LAKELAND, Fla. (WSVN) — A 17-year-old girl ended up with broken bones on her birthday after she went out for a ride on a golf cart with her friends.
One second, Lizette Vega was celebrating her 17th birthday with her five friends, riding on her family’s golf cart through her neighborhood in Lakeland.
And the next, the 900-pound golf cart was on her neck, and she couldn’t breathe.
“She turned it so hard, and it was like in slow motion,” said Vega. “It started falling, and I just knew, I’m thinking, ‘I’m going to die here.’”
Her two friends, a 17-year-old and 15-year-old Nyemah Johnson, helped lift the cart off of Vega.
“I don’t even know, we just lifted it up,” said Johnson. “I’m just very thankful that she’s still here with us, it could’ve been way worse than it was, and we’re just very blessed that she’s OK.”
Lizette was then taken to Lakeland Regional Health Medical Center, where she underwent surgery for a broken femur.
“This is the rod, and these are screws ’cause it snapped in half,” said Vega. “Your life can change in a second, like you never know.”
She won’t be able to do the things she loves, like wrestling or flag football, until she’s fully healed. She will also miss her ROTC promotion.
Now she has a message for other children.
“Listen to your parents because they’re never wrong when they say stuff,” said Vega. “My mom, she was like, ‘Don’t let anybody ride it,’ or ‘don’t do that,” and I didn’t listen to her and look.”
It’s a hard pill to swallow, but Vega said she’s glad no one else was hurt.
“It could’ve ended up bad, but I’m glad I’m the only one who got hurt because at the end of the day, it was my golf cart, and I’ll take getting hurt over, like, anybody else getting hurt,” said Vega.
Along with the memory, Vega now has permanent metal rods in her hip and leg.
She’s expected to head home from the hospital sometime this week.
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