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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us June 11, 2005 Interrupted school complete By Jennifer Squires Ashland Daily Tidings Jeannette Morgan , who suffered a broken back when a tree fell on her, will graduate in Saturday’s ceremony. Orville Hector | Ashland Daily Tidings Three years ago, a 150-foot tree crashed down on Jeanette Morgan, fracturing her back. For many, it would have been a difficult situation to rebound from, but the 24-year-old nursing school graduate looked at it as a bump in the road. She was fighting the Timber Rock fire near Shady Cove with her Grayback Forestry crew, less than a week from the start of nursing classes, when she heard the snap and saw the 40-inch-thick trunk dropping. “A tree fell and rolled over the top of me, broke my back,” Morgan said. “Luckily, I was the only one who got hit.” After a couple of days in the hospital, Morgan went to nursing school in a wheelchair. She had wanted to become a nurse since she was little and wasn’t ready to give up her dream. The effort lasted about a week. “I couldn’t remember anything,” she said. “I was on these heavy medications.” So she forfeited her position in the highly competitive program to take a year off and heal, determined that she would be back. On Friday, she was honored with 49 other Oregon Health Sciences University nursing graduates in a pinning ceremony at Southern Oregon University’s McNeal Pavilion and, Saturday morning, she will walk with her graduating class in the SOU commencement ceremony at Mountain Arena. “It was just something to overcome,” Morgan said. “It was amazing; it definitely helped me see a patient’s point of view a lot better.” She had to reapply to the two-year nursing program and, with a couple seasons of wildland firefighting behind her, considered taking the seasonal job again. “I would definitely go out and fight,” Morgan said; however, she decided against risking her “true calling” again. Her doctor laid down the law, too, and she hasn’t been back on the crew since the 2002 accident. “It made my conviction a lot stronger,” she said. This summer, she has a new job lined up. Morgan will be a nurse at the Lake District Hospital, a 21-bed acute care hospital with an attached 47-bed skilled long-term care facility in Lakeview, her hometown. The state-run hospital opened in 1971 to serve the small community and, because of its size, Morgan will serve in multiple areas, including the emergency room, operating room and in-patient care. “I love being with people and helping people,” Morgan said. “It’s a wonderful thing to be able to do.” Staff writer Jennifer Squires can be reached at 482-3456 x 3019 or [email protected]. DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Deep Muscle Stimulator Ceramic Piggy Banks FREE Entertainment Guide Women's & Men's Slippers Accelerate Weightloss Products Backpacks Generic Viagra Vegas Travel Guide Search Engine Optimization Sportsbook Absinthe Supply Student Loans Hotel & Airline Reservations African Safari Hammocks Helzberg Diamonds Online Casinos Community Bonus Casino King of Spirits ink cartridges Mortgage Calculator Security Systems Mailing Lists Click Here Advertisement .:Advertisements:. Site Search: RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams