Accidentally shot at age 10, she lost her leg. This Kansas girl became an inspiration
She had most of her left leg amputated, and she said the worst part of the ordeal was the IV doctors put in her arm; the pain afterward was nothing compared to what it was before.
Cierra Brumback was 10 and living in Girard, in southeast Kansas about 20 minutes from the Missouri border. She was hanging out with her father while he cleaned his gun.
The gun fired unexpectedly. The bullet blew through her knee and carried into her pelvis. It hit her femoral artery, one of the most vital arteries in the body.
“And it stopped one centimeter away from ripping through my stomach into my heart and killing me,” Brumback said.
Brumback, now 20, narrated her story with the type of poise one would expect from someone telling it for the umpteenth time. Her voice didn’t crack under the pain of the past as she spoke Thursday in Topeka.
Brumback told her harrowing story to 36 of the best football high school players in Kansas. It was her second time talking to a team this week.
Serving as a manager for the 2020 Kansas Shrine Bowl, an annual charity all-star game featuring the top recently graduated seniors from the east and west halves of Kansas, Brumback is providing a unique experience for the players in Topeka.
Every year, Shrine Bowl players selected to play in this game make a trip to a local hospital to visit children who are patients and hear their stories. Although the game is the sponsoring organization’s biggest fundraiser, many players say the hospital visit is what they remember most from their Shrine Bowl experience.
Saturday’s game is still scheduled to take place, but the hospital visits were shelved this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Players were to get a few minutes with some patients through video conferencing instead. The visit was one of many forfeited ancillary events, including a yearly Shrine Bowl parade, appreciation banquet and band and cheer camps.
In order to put on this year’s Shrine Bowl during the toughest summer in at least a generation, much of the lead-up itinerary ahead of Saturday’s game was cut, said B.J. Harris, Shrine Bowl executive director.
“These coaches are saying they’re not getting one ounce of complaining,” Harris said. “No whining at all because I think these kids understand the opportunity that’s before them.”
With a shortened opportunity to make a lifelong impact, Brumback’s in-person presence was important. She embodies why those 36 young men are in Topeka this week.
“It’s not a perfect scenario, but at least having something is so important,” West coach Tommy Beason said. “If we can salvage that, at least it’s something. Having Cierra here is awesome.”
But her story wasn’t done.
After the bullet hit Brumback, she was taken to the nearest hospital, a facility so small it didn’t have her blood type available for a transfusion. She was injected with 10 pints of plasma instead. Her muscles were dying.
She was eventually transported to Shriners Hospital in St. Louis. She spent most of 2011 in a hospital bed. Several more hospitals treated Brumback in the years that followed as she underwent 25 surgeries. At one point, she was undergoing a procedure every two weeks.
She was still active throughout the experience. She competed in golf, softball, track and field and band at Girard High School. She had full arthritis in her ankle and walked on her toenails, making every step painful.
“It took a toll on my body,” she said.
Along the way, money became a major concern for her family. A below-the-knee prosthetic leg costs $36,000. For an above-the-knee prosthetic, it’s more than $80,000. Finally, in 2019, her leg was removed at a Shriners Hospital, and the pain — at least that degree of pain — went away.
“The cost of these prosthetics is what I make in a year,” Beason said. “Imagine going to work every day for a whole year and you just barely pay for one. But for these guys, it’s about those mental images.
“They may forget their buddy’s name. I know they’ll forget my name. But they may remember that, and if that means in 10 years they have a little more money in their pocket and they can make a bigger donation, that’s what this is about.”
Today, Brumback is a junior at Emporia State studying athletic training, which further explains why she’s serving as a team manager at the Shrine Bowl. She has worked with the Emporia football, soccer, track and softball teams. She said her dream is to make it to the professional level someday.
The 47th annual Kansas Shrine Bowl kicks off at 7 p.m. Saturday at Topeka’s Hummer Sports Complex, barring a late recommendation of cancellation by local health officials. All proceeds go to the network of 22 Shriners Hospitals for Children around the nation.
“So that’s why I’m here today,” Brumback told the players. “(This game) means a lot to you, to me and to everyone working there and staying there and all the parents.”
“I wouldn’t be able to do it without you guys.”
This story was originally published July 16, 2020 at 4:34 PM.