My car accident.
The day of my accident started like any other day. I went to my little sister’s house, visited her and my nephew, and we even went on a ride because she wanted to get out of the house. I had one of my guy friends with me as well. Around 8pm, my sister had asked me to take her and the baby home. Not long after that, my friend asked me to drop him off as well. On my way home, only 5 minutes from home, I was hit. I was in a left turning lane, to cross over the highway onto a backroad to go home. I was stopped for a car previous to the car that hit me. I thought I was good to go because I hadn’t seen any other cars. But on May 3, 2016, a young driver with no headlights on, went under my hood through the passenger fender and out through the driver side fender. My car did a whole 360, forcing me into the passenger seat of my vehicle. My left arm snapped upon impact, my legs ripped through the gear shifter, radio, and air conditioner. I was never unconscious, and I had seen another vehicle heading towards our crash. I swung open the passenger door to let them know I was still in my vehicle and that I was alert. The first thing I seen when I looked down was my snapped arm, I tried to move but my legs just wouldn’t go. The vehicle that was heading towards our crash parked and the people in the car rushed to us to see if we were okay. I tried to hand my phone to them several times, with my grandmothers contact already pulled up, but they wouldn’t call. They repeatedly asked me if I had a baby in the car, bc I had still had my nephews car seat intact. They had said that the boy that hit me kept asking. An ambulance had shown up and they pulled me out of my car and rushed me to a local hospital where I was examined, sedated , and lifeflighted to a better hospital. Once there I was taken into immediate surgery. I had 2 broken ankles and a broken arm, which I had already knew about my arm. Both bones in my lower forearm had snapped, my left ankle was completely crushed. The doctor had described the injury to my left ankle as if you had a bag of chips and threw them on the ground and stomped on it repeatedly. My right ankle wasn’t as bad. Within two weeks I had 4 surgeries. The first one for my right ankle, just lining up the bones, in hopes that they would heal without hardware. The second for my left arm which required 2 plates and 12 screws. The third was my left ankle, which had to be fused because of the extensive damage. And the last was for my right ankle again, because a bone had slipped, I had to get 2 plates. While I was recovering, I asked about the boy that hit me, to find out he went home the night of the accident. I was in disbelief that I would have all of these injuries, and he got to go home?! His car rolled and caught fire!! And HE got to go home?! He had a bruised lung and 3 bruised ribs, along with some burns. I was furious! How could this boy who was driving with no headlights on, hit me and cause this much damage, but got to walk away as if nothing ever happened!? He had already gotten a new car a week into my hospital stay! I was in the hospital for 3 weeks, then was sent to a specialized facility for a month. June 20, 2016, I went home to my mother’s, still unable to walk. July 15, 2016 the doctor, who is the top orthopedic surgeon in my state, gave me the okay to learn how to walk again. I had been saying my whole stay at the facility, that I would be walking again before my nephew’s 2nd birthday, and hearing that I would be brought tears of joy to my eyes! August 7, 2016 we had his party, even though his birthday wasn’t until the next week. I got to go to his party on a scooter most of the time, but I had a walker with me as well to try and get around. Not too long after that I had retired the walker, but was still double booted. And as I made progress, I had retired the boots as well. I was getting around semi-normal, but my toes on my left foot had started to curl under. The doctor that performed all of my surgeries referred me to another top specialist. This doctor had told me that a tendon in my leg had snapped and that I would need a tendon release. He also informed me that over time my body will develop severe arthritis and I’ll have to get surgeries for the rest of my life. Possibly would have to get my right ankle fused as well. December 27, 2016, I went in for the surgery and was booted again, and had to use a walker again. I’m currently still recovering, I can’t get the boot off until I go back to the doctor on the 15th to get my stitches out. After that I should be able to return to physical therapy, where I have been since August 2x a week. I was going 3x a week, but with improvement, they lowered it. I suffer from PTSD. I had to get anti- anxiety medication. I keep pushing off talking to someone because I’m just trying to forget that it ever happened. But it’s hard to forget when everyday, every time I try to walk, or every time I look at my scars, are constant reminders that it did. I still get extremely emotional talking about what happened, and cried most of the time while I was typing my story.
