hit by a drunk driver going backwards on the expressway
on january 1 2013 at 3:21 a.m. i was on my way home when i was hit by a drunk driver going the wrong way on a one way express way. I was in a 2012 ford focus and the drunk woman was in a jeep wrangler. she hit me head on on my drivers side and we were both going 70 mph. somehow my car stayed together as her jeep smashed in the front of my car using it as a ramp and trapping me inside. She wasn’t wearing her seatbelt and was ejected threw her windshield and downs the road. when she hit my car she smashed it and trapped me inside. the first fire department that arrived was unable to get my car open and needed to get assistance from another fire department. i had shattered my femur and broke my hip along with a compound fracture of my tibia and fibia, all on my left leg and hip. my femur after shattering was pushed back threw my leg and was sticking into my seat. it was over a half hour after the responders arrived before they were able to get me out of my car. i had lost so much blood that they had to survival flight me to University of Michigan hospital. Where they had a plan on putting me back leg and hip back together in two separate surgeries, but just before they started the head of bone surgery arrived at the hospital and said he could do it in one surgery. the worked on my leg for over 4 hours.
i remember waking up after surgery and i had no idea what had happened to me. my family was there. They explained to me what happened and not 5 minutes after more doctors ran into my room and told me that my spleen had ruptured and i needed to go into surgery immediately. i had just came out of anesthesia so i had to be awake for the next surgery. i remember screaming and having to be held down by multiple nurses as the doctors made an incision and shoved a metal rod into my abdomen to fix my spleen. the surgery took 4 hours and i remember a lot of it.
to fix my leg they put a titanium rod from my ankle to my knee, from my knee to my hip, to hold my hip on they put a big titanium bolt in it that now sticks way out of my hip. the doctors told me if i worked hard i would be able to walk again in 3 months. i was stuck in the hospital for the next week on tons of pain killers having horrible vivid nightmares that i still remember two years later.after a week they wanter to send me to a half way home with other people who where injured. luckily for my my parents let me live in there living room and took care of me fore the next month and a half before i was able to go home for the first time.
once i was at home my leg had finally improved enough to walk around with crutches on my own. this was still very hard on my because i have a dog to take care of and need to go up and down stairs a lot in my house. i had physical therapy 4 days a week for the next few months. i was off of work for over 7 months, but after a lot of hard work and pushing myself harder then i ever thought i could. I was able to return to work as a carpenter.
i still have many problems every day with walking doing my job, almost ever part of my life really is affected in one way or another by my accident. to be honest i feel like a completely different person now two years later. i have been a skateboarder since i was 13 years old and i am now 27. skateboarding is one of the greatest passions of my life. it has taught me more about myself than anything or anyone else could. to have someone permanently take away my artistic identity in how i expressed myself was very hard on me. I have a permanent limp from my accident and i am un able to run anymore or deal with high impact activities. i still try to skateboard. I am still able to have fun with my hobby but not int the same way or to the same extent that i used to.
