By Jennifer Baik
Assistant News Editor
No one really knows what happened that morning when freshman Lindsey Lott was found unconscious inside her roommate’s totaled Honda Civic on the side of Malibu Canyon Road.
Even to this day, people who knew her think it’s a miracle she’s still alive.
It was during Spring Break on a Friday night and Lindsey had wanted to leave early from a friend’s home, which was located through the canyon. So she asked permission to take her roommate Amy Waetford’s car and left around 12 a.m.
At about 3:20 a.m. on Friday, March 1, a police officer was called in by a passerby who saw the severely damaged car sitting along the windy road next to the railing. When the policeman went to the scene five minutes after the call, he immediately signaled in a care flight helicopter to transport Lott to UCLA Medical Center.
It was apparent that she was thrown around the car like a rag doll through the impact of the accident, since she was in the passenger seat with her legs sprawled across the driver seat.
There were no traces of another person involved in the vehicle accident. The only evidence left behind are the conflicting track marks on the road and Lindsey herself.
Lott was immediately rushed to the emergency room in critical condition. She suffered blows on the back of her head, internal injuries including a bruised and lacerated right lung and kidney, broken right ribs, a fractured second vertebrae and a blood clot on the right side of her brain that caused her to have a mild stroke.
Her jaw was broken into two places and her heart suffered a light trauma from the impact.
The police officer could not identify Lindsey at first because she was driving another person’s vehicle with five different purses inside the car. The only thing he could go by was the Pepperdine student sticker affixed on the left hand side of the car. He then immediately went to the campus and reported the information to Public Safety.
Campus Minister Scott Lambert and Director of Disability Services Trevor Reynolds were the first to hear about the accident and quickly rushed to the UCLA Medical Center around 9 a.m. Both Lambert and Reynolds had met Lindsey through church this semester.
“I think she’s very lucky to be alive right now,” Reynolds said. “I’m shocked and encouraged by her quick recovery from all those injuries she suffered that morning.”
A prayer service was held on Monday following the accident at 5 p.m. Lambert, who spoke during the service, had gathered 60 friends and strangers to come that night to pray for her recovery and health.
“Lindsey is blessed to have had great medical care and is the recipient of lots of great prayers,” Lambert said. “I believe God worked a miracle.”
Her parents flew in early Friday afternoon from Plano, Texas, after they had found out about their daughter’s critical condition. They were met by an unconscious and unresponsive daughter, but by Saturday morning, her health improved enough to take her to the Intensive Care Unit.
“The next morning she opened her eyes and we would talk to her and I told her that if she can hear me right now, then squeeze mommy’s hand,” said Janie Lott, Lindsay’s mother. “She gave us a thumbs up sign so I was really happy.”
Six days later on a late Friday afternoon, Lindsey moved up to the fourth floor, which was the monitoring floor. The doctors saw a huge improvement in her condition so they took her off the ventilator on Thursday. She was supposed to undergo heart, lung, and kidney surgery due to excess internal bleeding that week, but her quick and miraculous recovery each day changed the doctors’ minds.
Surprisingly, Lindsey only had to go through reconstructive jaw surgery Saturday afternoon. During the operation, almost all of her dangling teeth were placed intact and the doctors placed a titanium plate inside her jaw to keep it shut.
“She’ll probably have to get a note from the doctor so that she can get through the metal detector in the airport,” Janie Lott said. “She’ll have a metal jaw.”
Because of the accident, Lott is not expected to return to Pepperdine this semester, but her parents are hoping that she will return by fall term. Lott is expected to be released this Friday to return to Texas to receive therapy treatment.
“I was really shocked when I heard about the accident,” said suitemate Jessica Eisenreich. “I thought Lindsey was one of those people who seemed invincible.”
Lott attended Plano East High School and graduated in May 2001. She was accepted to Pepperdine in January 2002. Her brother, Jodie Lott, attends Texas A&M.
“Lindsey was always a child with tremendous ambition,” father Jodie Lott said. “She puts out a 150 percent in everything so I know she’s going to do well because she is very determined.”
Melani Bruce, Lindsey’s student advisor in Dorm 6, remembers her as being always spunky and outgoing. Bruce believes that it was a mutual therapy for Lindsey and for her friends when they went to go visit her at the hospital.
“She brought a totally different atmosphere into the suite and we loved it because she was so much fun,” Bruce said. “I was shocked to hear about the accident and I didn’t want to admit that it had happened to her at first.”
Lindsey’s original plan was to attend Pepperdine for six years and complete a master’s degree in business administration while simultaneously finishing law school. But now her plan might be different and her parents hope that she can use this life changing experience to help somebody else.
“It’s a blessing that she’s alive and I thank God every day,” friend Kaja Conrad said. “I think it’s important to pray because it really helps.”
March 14, 2002