BODY WEIGHT:

145 lb

Hi! I am writing to share my story here. I am a 26 year old U.S. Army veteran, I am still in the army reserves and I have been to Iraq. I am mostly posting this here because hopefully somebody who probably drives under the influence can read this, look at their choices from a different angle, and maybe think twice about driving drunk/high.

About 5 months ago, I became the victim of a drunk driver. I was returning home from work when I was plowed into by a woman in a truck who was driving drunk and with no insurance. This person should not have been driving in the first place. She has/had a prior history of delinquency, and this was not her first infraction.

What sucks is that because she was able to produce an insurance card at the scene (which was bogus or expired), she has not and will not be cited for driving without insurance. I have brought this up with my lawyer, the attorney general and the detective handling this case. Evidently, this is only a Class C misdemeanor and 'not that big a deal' according to them.

What's worse, it somehow took my law firm over a month to tell me that she had no insurance coverage at the time. According to them it had 'just lapsed'. But whatever.

This can be turned into a 'trip report' or sorts, delving deeply into some of the shifts in consciousness I underwent during this very unpleasant ordeal.

Although I came out of it with serious but reversable injuries (and a few permanent ones), I was actually very fortunate to have survived such a devestating and brutal physical trauma.

Here's how it happened:

The time is midnight.

I was standing at a crosswalk when I was struck so suddenly and so violently. Almost every bone in my face was broken, my left wrist and fingers were severly fractured, my right forearm was broken with bones poking through the skin, my ribs were cracked, my left leg was in quite a bit of pain, amy front teeth were knocked out and I was choking on my own blood. I was conscious the whole time I was waiting for the ambulance with some people who were on the scene, who off course helped me out by calling 911.

The moment I saw her running the red light, and saw her vehicle run into somebody else's, then spin in the air towards me (this all happened in a split second, mind you) I briefly thought 'Dam, I am witnessing a crazy accident'...

BLAM!

The bitch ended up almost hitting a gas pump, but not before hitting my body, which knocked me back about 60 feet or so. I don't recall if I was ever unconscious, I doubt it. The next thing I remember is standing up, facing the other direction and just being in such intense, undescribable pain that all I could do was yell. I screamed and I yelled VERY LOUDLY, sort of a primal expression of intense anger and I don't know what. it truely defies adjectives, to tell you the truth.

Somebody crossing the street with a cell phone saw me, and asked what was wrong or said something I don't remember. I was just so adrenal this whole thing seemed impossible. Almost like a dream. I specifically remember that at one point I thought I was watching a movie of this, or dreaming or tripping or SOMETHING. there was a concept of 'do I deserve this, I just got hit by a fucking truck, this only happens in movies' or something like that, but it was all fleeting. I even remember saying at some point that 'I'm gonna die now', and by now there were several people on the scene telling me I would live, and that my arm was just broken and I was bleeding alot and my teeth were knocked out. That the ambulance is on its way. Yeah, I know.

On the way to the hospital, on the stretcher, the paramedic kept asking me about my chest and back and legs, asking if it hurt anywhere. I was so concerned with choking on my blood or that I would stop breathing, so I kept having him suction the blood out of my nose and mouth, kept asking him if I was in any danger of choking lol. He kept telling me that he was more concerned with my 'more serious injuries'.

The hospital stay was very unpleasant. After my facial surgery, because I had my nose in a splint and my jaws wired shut, they put a tube in my throat so that I could breath. The tracheotomy left me unable to eat or speak for days, and was perhaps the most unpleasant thing about the whole experience.

I remember like after the second day of having that tube in, I woke up and asked for more and more benadryl, which they denied me. I just wanted to sleep the whole thing away, as they had informed me I would have the tube in for days. At one point (during which my sister was visiting) I asked one of the nurses how much longer before they took the tube out of my neck. She replied '5 more days'. My sister later told me that right after they told me that, my heart rate went up like 20 points lol! At that moment that was the worst news I had ever heard in my life. I have some vague memories of when they actually originally put in the tube, it was awful. I remember kicking and choking because they stuck a long, thin tube into my throat to 'suction me out' and I remember the doctors saying things like 'he thinks he's choking'. At some point I asked someone if they had given me Ketamine for the surgery, and she was like 'how did you know? Did you hear us'?

Both nurses and family members kept commenting on how I looked 'years younger' and 'as if I had botox injections' because of the surgery. I think alot of might have had to do with such a vigorous and extensive water fast. I actually do not consider it a fast, because I only didn't eat (Again, for almost a whole week) and my only sustenance was the I.V. and the few drops of water one nurse would come in and drop into my mouth on like the fourth day. I broke this 'fast' with a Boost shake, which I had to drink out of a straw because my jaws were wired shut.

I was fortunate that family members have allowed me to stay at thier places between my trips to my appointments (in a city in which I don't live). I have had to travel by greyhound bus many times, depleting my personal savings funds and borrowing left and right from friends and family members for cab fair and other travel expenses. The 'pain and suffering' portion of all this certainly isn't over. Not by a long shot.

It sucks because I am a tax-paying, law abiding citizen who has generally always stayed within the parameters of the law, who has done nothing but fullfill my obligations to the U.S. military, and it is very unfortunate that because somebody else didn't follow the law, I have to suffer for it. I would normally follow regular workout routines and eat a predominatly organic diet, so my health means alot to me. That night, years of hard work and dedication were taken from me. My right arm is still not fully healed, I have a huge and visible scar on my right forearm from the surgery from the surgery, several pieces of plate and metal in my arm and face, and I still have no front teeth. I lost three and a half teeth, and the dentist I saw pretty much described the extent of my injuries as very severe and very complicated. According to him 'it's a very long story'. He says I can't get implants for about a year and in the meantime I have to wear a retainer. Since the accident my jaw is misaligned and will require either surgery or braces to fix, and I will have to spend a long time waiting until this problem gets resolved. Worst of all, I have no financial means to take care of these very expensive procedures.

My only hope is that as time goes by my scars will diminish and my injuries will heal more, and that eventually I can go back to a 'normal' life. I am extremely depressed and understandably miffed at times, but it really is hard to pick an emotion to describe how this truly feels.

Thank you for reading this, to those who took the time. I have posted this on other forums and will likely post it all over the web, if nothing more than to raise awareness about the damage that can be caused in an instant. Dude, don't drink or drive! You could kill yourself or somebody else. I don't think how 'in control' you think you are.

Exp Year: 2006	ExpID: 62249
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Apr 30, 2007	Views: 43,059
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Alcohol (61), Fasting (178) : Post Trip Problems (8), Train Wrecks & Trip Disasters (7), Hospital (36)