Saved by a Cheer

RED OAK — The turn of events for one family on the night of July 21, read like the scenes from a horror movie.

But for those who know Cheyenne Borem, that night is only proof of how strong she is, how much she loves her family and friends, and how much cheerleading really means to her.

Cheyenne is a 15-year-old student at Red Oak High School who has already overcome great obstacles.

“All of her life she has wanted to be a cheerleader and was told that she couldn’t because she had a hearing problem and had to wear a hearing aid,” said Ann Borem, Cheyenne’s mother. “She was denied so many times.”

The battle to get Cheyenne into cheerleading was finally won when Shauna Berendes, the current Red Oak cheerleading coach, stepped up to advocate for Cheyenne’s position on the squad.

“The day that I got that phone call from Shauna... my heart dropped,” Cheyenne said. “Shauna said, ‘I’ve got good news. You made the squad,’ I dropped the phone, yelling and jumping up and down. I was so excited.”

That excitement and passion for cheerleading is what helped Cheyenne continue to overcome when the worst and unimaginable happened.

Cheyenne, Ann and Cheyenne’s sister, Kayla, went to visit Ann’s mother in Peru, Ill., this summer and were asleep in her house when they were suddenly attacked.

On the night of July 21, Richard Vasquez, 30, Cheyenne’s step-uncle, attacked her using two different sizes of steak knives and a butcher knife.

He gagged her with a washcloth, put a pillow over her head and stabbed her repeatedly, puncturing her nine times, cutting her 25 times and breaking a knife off into her back.

He then choked her with a belt and tried to rape her.

“What surprised me is that after being stabbed.... I still tried to get up and run. That’s how I got to know I was really strong,” Cheyenne said about the experience. “He was growling and grunting while he was stabbing me all over.”

Ann and Kayla were awakened by the commotion and were also assaulted when they tried to help Cheyenne.

Vasquez hit Ann over the head with an electric guitar, and hit Kayla with the guitar and a lamp.

After the assault, Vasquez ran from the house. It was Kayla who rushed to her sister’s aid, performing CPR and slapping Cheyenne in the face to revive her and keep her awake until the paramedics got there.

Kayla also pulled the blade out of Cheyenne’s back. Ann was unconscious.

Cheyenne flat-lined five times and had to have several blood transfusions. The rescue teams and doctors couldn’t use a defibrillator on her due to the extent of open wounds on her body, so many consider it a miracle Cheyenne is still alive.

Vasquez was found an hour later in a field by police. He admitted to being under the influence of bath salts during the incident and was charged with first degree attempted murder with a possible sentence of 30 years in prison.

“Its’ not enough. A lifetime is not enough for what he put her through,” Ann said. “She has to deal with this for the rest of her life.”

It took more than 1,000 stitches and staples in and outside of her body simply to close the wounds she sustained during the attack. Two bones and the nerve in her back were severed.

She had to have nerve graphs, taking nerves from her leg to replace nerve tissue in her back. More surgery is required to correct the damage done in the attack.

“The doctor said, ‘I’m not a miracle worker. It’s in the hands of God now. It will be a miracle if she makes it through the night, let alone ever walk again,’” Ann said, quoting the doctor who worked on Cheyenne.

Two days later, Cheyenne was proof miracles do happen.

“She walked her second day at the hospital. She just wanted to go home,” Ann explained.

Cheyenne repeated her favorite cheer, “The Victory Cheer” over and over again in the hospital.  

“It’s what held her together... the cheerleading,” Ann said. “Her main goal was to come home and get back to cheerleading. She kept doing her victory cheer in bed and had all the nurses doing it. They were doing it as she was leaving the hospital.”

“All I kept saying in the hospital was ... I’m a cheerleader. I need to get back to my team and my girls and I need to support them,” Cheyenne said.

“When all along they were supporting her,” Ann added, “and now the community is pulling together to help out with the thousands of dollars of bills that we’ve got.”

The Borem’s insurance will not cover the medical costs from the stabbing because it happened outside of the state of Iowa.

Sandy and Annita Reich, of Red Oak, are longtime friends of the Borem family and Jessica Reich is Cheyenne’s best friend, so it was only natural when they stepped up and began organizing benefits and charities to help pay Cheyenne’s medical bills.

“They’re expecting at least two more surgeries and the bills could reach close to $1 million,” Sandy Reich said. “We’ve got to help.”

Activities this weekend included a dinner at the Eagles Club in Red Oak, with live auctions and raffles, and live entertainment from Jim Wymore and the Rock and Country Band, as well as a three-day garage sale on 16th Street in Council Bluffs.

A total of $2,626 was raised through the benefits this weekend, with more expected to come.

Meanwhile, Cheyenne remains charismatic and optimistic. She jokes about her scars, calling them her temperature gauge and is back to cheering with her squad.

“Cheerleading is my biggest thing of all,” Cheyenne said when asked what helped her to move past the ordeal and focus on her future.

Her favorite thing about cheerleading is being with the girls and getting the crowd to cheer back.

“She really is a Tiger,” Ann said.

Now Cheyenne wants to be a drug advocate with the message “Drugs do hurt.”

“She has the scars to prove it,” Ann said. “He was on synthetic bath salts when he did this.”

The Borem’s say the attacker, Vasquez, is pleading not guilty due to temporary insanity because of the severe hallucinogenic effect the drug has when taken.

Vasquez isn’t being charged for the drugs, as they were legal at the time of the incident.

Cheyenne’s hope is for bath salts to become illegal and banned nationwide. She plans to rally for such, exhibiting herself as living proof of the harm drugs cause not just to those who take them, but to innocent bystanders nearby.

Cheyenne now refers to her attacker as “The Boogie Man,” and to her grandmother’s house as “The Nightmare House,” while Ann compared it to the Villisca Ax Murder House.

“If days were longer and the night were shorter her healing would be 100 percent faster,” Ann said. “The nights are terrifying for her. He attacked her in her sleep and she couldn’t even hear him coming.”

“Now I can never go back... but they are making me for court,” Cheyenne said of Illinois. “And what’s worse is out of all days they had to put it on Halloween. So I have to see The Boogie Man on Halloween.”

Cheyenne is receiving counseling and medical treatment to help her cope with the trauma this experience has caused.

“We were going to pull her out of school and do homeschooling, but Cheyenne wanted to go to public school and do cheerleading,” Ann explained.

The Borem’s appreciate all the support that helps Cheyenne to do just that.

“It (tragedy) brings the whole community together and the whole community is family,” Ann said. “That’s the way we see it here. One for all and all for one.”

Donations will continue to be accepted, mostly through an account in Cheyenne’s name at any Great Western Bank. Those interested can also donate online through Paypal at Gjoint@yahoo.com under Cheyenne Borem.

Federal drug officials have issued a temporary ban on the chemicals being packaged as bath salts, with the DEA stating the synthetic stimulants are “an imminent hazard to public health.”

The temporary ban will remain in place as the government considers a more permanent solution.