Injured Rapids City volunteer firefighter welcomed home

DAVENPORT, Iowa (KWQC) - Mary Beth Eggers was welcomed back home to Rapids City Wednesday after she was injured from a large tree branch falling on her. Eggers is both an EMT with Genesis and a volunteer firefighter with her local department, Rapids City Fire Protection District.

Harold Mire, Village President of Rapids City says he’s happy to support Mary Beth on her journey to a full recovery. “I both told her and her husband, anything we can do and I can do personally, or the village can do to please reach out to us and let us know, but I’m sure as her recovery continues to progress, we will be willing to do whatever they think we need to do,” said Mire

On July 15, Eggers says the tree branch fell as her crew and along with their mutual aid partners were putting out a fire in the Hillsdale area. Eggers says as the tree branch was cracking, she tried to get safety but wasn’t fast enough and was caught by the branch.

The incident sent Eggers to the hospital with multiple fractures to her body along with six broken ribs and a punctured left lung. Eggers says recovering enough in the past few weeks to be discharged back home wasn’t an easy journey

“I’m not gonna lie, it was the biggest struggle of my life. I mean, just just from that moment i was on my back for weeks, and that moment of just sitting up, first sitting up just was the hardest workout in my life”

Eggers says her support system is what kept her motivated to keep fighting to get back.

“But all those people, all those people the community behind me, my fellow firefighters, my my genesis ambulance co workers, the entire upper rock island county and beyond, and how they’ve rallied and and just sent me texts and cards. I don’t think they realize just how much courage and strength that gave me. It was incredible,” said Eggers.

Eggers physical therapist Julie Evans, who also works for Genesis says Eggers put the odds of going home sooner in her favor because she did plenty of physical activities such as hiking and biking in her everyday life.

“Honestly, from day one, she, I don’t want to say, exceeded my expectations, because I just didn’t know how she would respond, but with her diagnosis and how well she was moving even from day one, I anticipated that this would be a shorter stay than maybe even she knew it would be,” said Evans.

Evans says seeing her patients progressing is what brings her the most joy. “It’s, it’s why I love this job. You know, they come here to be able to safely go home. So when we succeed in that, and she’s going home tomorrow, just makes me emotional. And it’s why I love it,” said Evans.

Eggers says once she’s healed, she plans to continue her career as an emergency first responder in some capacity.