different temperatures and right away it actually didn’t sting.
But then it did. It started to sting really bad, it felt like thousands of needles poking into my skin over and over again. I get to the car and I take off my pants so that I don’t trap the heat, when I take off my pants my skin starts to peel along with them. The skin on my legs looked like the skin of a hard boiled egg peeling when you take off the shell.
We get to the hospital and they clean and bandage up my legs with thick white wrappings. A little later I start to pass out and fall asleep in the ER. I later wake up in my hospital room and the doctor tells me that the spring I fell into was about two-hundred and thirty degrees.
We flew back to Denver, Colorado a couple days later and I stayed at the Children's Hospital for the month of July. For that first week in this hospital I believed that what had happened to me was the worst thing ever. I had so many thoughts running through my mind, “‘my legs are going to be ugly for so long,’ ‘I won’t be able to do things I love,’ ‘I just want to be having a fun summer break,’ ‘oh my gosh I hate this place.’” I was so negative.
After that first week I was able to ride in a wheelchair around the hospital and outside. I was staying on the sixth floor, it was the burn unit. The people that I met on this floor were so inspiring. One kid I met had third degree burns on half of his body from a dirt biking accident, but he was still so happy and positive, and for me at the time that was weird, because he had had this terrible thing happen to him.
This eight-year-old boy would come into my hospital room and he would tell me that everything was going to be fine. Even though this guy's burns were way worse than mine, he was supporting me! That changed my perspective on everything completely. After that, I decided that I wanted to have the same attitude that he had. My thoughts completely changed. I gained these new eyes, and I became more happy and grateful because I knew that I was going to be just fine, and I didn’t care that my legs were going to be funny looking for a while. I actually felt lucky because it easily could have been a lot worse than it was.
I am still recovering from my accident, but through this experience I have seen myself as a happier person than I ever was before; I know that I am now stronger and I can get through things when they are hard. I am also much more grateful for my family and friends because I know they have helped me to heal, and I see people completely different. I firmly believe that tragedy can have its triumphs.
Another thing that Iceland has a lot of is geysers and natural hot springs. I did not know this about Iceland at the time. So, we had spent about three days in Reykjavik and on that last day we had gone horseback riding and we went on an awesome hike and had a great lunch. It was getting towards the end of the day so we decided that we were going to drive back to the place that we were staying to pack up our stuff so that we would be ready to head out in the morning.
While we were driving back, something caught our attention. We saw a bunch of cars parked to the side of the road and we saw steam rising, from what we could see was the ground. We decided to pull over and check it out and once I got out of the car I could see that the steam was coming from all these hot springs, they were everywhere it was basically just a field full of them.
My family and I were wandering around this field and at one point I started walking up this hill and it was very hard to see because of the steam and I was also not watching my step very carefully. I turned my body around to talk to my mom when suddenly, as I was still walking, I tripped and slid into one of the hot springs.
I was only in it for about fifteen seconds when my brother and mom were able to get me out, and once I was out I didn’t really know what to expect or think because all of the geysers were different temperatures and right away it actually didn’t sting.
But then it did. It started to sting really bad, it felt like thousands of needles poking into my skin over and over again. I get to the car and I take off my pants so that I don’t trap the heat, when I take off my pants my skin starts to peel along with them. The skin on my legs looked like the skin of a hard boiled egg peeling when you take off the shell.
We get to the hospital and they clean and bandage up my legs with thick white wrappings. A little later I start to pass out and fall asleep in the ER. I later wake up in my hospital room and the doctor tells me that the spring I fell into was about two-hundred and thirty degrees.
We flew back to Denver, Colorado a couple days later and I stayed at the Children's Hospital for the month of July. For that first week in this hospital I believed that what had happened to me was the worst thing ever. I had so many thoughts running through my mind, “‘my legs are going to be ugly for so long,’ ‘I won’t be able to do things I love,’ ‘I just want to be having a fun summer break,’ ‘oh my gosh I hate this place.’” I was so negative.
After that first week I was able to ride in a wheelchair around the hospital and outside. I was staying on the sixth floor, it was the burn unit. The people that I met on this floor were so inspiring. One kid I met had third degree burns on half of his body from a dirt biking accident, but he was still so happy and positive, and for me at the time that was weird, because he had had this terrible thing happen to him.
This eight-year-old boy would come into my hospital room and he would tell me that everything was going to be fine. Even though this guy's burns were way worse than mine, he was supporting me! That changed my perspective on everything completely. After that, I decided that I wanted to have the same attitude that he had. My thoughts completely changed. I gained these new eyes, and I became more happy and grateful because I knew that I was going to be just fine, and I didn’t care that my legs were going to be funny looking for a while. I actually felt lucky because it easily could have been a lot worse than it was.
I am still recovering from my accident, but through this experience I have seen myself as a happier person than I ever was before; I know that I am now stronger and I can get through things when they are hard. I am also much more grateful for my family and friends because I know they have helped me to heal, and I see people completely different. I firmly believe that tragedy can have its triumphs.