I was interviewed today on an Internet radio show about my near death auto accident and my business. The following is what happened, you can listen to the interview and be motivated by clicking on http://tiny.cc/prfPh.
On July 5, early in the morning I was going to take my stepson to the airport so that he could move back with his Father. Aaron (12) was in the back seat while waiting for other members of my family to come out of the house.
I had backed straight out of the garage at the end of my house on the driveway waiting for them. After a while, realizing we were going to be late to the airport, I got out of the SUV to get them.
When I stepped out of the SUV and closed the door, to my surprise, the SUV started to move backwards. I immediately saw the possibility of the SUV (with my stepson) going straight back through the neighbors house. Not wanting him hurt, I immediately opened the door and jumped in the SUV to hit put my foot on the brake.
As I did this, the SUV backed up off the driveway where it dropped a little onto the grass. I live on a basement lot, which slopes down. As the SUV dropped, my foot slipped off of the brake and then got caught between the brake and the floorboard.
I was jerked out of my seat and fell out of the open door as the SUV picked up speed going backwards with my foot stuck. I am now hanging upside down, facing skyward with my head just inches above the ground, going backwards with the SUV door hitting me, up to 10-15 miles per hour going down the hill behind my house.
As I looked towards the end of the SUV, traveling backwards, the vehicle was no longer headed towards the neighbor’s house, but their metal fence. As I saw it get closer, I knew it was going to hurt.
The back of the SUV ran over the corner of the neighbor’s metal fence which caused pieces to stick straight up and where my right leg was basically torn from the knee to the groin in pieces to the bone. As the SUV continued backwards, the fence pressed my body against the open door crushing my body forward with the door. Somehow my leg was wrenched free and my body was now under the vehicle.
I then looked up from seeing my leg torn to the bone to watch with horror the front of the SUV roll over my entire mid-section as I screamed “Nooooo!”. But, of course, “Yes” was the real answer.
My pelvis was broken straight in half from the front to the back and crushed the part of the right side. I literally felt each bone break and crush.
The last thing that I remember was the paramedics. I don’t remember anything at all for the next 6 days while I was in ICU. I have been through 7 operations and 3 complete blood transfusions, all within 10 days.
They told me I went through 3 separate operations the first day for a total of 13 1/2 hours to keep me alive. I spent 26 days in the hospital and am home now.
God must have other plans for me because I am still here and was told that I departed 3 times the first week. I am currently confined to a hospital bed in my home and a wheelchair.
The good news: I’m alive, though I wasn’t when I arrived at the hospital (so I’m told), I am not paralyzed (though they weren’t sure the first few days), I will walk again in another 2-3 months.
I truly feel blessed about all the things that I have just stated and I can run my business from my hospital bed, a phone and the Internet. I have a family that cares deeply about me and helps me to do what I used to take for granted.
It has been said to me that something like this and all the stress that it brings either rips your family apart or brings them closer together. I am happy to say that through all of what we have been through, we remain strong, stronger than before the accident. Love your family and be thankful for what you have, you never know when it can be gone.
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