Most life-changing stories don’t begin with a tortilla truck. But for Dorrin B. Rosenfeld, that unlikely vehicle became the dividing line between the life she had planned and the one she never saw coming.
In her early twenties, Rosenfeld had her future all lined up: a degree from Amherst College, a plan for medical school, and a short detour teaching science as a Peace Corps volunteer in Belize. That plan took a sharp turn in December 1985, when she was struck by a tortilla delivery truck and left in a coma for six weeks.
She woke up thousands of miles away in a hospital in Boston with no memory of the accident and only faint recollections of her time in Belize. Her right side was paralyzed, her speech was slow and slurred, and her memory reset every few minutes. It was, in her words, “like being rebooted as a new version of myself.”
That new version — Dorrin 2.0, as she calls her post-accident self — spent months tied to a hospital bed in a rehabilitation center called The Greenery. The name would be comical if it weren’t so grim. It had once been a retirement home but had become a long-term care facility for people with severe brain injuries. No one left The Greenery, until she did.
Her memoir, The Day I Got Hit by the Tortilla Truck, is raw and honest, but not without humor. It’s part recovery story, part personal manifesto, and part unexpected spiritual awakening. From moments of complete confusion — like realizing she was tied to the bed because she kept trying to get up and walk — to rediscovering her independence through arguments with hospital staff, Rosenfeld’s voice is clear and grounded.
What elevates this memoir above the usual “triumph over tragedy” narrative is Rosenfeld’s refusal to sugarcoat the process. She doesn’t pretend she was grateful at first, or that she knew what she was doing. She had to relearn how to walk, speak, and even recognize faces — later learning she had a neurological condition called prosopagnosia, or face blindness, which had gone undiagnosed her entire life.
She also had to redefine her future. Medicine, as she’d originally imagined it, was no longer in reach. But after a chance introduction to chiropractic care, Rosenfeld found a new purpose — one that aligned not only with her healing journey but with her desire to help others heal on their own terms.
Throughout the book, there’s a steady theme of asking questions — sometimes to doctors, sometimes to herself, sometimes to the universe. It’s in these questions that the emotional heart of the memoir lives. She doesn’t offer neat answers, but instead something better: the sense that healing is messy, nonlinear, and deeply personal.
This isn’t a story about getting back to who she was. It’s about discovering who she could become, after everything fell apart.
Rosenfeld’s story isn’t extraordinary because of the accident — it’s extraordinary because of what she did with it. The Day I Got Hit by the Tortilla Truck is, at its core, about resilience, identity, and finding your voice again — one slow, deliberate step at a time.
About the Author
Dorrin B. Rosenfeld is a writer, chiropractor, and former Peace Corps volunteer whose life was upended by a traumatic brain injury in her early twenties. After surviving a near-fatal accident in Belize, she rebuilt her life from the ground up — relearning how to walk, talk, and dream again. She earned her Doctor of Chiropractic degree and has since dedicated her life to healing, teaching, and storytelling. Her memoir, The Day I Got Hit by the Tortilla Truck, is her first book.
Availability
The Day I Got Hit by the Tortilla Truck: My Healing Journey is now available on the official website, Amazon, and other online platforms in multiple formats; paperback, hardcover, e-Book. Follow the listed channels below to stay up to date with any exciting news and events regarding Rosenfeld and her literary journey: