Tiphany Adams thought she still was in a “dream state.”
For some reason, she was surrounded by 50 teddy bears, dozens of balloons and a garden of flowers.
In reality, she was awakening from a monthlong nightmare in a hospital room festooned with affection.
To watch
“Push Girls” — with a theme of “I Don’t Stand Up, I Stand Out” — debuts at 10 p.m. Monday on the Sundance Channel. Episode 1 will be re-broadcast at 1 a.m. and 10 p.m. Tuesday; 1 a.m. Wednesday; 8 p.m. Thursday; and 7 p.m. June 10.
The 17-year-old Tokay High School senior, kept in a medically induced coma for 28 days following a near-death tragedy, was confronting a very new life.
She’s been pushing positively ever since.
“My left arm was completely shattered,” Adams said, recalling the cruel realization that accompanied consciousness in mid-November 2000. “They had to remove some of my intestines. I could see into my abdomen. I just didn’t understand why my legs were so numb and had a tingling feeling like they were sleeping.
“I recall being in some form of dream. I was looking for my father the whole time.”
Dan Adams was right there – as he and many other family members had been – during the anxious vigil that followed a fatal Oct. 11, 2000, collision on Highway 12. Only Tiphany survived.
After she was placed in a wheelchair, dad – she called him “Mr. Mom” – took her to the top floor of San Jose’s Santa Clara Valley Medical Center.
Looking out over the valley, Adams told his daughter she never would walk again: “He said, ‘If there was any way in the world I could trade places with you, I would.’ I started bawling. Paralysis? When you’re 17, you don’t think of those things.”
Her spinal cord had been severed. Undaunted, she’s in the process of familiarizing millions of people with her condition and its resultant lifestyle. Adams, now 28, is one of four women in wheelchairs in “Push Girls,” a TV series that starts Monday on the Sundance Channel.
“We really are pushing through adversity, obstacles and boundaries,” Tiphany Adams said. “We’re pushing for love. We’re pushing for each other.”
The 14 half-hour segments follow Adams, Auti Angel, Mia Schaikewitz, Angela Rockwood and Chelsie Hill through their daily lives, telling tales of their triumphs over tragedy.
“Our stories are all relatable,” Tiphany said. “People who are feeling helpless, just by watching us, it gives them inspiration and courage to get through life.”
Doctors and paramedics didn’t think Tiphany would survive her devastating injuries. She made a remarkable recovery, was home for Christmas and graduated with her Tokay class eight months after the collision.
“It just has to be her own personal intestinal fortitude,” said Dan Adams, 53, a Stockton resident and “one proud dad. It’s important the world sees you don’t have something bad happen, just curl up, stay at home and feel sorry for yourself. You have to get out and take on the world head-on.”
‘Everything turned black’
For the Adams family, that was tragic irony.
Three teenagers died in that October 2000 head-on collision – caused by a drunken driver at a combined impact of 130 mph – on Highway 12, just east of Interstate 5. Adams (Tiffany then) also was presumed dead.
An alert EMT heard her make a slight sound, though. She was cut from the wreckage and taken by helicopter to San Joaquin General Hospital. After a stabilizing eight-hour operation, she was flown to the Santa Clara Valley facility, which specializes in treating spinal-cord injuries. There, she underwent 151/2 hours of surgery on her abdomen, back and left arm. Only later were her 17 chipped teeth noticed.
“All I remember is getting in the car,” said Tiphany, who sat in the right back seat. “Then everything turned black.”
During a “Push Girls” episode, the Adamses revisited the accident scene for the first time on Oct. 15, 2011. Tiphany had returned from L.A. to attend her 10-year reunion at Tokay.
“It was very emotional,” she said. “It was very moving. My father actually said, ‘Let’s say a prayer for the (other victims’) families.’ It’s not normal for him to do that. It was very moving. Very tragic. But very beautiful.”
Dan Adams, who operates Don’s Body Repair in Stockton, had, for a decade, avoided the site.
“I called my dad,” he said, “and I was crying so badly I couldn’t even talk. … It was pretty emotional going back and being in that place.”
