Shot at 10, college student inspires football players
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July 19, 2020
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Cierra Brumback was hanging out with her father while he cleaned his gun when the weapon fired unexpectedly, nearly killing the 10-year-old.
Now a junior at Emporia State University, Brumback told her story to 36 of the best high school football players in Kansas this past week as they prepared to compete in the 2020 Kansas Shrine Bowl in Topeka.
Normally, participants in the annual charity all-star game make a trip to a local hospital to visit children and hear their stories. But the in-person hospital visits were shelved this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, The Kansas City Star reports. Brumback, who is studying athletic training and serving as a team manager at the Shrine Bowl, helped fill the void.
She explained that she was living in the southeast Kansas town of Girard when a bullet blew through her knee and into her pelvis. It hit her femoral artery, one of the most vital arteries in the body.
"And it stopped 1 centimeter away from ripping through my stomach into my heart and killing me," said Brumback, now 20.
She was eventually transported to Shriners Hospital in St. Louis. She spent most of 2011 in a hospital bed. Several more hospitals treated Brumback in the years that followed as she underwent 25 surgeries.
Along the way, money became a major concern for her family. A below-the-knee prosthetic leg costs $36,000. For an above-the-knee prosthetic, it's more than $80,000. Finally, in 2019, her leg was removed at a Shriners Hospital, and the pain — at least that degree of pain — went away.
Stories like these are crucial, explained Coach Tommy Beason.
"They may forget their buddy's name. I know they'll forget my name," he said. "But they may remember that, and if that means in 10 years they have a little more money in their pocket and they can make a bigger donation, that's what this is about."
Proceeds from the game go to the network of 22 Shriners Hospitals for Children around the nation.
"I wouldn't be able to do it without you guys," Brumback said.
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