He saved my life
My story begins in November of 2008. I was a senior at Father Ryan High School, caption of the varsity swim and dive team, student ambassador, eucharist minister, involved in countless clubs, CYO and volunteered on a regular basis. I had been dating a great guy, Zak, for a few months now. Like most stories, one moment would change everything…
On the night of November 29th, 2008, my boyfriend, Zak, and I left his house around 11:30 and headed for mine. We got into his 2003 gray convertible mustang GT with the exhaust, cold air intake, tune, throttle body, x pipe, and short shifter. In other words, it was fast. We pulled out of his subdivision and onto Holt Road. The speed limit on Holt is 40, but we took off at over 70, which was nothing out of the ordinary for Zak. We had gotten less then mile away when Zak decided to pass the car in front of us on a double yellow line, and again, this was nothing out of the ordinary for him. We pulled out, he revved up, and we passed them. Then Zak lost control.
The roads were slick and his tires were bald and, of course, we were speeding. We spun around, went off the road, hit a ditch, flipped, went up 9 feet, and then wrapped around a tree.
The car we passed called 911.
My mom had texted me, and when I didn’t respond, she called. When I didn’t answer, she called Zak. When he didn’t answer, she called his mom. She answered and my mom asked if we had left yet. His mom said we should have been home by then, since we only lived 10 minutes away. Then she said she just heard a bunch of sirens go by. By then my mom had her shoes on and ready to drive the way we should have come and Zak’s mom did the same. She made my brother stay home in case we did show up. My mom and a friend had just pulled out of the driveway when she called Zak’s mom again. Since his mom was closer, she came up on the accident before they did. She told my mom we had crashed and the paramedics are telling us to go to Vanderbilt. My mom said no she is coming to the scene.
When my mom got there, they had already gotten Zak out. That took them about 15 minutes. From the time the rescue team got there to when I got in the ambulance was 58 minutes. The team that was there was some of the best Nashville has to offer. The fire chief told us that all of they never work on the same night, but some of them were working double shifts, some were putting in over time, and some were off that day but came in anyway. They were definitely angels in disguise.
One of them is named Kelly Guess. He worked on me for about 40 minutes. My left leg was wrapped in the floor board of the car and pinned against the tree. The worked on it for about fifteen minutes, thought I was going to lose it at the scene, turned around to get another tool, and it was like someone had greased my leg and it just slid out. He couldn’t explain it. By the time the paramedics got there, I had already lost over half my blood. Kelly told them that if they didn’t stop the bleeding, I was going to bleed to death. Then, like someone had turned a facet, the bleeding just stopped.
We headed for Vanderbilt and the orders had already been placed to remove my left leg and possibly my right. When I got there, they immediately took me from the E.R. and headed for the O.R. They thought I was bleeding internally, and had to operate. They gave me a less than 20% chance to live. While they were stabilizing my neck, one of the no-fancy-title doctors called the head orthopedic surgeon and old him he thought my legs could be saved. The ortho surgeon (Dr. O) could have easily said I trust the trauma doctors and I’m not on call, but he got out of bed at 2:30 in the morning and came to Vandy. He told the trauma doctors, “You save her life; I’m gonna save her legs.” And he did.
I ended up breaking both tibia and fibula in my legs, both femurs, my left leg was compound which means the break came through the skin and my left leg was also de-gloved which means that all the “meat” was torn off. My right leg was a crush injury. I broke my pelvic bone in 2 places, 3 of my 5 fingers in my right hand, and my C2 vertebrate was completely broken, which is also called “The Hangman’s Fracture” and I should have died instantly. But I didn’t.
Zak broke his left arm, his right shoulder was dislocated, he broke his right leg, and ankle, and he had a ruptured spleen and massive head trauma. The doctors did everything they could for him, but God had other plans and no matter how much I needed Zak here, God needed him more. Zak passed away around 3:30.
I ended up having 16 surgeries and I was in trauma for 2 weeks, trauma step-down for 4 weeks, children’s 4 weeks, and Stallworth for 4 weeks. A total of 96 days in the hospital.
The injuries that Zak had, was the result of him saving my life. he took the blunt of the hit for me. Had it not been for him, who knows what would have happened.
