A woman nearly died when she lost half her arm in a horror camping holiday quad bike accident - but says she feels more confident as an amputee.
Lidia Reina, 22, was driving a four-person quad bike with friends in September 2020 when the vehicle flipped onto its side after hitting a rock.
Lidia, then 19, instinctively put out her arm to cushion the fall - and her arm ended up crushed beneath the vehicle.
After being rushed to hospital, Lidia, from Phoenix, Arizona, feared she wouldn't survive as she was sent for an emergency arm amputation.
After losing her arm she felt unlovable and encouraged boyfriend Moises, now 20, to find "someone who could hug him properly."
But he stuck by her side and supported Lidia as she adapted to her new way of life - before proposing to her the following year.
Two years on, Lidia is the happiest she has ever been after marrying Moises last month.
Looking back, Lidia said losing her arm allowed her to "truly love herself" and is more confident now than before her accident."
Lidia said: "We weren't going crazy fast and everything was going fine until we hit the rock - suddenly we were sideways and my arm was under the vehicle."
"When the vehicle was lifted off me, I saw my arm all purple just dangling down - and I kept repeating 'am I going to die?'."
"All I could think was 'I can't die yet, I have too much life left to live - this can't be the end of my story'."
"At the hospital I was told I would lose my arm but I didn't cry or scream because at that point all I could focus on was staying alive."
"When I first came home from hospital I didn't know what to do with myself."
"But my now-husband and God got me through and now I'm much more confident."
"Now you will never catch me bringing myself down. I never say bad things about myself."
"I didn't start loving myself completely until I lost my arm."
Lidia thought nothing of it when, during a camping trip with her Church camp, she decided to go out for a spin on a fellow campmate's quad bike on September 5, 2020.
But Lidia, who was driving, started to notice the road get more and more bumpy as they entered a quiet track in some woodlands.
Before she could steer to avoid it, a rock appeared on the path and the quad hit it - causing the vehicle to topple and slam down onto its side.
She said: "I have fast reflexes from playing sport in school - I was trying to protect my head so it wouldn't hit the ground."
"Instead, my arm was crushed."
"It hurt, but it happened so fast that I was in shock. There was music playing from the radio, but all I could hear was buzzing."
Luckily a local sheriff was in the otherwise quiet area attending to a callout about a different issue - which Lidia believed saved her life.
The sheriff and a family who happened to be camping nearby, away from all the other campers, ran over to help and lifted the quad.
She said: "I looked at my arm and it looked like someone had dug a hole and put my arm in it, with my hand poking out the other side."
"I couldn't even feel it at this point. I had crushed my own arm and I was losing blood."
"I couldn't believe what was happening - I had never even been in a car accident before."
"I just kept asking if I was going to die."
"Luckily there had been people nearby - if they hadn't been there, I would have lost too much blood and I actually would have died."
She recalled having to 'lift up her dangling arm' to climb out of the window before blacking out.
When she woke up moments later, she said her eyes were covered so she wouldn't see her arm, which she later learned had turned purple.
She was driven to an area where she could be collected by air ambulance and was rushed to the nearest hospital - which took two hours in total.
She said: "I kept being asked my name and I was imagining it was so they knew what to put on my headstone."
"I kept thinking it couldn't be real, this stuff only happens in movies."
"And then I was thinking 'God, if it's my time to leave then let it be so, but I think there's still a purpose in my life'."
Lidia woke up when she arrived at HonorHealth Hospital, Scottsdale, and recalled a moment "like an episode of Grey's Anatomy" as countless doctors in scrubs rushed to her."
She was immediately taken to surgery - because her arm would need to be amputated just above the elbow.
She said: "When I woke from surgery, I looked down to my left side and couldn't see an arm."
"I asked the doctors 'Where's my arm? Why couldn't you save my arm?'"
Several days later Lidia was discharged from hospital - and could begin the process of coming to terms with the permanent change.
She recalled first feeling very low - and even feeling that she wasn't good enough for then-boyfriend Moises.
Lidia said: "I Facetimed him and told him we couldn't be together."
"I said 'you deserve someone who can give you everything and I can't do that right now - I can't even hug you any more'."
"But he looked at me like I was psycho and told me he would love me anyway."
Following her accident, Lidia said she began reading self-improvement books and became more spiritually connected with her faith.
She said: "At first I would just wonder how I'd ever feel confident enough to post on Instagram without two arms."
"But eventually the experience taught me the woman I am - I learnt my personality and my value."
In fact, Lidia feels now that she's stronger than before the accident - because overcoming it improved her mindset.
She and Moises got married last month - and Lidia experienced her dream of becoming a wife as she learnt to embrace the past while moving forward with her life.
Lidia said: "I'm so much more confident now than before my accident."
"You will never catch me bringing myself down. I never say bad things about myself."
"Before the accident I would wish I could change things about myself and I don't feel that way about anything now."
"Before my accident, I didn't love myself in the way I do now."
"I didn't start loving myself completely until I lost my arm."