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Murphy Pam Duvall loves to sing. “It’s my passion,” she said. Until one night in 2019, when the music stopped.
It was the middle of the night, and Duvall was attempting to leave the area she was at in Blue Ridge, Ga. She recalled that the family was feeling very stressed at the time, and she just wanted to return back home with her sons.
As she was backing out of the driveway, one of her sons got out of the vehicle.
“I felt like he was in danger, and he was in danger,” Duvall said. So she got out of the vehicle.
“I thought I put the Jeep in park so I could get out and help him. When I got around the Jeep it was rolling back,” she said. “It knocked me down and rolled on top of me.”
Duvall’s head landed in a mud puddle, her body on the driveway. Her son witnessed the vehicle roll over his mother’s head and shoulder.
Duvall saw it coming and turned her head so it wouldn’t run over her face. The tire ran over the back of her head, taking off her scalp instead.
“I remember me being in that puddle, reaching up and touching my head and all the blood. Everybody was flipping out,” she said with emotion.
Although Duvall was conscious and aware of what was happening, she also realized her scalp was gone and it was bad. Her son was able to pull her out from under the vehicle before the second tire could run over her. He and another person were finally able to get the Jeep stopped.
Due to the weather, they were unable to fly her out on a medical helicopter; instead, she would have to take the trip to Erlanger Medical Center in Chattanooga, Tenn.. in an ambulance.
Once at the hospital, “They didn’t really know what to do with me. I think they thought I was gonna die,” Duvall said. “They put me in a room, but I didn’t die.”
It took four surgeries to close her head. She was also facing the fact that she may be bald for the rest of her life.
Duvall showed doctors a photo of herself prior to the accident. As a result, they decided not to do a skin graft, but rather took bone from her skull to make it smaller and stretched her scalp.
Doctors then stitched it together, which would allow hair to regrow. She remained at Erlanger for 11 days.
Some folks are unable to view several of the photos from the horrific accident that changed Duvall’s life in more than one way that night.
Her challenges since the accident are struggling with memory loss of her prior years. She also has no real concept of time and struggles to remember how to do daily tasks. She has to refigure out how to use gas pumps and ATM machines. She also has dealt with a lot of post-traumatic stress disorder when around vehicles.
However, Duvall believes God has changed her life since the accident, as she is no longer in any bondage to addictions.
“I try not to complain about the weather,” she said. “We had a lot of rain that year and it saved my life.”
She loves music and appears on stage whenever she can, often in Ellijay, Ga.
“I don’t want to die without doing what I love,” Duvall said. “It’s my whole reason for going to open mikes.”
Her advice to others is to “be so aware of your surroundings. Everyday, I see people who have not been run over – and it shows, it makes me a nervous wreck. People also need to follow their dreams; if you want to get on stage then get on stage.”