Cassie Gosche never saw it coming.

On the afternoon of July 27, the 15-year-old Benton, Missouri, girl was riding with her dad, Torey, on state Highway 77. They were returning from her enrolling in classes in the Kelly school district. She was looking forward to her Spanish and chemistry classes, and while on her cellphone comparing schedules with a friend, a vehicle veered into the path of her dad's truck.

Cassie heard a "jolt" of the truck's engine and her dad screaming something, but what was happening didn't really register.

The vehicle hit the truck's front driver-side wheel, sending the truck careening off the roadway. It flipped several times before coming to rest upside down.

The next thing she was aware of was her dad asking whether she was OK. Grass was "seeping" inside the truck where the window should have been.

Kayleigh Holman, left, and Blaire Riley, right, kiss Cassie Gosche after the Kelly Lady Hawks won the 2022 MSHSAA Class 2 District 1 championship in 2022. Cassie suffered extensive injuries to her right arm and hand in a July vehicle crash. She hopes to return to the softball diamond next year.Semoball file

She felt an intense need to get out of the vehicle.

"I just knew I needed to get out. I just had this gut feeling that something was wrong."

Her right arm and hand were burning -- the most intense pain she'd ever felt.

"I just started screaming. It was the only thing I knew to do."

Unknown

First responders made the call to airlift her and her dad for emergency treatment.

Precautionary checks confirmed her dad had suffered only minor injuries.

Cassie was not as fortunate.

She said she must have been flailing around her right arm during the crash -- "nobody really prepares you what to do with your arms". The underside of her arm was shredded with glass.

"All the skin was gone, down to the muscle."

Her fingers and thumbs were a mess. She was set for the first of what would be several surgeries.

"They said that I might not be able to keep my thumb. ... So that was a big thing. Going into surgery, they told me they didn't know what they could save. I didn't know what I was going to come out of surgery with."

After that surgery and one a few days later, Cassie had her thumb, but not her fingers.

She had another surgery in October to remove glass from her thumb and arm, above her elbow. A fourth is set for December, this one to clean out more of the glass that remains. Complicating the procedure is the fact that one of the two main blood vessels feeding her hand has been severed. If the other gets damaged, she will lose all blood flow to her hand -- and use of it.

Cassie is battling neuromas, badly damaged nerves.

"The nerves attack the skin. So whenever someone touches it, it is super painful. They are going to wrap muscle around the bone so the nerves have something to do."

She hasn't yet determined how she wants to proceed with a prosthetic or other option for her hand.

"It's a big decision to make. At the age of 15, I don't want to regret it later."

Aftermath

Completing daily tasks many take for granted have become frustrating as she can't do many things "effortlessly". She noted, though, her injuries are to her right hand. She's left-handed.

From a young age, Cassie has suffered petit mal seizures, what she described as an "off balance" in the brain. Her study of them led to a keen interest in neurology, a field she still intends to make her career.

Her love of science has led her to approach her new reality with an analytical perspective, maintaining her focus on today rather than dwelling on a past she can't change or a future that hasn't yet unfolded.

"You kinda wonder, 'Why? Why you? But then at the same time, I wouldn't want it to have happened to anyone else. In the hospital, I kinda had to let that go, because I was like, 'Well, you are never gonna know. So you might as well move on from here.'"

Cassie said her ongoing physical and mental health care has helped her cope with a life she admits is "going to be difficult".

"No one around me has been through this, but I have met some people who have been through something similar, as the aspect of losing fingers. So that has definitely helped."

Among the things she misses are the sports she has played for most of her life. She said she looks forward to getting back on a softball diamond, though she will probably change positions from first base to the outfield because of the pain involved with catching hard-thrown or -hit balls. She is looking into a specially made glove.

"If I can't get back, it's not the end of the world because, obviously, things have changed."

As she prepares for her next surgery, Cassie has one piece of general advice.

"Appreciate things while you have them because you never know how long you'll have them for."