Resilience Shows Itself When It Counts
By Lisa Diaz Nash
It was a beautiful August morning in 2005 as I walked to my job in San Francisco. Our startup was about to launch. As I crossed the street at Kearny and Post, I thought to myself “It’s going to be a great day!” What followed proved to be the worst day of my life.
The next thing I knew, I felt heat and heard lots of noise and shouting. My first thought was, “Thank God, I can still see!” I struggled through a cloud of black smoke, trying to get fresh air. From nowhere, I felt someone pull me down and heard them say, “Stay still. An ambulance is on the way.” I did not know exactly what had happened to me, but I knew it was catastrophic.
The catastrophe turned out to be a PG&E underground electrical transformer explosion due to equipment malfunction. These transformers exist under most of the manhole covers you walk over every day. News reports had 30 foot flames shooting into the air and the explosion was heard blocks away. Since it was right after the London Underground bombings, there was talk of terrorism.
An SF Fire Department ambulance arrived within minutes. Adrenaline is an amazing thing. I suffered second and third degree burns over 40% of my body and had my elbow crushed by the flying manhole cover. I was able, however, to share my medical details with the ambulance staff, say whom to contact, and agree to be sedated. I do not remember the accident or any pain I felt.
I woke up two weeks later, having been in an induced coma so the doctors could perform the multiple surgeries needed to stabilize me. I was covered in bandages, with drips and monitors hanging all over me. Miraculously, I wound up at St. Francis Hospital, whose Bothin Burn Center is one of the few integrated burn centers between San Jose and Davis. I stayed in hospital two months and underwent two years of physical therapy to relearn everything from walking to gripping a pencil.
At the end, you couldn’t tell I’d been injured except for my huskier voice, a “funny bone’less” elbow and a face wiped clear of all of its age lines (we called it my “mega-microdermabrasion”). I have much to be grateful for. Others in the Burn Center were not so fortunate. I have stayed very involved with the Center, which recently celebrated a major expansion and is a true San Francisco asset.
While I very much remember the pain and fear from that part of my journey, I also remember the support and strength I received from my talented doctors, nurses and therapists. I remember my family and friends, their love and encouragement being the strongest medicine. I remember getting encouraging notes from total strangers. I remember how my mind would only let me think about what I could accomplish — “Yes, I took four steps today!” — and not about how long until I recovered.
The key to my recovery was that I had such a great support network and so much to live for. Without a loving husband, two amazing daughters whose lives I wanted to see play out, countless friends and acquaintances who helped…and a very stubborn nature that said “This is not my time!”…it may have turned out very differently.
I am no saint, but I believed “This was a freak accident. I didn’t cause this. All I can control is what happens from here.” It was a lot of hard work, there were countless hospital and therapy visits, but slowly my life came back together.
I had a lot of time to think about what I wanted to do. I truly knew now that your life could change in a second. I knew whatever I did, I wanted to make a positive difference in the world. I didn’t want to give inspirational speeches. I wanted to live in the present and future, not the past.
I thought that would mean finding another Marketing job at a start-up focused on social good. I became CEO of Blue Planet Network, a global clean water nonprofit. Last year, I left that job and co-founded Entrepreneurs for Hillary to work to elect Hillary Clinton as president.
These are the things I carry with me about my experience:
1) Prioritize your family, friends and community, not just your career. They give you what you need to grow, and what you’ll have to fall back on when times get tough.
2) Don’t waste your time. Not every job may be thrilling, or every home chore rewarding, but know what’s really important for you to accomplish, what you want in this world. Ensure that you keep moving toward those goals.
3) Be good to others and don’t let others get away with things that aren’t right. I am more impatient now, I value my time on this earth and whom I spend it with. There’s not enough oxygen available to waste my breath on petty things.
4) Finally, be good to yourself. Laugh a little and cut yourself some slack. We’re all trying to do the right thing. Celebrate your time here and make the most of it!
