Natavia Snavely

Hi, my name is Heather Stepp and I have had the fortune of meeting Cassandra Joyce a little under a year ago when she joined our family at KW New Bern. She is an amazing new agent who works very hard and is a star in our Productivity Coaching program. She is also a wife and Mother who loves her family very much.

Here is their story.....About a year ago my daughter, Natavia picked Arizona to start life in a new place. In this past year, she has gotten her life insurance license, began working in the health field in a doctor’s office along with training horses and people to ride horses. She even recently was able to rent a house with a couple of roommates. She has been blossoming into her best self.

On Sunday night August 20, 2023, Natavia was enjoying a fun night riding in an ATV. Around 11pm Arizona time, Natavia was a passenger in the ATV when the driver lost control and the vehicle rolled, and once it stopped rolling, landing on her side. The harness she was wearing kept her hanging for over 20 minutes. Realizing there was a small area where she could get out, she unbuckled herself and, with the help of others, was eventually able to extricate herself from the wreckage.

I was told by the paramedic transporting her, that Natavia had degloved her hand and her fingers were dangling. Once she arrived at the Level 1 Trauma Center, the surgeon told them that she was going to be losing at least her ring finger and could lose up to three fingers. He was going to have to take nerves, arteries and maybe skin from her arm to put in her hand. He had to put in pins to keep her fingers attached to the hand and she had multiple fractures in the hand itself.

The next day, she was put into surgery again to clean out the debris out of her hand. The surgeon said she had “half the desert in there”. She has since been through seven surgeries. These surgeries have been a lot on her in a short period of time. The surgeon has, so far, been able to save her middle finger at this time but isn’t sure if that will be the final outcome, but he is hopeful. At this time, she has had her ring and pointer fingers amputated, pins placed in her hand and finger to set it all in place due to the amount of damage done in her hand, a muscle removed from her back and placed on her hand and the surgery that is to graft skin to cover her hand.

Now that the surgeon has had time to go over everything and discuss the number of surgeries that Natavia will need in the next year possibly a year and a half, she has an incredibly long road ahead of her. The hand itself will need more surgeries once the skin graft has healed and then she will need more surgeries on her middle finger, to include removing bone from another area of her body to place in the finger. We are staying hopeful to save her finger if possible. She has yet to leave the hospital and but she will be able to leave the hospital in a day or two. Then we still have to stay in Arizona another week to make sure that she is stable. As a family, and due to the amount of care that she is going to need, we have all agreed that we need to move her back home to North Carolina.

As you can imagine, this is something no family is prepared for. Right now, we are just looking at the cost of getting her, her animals (two dogs and horse) and her belongings home. From plane tickets, U-Haul, car carrier, horse hauler, boarding fees for her horse in North Carolina, not to mention the medical bills that will be piling in, we are not expecting her health insurance to be able to cover it all. Plus the cost of the remaining surgeries and therapy that will be needed in the next year.

Her dad and little brother are flying in to help pack and drive the Uhaul back to North Carolina. I, her mom, will be with her as she flies straight home.

We want to do everything we can to support Cassandra, Natavia and the rest of their family while they navigate the surgeries and things they need in the days and months to come. Thank you for your consideration.