246: Surviving a Deadly Train Derailment: The Story of Geralyn Ritter's Resilience and Recovery
The Addicted Mind Podcast
Duane Osterlind, LMFT
4.8 • 621 Ratings
🗓️ 14 August 2023
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Surviving disaster is a testament to human resilience, the will to live, and the courage to heal. Today, we welcome a truly extraordinary guest, Geralyn Ritter, whose story is an inspiring manifestation of this spirit. As an executive vice president, board director, and author of the memoir 'Bone by Bone,' she recounts her journey of survival, recovery, and acceptance after a deadly train derailment in 2015. Listen in, as Geralyn shares the profound physical and psychological impact of the accident on her life, the challenges of managing potent pain medications, and her path towards acceptance of her life-altering experience.
Geralyn's story is more than just overcoming trauma; it's about finding balance and reclaiming life after the unthinkable. Our conversation delves deep into her healing journey, the frustrations she faced, and the silver linings that emerged along the way. She candidly shares her struggle to find equilibrium in life while managing her medical vulnerabilities and her newfound purpose to help other trauma survivors. This episode is not just about survival; it's about resilience, healing, and reclaiming life after a devastating trauma. Listen in and be inspired by Geralyn’s courage and determination, a compelling testament to the strength of the human spirit.
In this episode, you will hear:
- Surviving a deadly train derailment
- Unrealistic recovery expectations and depression
- The difficulty of managing both the physical pain and psychological trauma
- A radical acceptance of her traumatic experience
- Finding balance while managing her ongoing medical vulnerabilities
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Supporting Resources:
Bone by Bone by Geralyn Ritter
https://www.amazon.com/Bone-Memoir-Trauma-Healing/dp/1950465551
Episode Credits
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, everyone. I hope you're having a wonderful day. Welcome to the Addicted Mind podcast. We are on to another episode. My name is Dwayne Austerland and I'm your host. Today our guest is Jeryitter. She is a recognized expert in health care policy and is |
| 0:24.4 | currently Executive Vice President at Organon and Company, a global company dedicated to women's health. |
| 0:31.1 | Jerylind received her undergraduate degree from Duke University, her law degree from Stanford |
| 0:35.9 | University, and her master's degree from |
| 0:38.2 | John Hopkins. She is on the board of directors of several nonprofit organization and chairs |
| 0:44.0 | the patient family advisory committee at the hospital that saved her life. And that's what we're |
| 0:50.3 | going to talk about today. Jerylind barely survived a deadly train derailment in 2015. |
| 0:56.2 | That killed eight people. |
| 0:58.8 | And as I say in the podcast, I remember seeing that on the news and how horrific it was. |
| 1:06.0 | And she survived. |
| 1:07.7 | She endured a long and agonizing recovery, requiring extensive pain management support |
| 1:12.9 | and had to go through the difficult process of weaning off the strongest opioid medications on the |
| 1:18.0 | market. And she published her book last year entitled Bone by Bone, a Memor of Trauma of Trauma |
| 1:24.1 | and Healing that she hopes will help other trauma survivors reclaim their lives. |
| 1:28.7 | She is a frequent public speaker and author of multiple articles on trauma recovery, |
| 1:33.5 | personal professional resilience, women's health, and other topics. |
| 1:36.8 | So today, Jeline is going to share her story of really resilience and how she had to cope |
| 1:43.9 | and how she had to use some of the strongest |
| 1:45.8 | opioid medications on the market like fentanyl to survive. So she's going to share her story, |
| 1:52.7 | her process, from not being able to move to being able to reclaim her life and all the, all the parts in between. |
| 2:02.6 | It really does speak to the human spirit and the importance of balancing our drive forward |
| 2:10.2 | with acceptance. |
... |
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