“Miss Currie, you lost your leg.”
Those words hit Bianca Currie harder than the vehicle that collided with her in 2017 following a car accident outside of Atlanta, Georgia.
The 5-foot-4 fashion model had ventured into the city with friends for a night of summer dancing. She vaguely remembers getting into a two-car accident on her way home along I-20. The last thing she recalls is making a conscious choice to check on the other car’s safety.
But as Bianca attempted to exit her vehicle, she was hit by oncoming traffic – losing a tremendous amount of blood and resulting in her being rushed to Grady Memorial Hospital (GMH), where she was resuscitated on an emergency room table. She was then placed into a medically-induced coma, allowing medical personnel to save her. They were successful, but Bianca’s second chance at life came at a steep price.
“Miss Currie, we had to amputate your left leg.”
Waking from the coma, Bianca was confused. She believed the doctors were asking for permission to amputate.
“I said, ‘NO!’” the fashion model recalled. “I told them, ‘I am going to leave and walk right out of here!’”
She rose from the bed, only to come crashing down to the floor. Life as Bianca had known it would never be the same.
“Oh shit – this is really real,” Bianca recalled thinking as she pushed herself up from the hard ground of the Level 1 Trauma Center.
“I didn’t really comprehend the severity of what was going on,” explained the Jamaican native who immigrated to Boston at the age of eight. “It wasn’t until I got home and saw all my shoes – that’s when I broke down crying.”
Bianca Currie spent six weeks at GMH rehabilitating her body, while struggling to come to grips with her new reality.
“The physical part was easier,” she said. “My body healed so fast. I learned how to walk on the prosthetic leg the first day they gave it to me.”
The mental hurdles of living with one leg have been the hardest. It’s something she continues to deal with and it takes a tremendous amount of courage to push forward each day. Cannabis, she says, has been her saving grace.
Bianca began using Cannabis at the age of 15, but her usage accelerated as an adult. Without therapy, she turned to the plant as an outlet for her stress.
“Five years later, I still haven’t got [therapy],” sighed Bianca. “I’d love to do it if given the opportunity.”
Following the accident, she went to live with her mother in Georgia. Eight months later, she secured her own place, but things still didn’t feel right. Wanting a change of scenery, Bianca returned to the area she spent her formative years – claiming residence in Brockton, Mass. in 2021. She still resides there serving as a customer agent for an electrical company that services National Grid and a variety of other outlets that help power America.
“I smoke a lot,” she said, noting a preference of rolling her own papers or leaves. “If I’m not working, I smoke 10 blunts per day. When I’m at work though, I don’t smoke at all. I don’t even think about smoking.”
Bianca turned 33 in January and has spent much of this past winter in deep reflection – asking herself where she has been, where she was, and where she wants to be.
“I feel like I’m coming out of a dark place now,” she said. “When I came back to Boston, I was in that dark place. I was isolating myself. I wasn’t able to see eye-to-eye with people. It felt like my vision was blurred.”
Time spent modeling, doing television and serving as an extra in movies had given Bianca dreams of being on the big screen. But that time has come and gone, she says. Her goal now is to inspire the next generation to dream big. Leaning on her experience as a survivor, she has written a children’s book.
“I have a series called ‘Bee Bee Goes to School’ – it’s about a little Black girl who has a prosthetic leg. She’s in school surrounded by other disabled children. I think it can help disabled children be more comfortable with themselves. [The series] is all about validation and inclusion,” said Bianca.
The inspiration for the series comes from her post-accident occupation as an educational counselor. Bianca worked at a preschool for two years until the pandemic shut down the country. During that time, her heart was filled as she led children in sing-a-longs, as well as serving as the orator to their daytime reading.
“Children like to use their imagination,” she said. “They want to read a book they’ll actually enjoy – that they’ll remember. I think for some, mine will do that.”
Bianca Currie still experiences phantom pain in her leg, something that is common in amputees, she said. She also struggles with the fitting of her prosthetic. Even the slightest changes in weight can call for an alteration, which takes up to two months to make.
“If my leg is in good standing, I’m good,” she said. “But if I have pain, that becomes my focus and I’m not good.”
Cannabis helps reduce that inflammation. It also bolsters her creativity, helping her dive deeper into the creative well for the “Bee Bee Goes to School” series.
“When I turned 33, I said this is the year everything changes,” Bianca said. “I’m tired of blaming people [or circumstances]. That chapter is done. This is a new chapter. It’s about realization and taking accountability.”
“If I’m sick or ill, who’s going to do it?” she asked. “It’s all on me. I gotta carry on. I’ve got to pick myself up. I’ve got to give myself a pep talk. I’m trying to help young kids shape the world and make a better tomorrow. So moving forward, I’ve gotta make better decisions – even down to who I surround myself with or who I conversate with. I am doing what I gotta do to better myself.”
Bianca Currie can be found on Instagram @Billionsan_billions. She can also be reached at BS7enterprises@gmail.com.
