Sherri Westbrook, of Webster City, spoke at Thursday’s DSAOC vigil in Fort Dodge. Westbrook detailed her experiences as a domestic violence survivor.

FORT DODGE — By all accounts, Sherri Westbrook should be dead.

The Webster City woman said doctors along with members of the SWAT team who saved her from her violent boyfriend in 2020 also have no idea how she survived the brutal attack.

Westbrook detailed her experiences with domestic violence Thursday during the Domestic Sexual Assault Outreach Center’s annual candlelight vigil in Fort Dodge.

“I’m still haunted by it,” said Westbrook. “Loud noises scare me. My memory isn’t sharp. I did EMDR. I don’t sleep well still. I had to have my hip replaced. But I really want to say are things that I’ve learned. Please reach out and tell somebody. It can happen to anybody. If it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone.”

Westbrook told more than three dozen attendees at St. Paul Lutheran Church about her survival story and how she survived a horrific attack that resulted in two broken orbital bones, a broken nose, broken wrist, and how members of a SWAT team saved her life after she was taken hostage and hit with the butt of a shotgun by her former boyfriend.

“Domestic violence affects everyone,” said Westbrook. “It affects everyone in the family. It affected my adult children. We have to stop normalizing domestic violence.”

During the vigil, attendees read victims’ stories that were placed on red silhouettes. Members of the crowd audibly gasped hearing the horror stories of what some victims experienced.

According to Brenda McBride, executive director of DSAOC, since Jan. 1, 1995, 404 Iowans have lost their lives to domestic violence – 279 women were killed by their partners, 50 men were killed by their partners, and 75 bystanders’ lives were cut short.

“These numbers are not just statistics,” said McBride. “They represent people — mothers, fathers, children, friends — each one with a story. Tonight, we focus on three things: strength, hope, and remembrance.”