Life-threatening accident leads to blood donation drive at SRMC

On Sept. 16, 2023, everything changed for 24-year-old Joey Vigil and his mother, Brenda Murray.

Vigil was in a four-wheeler accident that day and nearly died.

Vigil was riding with a friend when he nose-dived over a ravine and landed in a cement arroyo.

“I felt like I had a hard time breathing and it felt like I just got the wind knocked out of me,” Vigil said. “As time went on, it just felt like I was drowning.”

Joey Vigil

Vigil was transported by ambulance to UNM Hospital, where he had two multiple-week hospital stays, six surgeries and dozens of blood transfusions to fix a grade-five liver laceration. Doctors removed 30% of his liver. After that surgery, a CT scan revealed more damage to a major artery that connects to the bottom of Vigil’s heart. His next surgery was a bypass.

“When he went into bypass surgery, they asked us if we wanted to see a chaplain and they said, 'Mom, this is a make it or not make it surgery,'” Murray said. “We prayed and we said, 'No, we don't want to see a chaplain.' We just prayed and believed that God was going to return Joey back to us and He did.”

Seven months later, Vigil is fully recovered. Murray, who is the director of environmental services at the University of New Mexico Sandoval Regional Medical Center (SRMC), said there were many scary moments when she was not sure her son would pull through. She attributed his miraculous improvement to the prayers of family members and the dedicated trauma team at UNM Hospital.

“It was one of the worst things I've ever been through in my life. I think there's nothing like a mother's love. But there's also nothing like a mother's pain,” Murray said. “I was really, really worried and scared, scared, very scared. But I think that's where your faith comes in for me personally, and believing that God was going to bring Joey through. Every time Joey had a blood transfusion, I promised myself I was going to donate blood. I made a lot of deals with God while Joy was in the hospital. I think a lot of people rely on their faith in the midst of a storm, and then when the storm passes, people forget. I don't want to be one of those people.”

Murray is holding up her end of the deal with God by pooling her connections and resources at SRMC. With the help of her hospital colleagues and Vitalant, Murray planned and held her own blood drive April 19 at SRMC’s Center of Excellence.

“My son was on mass blood transfusion protocol, and throughout the course of his stay, he went through 74 blood product transfusions,” Murray said. “I remember just saying to myself, ‘I am going to donate blood.’ Somebody took time out of their day, their life. These are people that I do not know, I will never know, and that transfusion — it saved my son's life.”

Murray aimed for 74 donations Friday and easily met half of that goal less than an hour in.

Murray, several family members and Vigil all donated blood at the event, turning what nearly was a tragedy into a positive.

“You never know if you or someone you love is going to be in that situation,” Murray said. “Joey received a total of 74 blood product transfusions during his stay, and so we're hoping to get very close to that. And if we don't hit 74, we have a lot more than we had yesterday in the state of New Mexico, so that makes me feel good.”