His daughter’s perseverance was supported by an extended family of 80 whose members did everything from retrofitting her dad’s house to staying with him in his mobile home at the hospital.
“Oh, my gosh, yes,” she said of the family’s impact on her recovery – characterized as unparalleled by doctors and nurses in San Jose. “It might be the reason I recovered so fast. Very, very much so.”
Living life to the fullest
Born in Manteca, Adams grew up in Lodi. Her father raised Tiphany, from age 8, and sister Katie, now 27, following a divorce.
“Thank God for dad,” she said. “Dad was Mr. Mom. I was so blessed as a child. He took me to the (auto) races, taught me to hunt with a BB gun. He’s been so supportive.”
So has Judi Adams, her stepmother. She’s “such an amazing woman” who “in so many ways held everything together and supported every decision,” Tiphany said. Judi Adams’ health insurance – through her employer, Old Republic Title Co. in Tracy – helped pay the seven-figure medical bills.
Though she “wanted to go to home school,” Adams returned to Tokay in January 2001, “though I was kinda embarrassed having a wheelchair on my butt.”
Released from the hospital on Dec. 21, 2000 – her family had been told it would be six to nine months – she was driving again by July 2001 and moved into her own apartment at 19.
After studying child psychology at Delta College, teaching pre-school and training to be a manicurist, she worked as a fitness instructor. A “student forever,” Tiphany also took a University of the Pacific course on drugs and culture from a very supportive “Professor George” Feicht, and overcame troubles with alcohol and Vicodin.
Adams did some local modeling assignments and left for Los Angeles in 2008 to sustain a relationship that became abusive. On her third day there, she met Rockwood and “kinda joined her circle,” which became the genesis of “Push Girls.”
“We wanted to show the world we are full of passion and vigor,” said Adams. “We’re fierce females. We’ve gotta make this into a show.”
She said Sundance, owned by actor Robert Redford, is a perfect home for “Push Girls”: “His vision is to let his channel be raw and organic and real.”
Upbeat, enthusiastic and articulate, Adams – who now has a girlfriend and discusses her sexuality openly – has worked at assorted jobs and speaks publicly on issues involving disabilities, drinking and driving and abusive relationships.
On May 28, she and the other “Push Girls” started their high-speed promotional push in New York. She’s ready to go: “I feel very compelled to be an individual who gives hope in life. There are brighter days. You have to look at what you have. You don’t really know what tomorrow brings. It’s so important to embrace the day with a loving, grateful outlook. You have to give love to get love.
“Three other lives were lost and I had survivor guilt. I didn’t want anybody seeing me feeling sorry for myself. I prayed a lot. I knew I wanted to do something huge with this gift that is my life.”
She is: “I want to go as high and high and high as I can. If it doesn’t seem possible, I’m gonna make it possible.”
from: http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120603/A_LIFE/206020305/-1/A_LIFE
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using the number/letter grid:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
A B C D E F G H I
J K L M N O P Q R
S T U V W X Y Z
Where:
A = 1 J = 1 S = 1
B = 2 K = 2 T = 2
C = 3 L = 3 U = 3
D = 4 M = 4 V = 4
E = 5 N = 5 W = 5
F = 6 O = 6 X = 6
G = 7 P = 7 Y = 7
H = 8 Q = 8 Z = 8
I = 9 R = 9
Tiffany Adams
2966157 14141 47
her path of destiny = 47 = Famous. Internationally known. Having a bright future.
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using the number/letter grid:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
A B C D E F G H I
J K L M N O P Q R
S T U V W X Y Z
Where:
A = 1 J = 1 S = 1
B = 2 K = 2 T = 2
C = 3 L = 3 U = 3
D = 4 M = 4 V = 4
E = 5 N = 5 W = 5
F = 6 O = 6 X = 6
G = 7 P = 7 Y = 7
H = 8 Q = 8 Z = 8
I = 9 R = 9
Tiphany Adams
2978157 14141 50
her path of destiny = 50 = The joys of family life.
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