My Personal Storm
From: Henry () Story type: NDE Location: on my way home Source: Form Submission
It was a cold and lazy day, 4th Jan. 1996. By 3:30 my day was
finished at the work, and I was on my way home to Bruce Township. While
coming up M 53, I decided to take the 27 mile cut-off onto Old Vandyke.
I started slowing down and turned into the left turn lane. I saw that
the light was green so I started across the intersection at about 35
mph. Half way across the intersection, out of the corner of my eye, I
see the cab of a tractor trailer rig barring down on me hard and fast.
I knew for sure he had me, but it looked like I was far enough past
that he would not hit the cab of the pickup. I thought if I can just
gun the engine a little bit I'll get far enough past him so that he
might just clip me throwing me into a spin. But no such luck. The truck
was hauling two trailers full of logs and he was traveling like a
rocket sled on rails. He hit me full broad side, just catching the rear
portion of the cab of my truck. It was like being hit by a runaway
locomotive.
I thank God that I was not wearing a seatbelt , because I surely
would have died that day if I had not been thrown from the vehicle. I
went feet first, through the driver's side window, after bouncing off
the grill of the semi truck.
The impact made me lose consciousness for a few seconds, so I don't
remember going through the window, but I remember flying through the
air and landing on my right side fracturing four of my ribs, in a whole
lot of places, and deflating my right lung. My hand was broken coming
through the window and I received cuts and lacerations all over my
body, the worst being a three inch cut on the left side of my head
which severed a main artery.
The next thing I remember a woman was kneeling over me applying
pressure to the severed artery to keep me from bleeding to death. She
said she was a nurse and she kept telling me to lie still so she could
keep pressure on the wound. I could hear in the background a man making
calls on a cell phone Then he asked if I was married and I told him
yes. He then asked for my phone no. and proceeded to call my wife.
The semi fishtailed on the freeway, spilling both loads of logs all
over the freeway. Fortunatly none of them landed on me. The Driver was
treated at the hospital and released. With no apparent injuries.
At this point I wanted to see what was going on so I opened my eyes
and raised my head to look back over my shoulder. For a split second I
could see twenty or thirty people scrambling all over the place doing
everything they could do to save my life, but when I moved my head the
woman who said she was a nurse lost pressure on the wound and my eyes
felt a burning and stinging as they immediately filled up with blood.
About this time EMS showed up and took over the scene. The nurse
quietly walked away without filing a police report or telling anyone
her name. There is no doubt in my mind that if it had not been for her
I would have bled to death before I made it to the hospital. Although I
didn't get a chance to meet her or thank her or even see her face, she
will always be a hero in my eyes , along with the man with the cell
phone, and each and everyone of the people who stopped to help.
As I lay there bleeding to death in the road I could hear the words
and the music that old song from the 70's called DOA, blasting away in
my head. I calmly accepted the fact that I was going to die and I made
peace with my God, but I was determined I was not going to give up
easily.
Whenever EMS took over they slid a backboard under me and applied a
rag on the side of my head where the blood was gushing from, however
this didn't restrict the blood flow. It just diverted the blood flow
into my ear. My ear immediately filled up with blood and I could feel
the warm blood running down my neck. They loaded me into the ambulance
and headed for the hospital which was approximately 12 to 15 miles away
. It was the worst ride I ever experienced. Because of the broken ribs
and the deflated lung I could not lie flat. They had to prop me up with
pillows to enable me to breathe, and every time they hit a bump it sent
me writhing in pain.
We arrived at the emergency room a short time later but it seemed
like an eternity to me. They rushed me straight into the emergency room
and immediately started to stitch up the gash in my head. When that was
done they tried to insert a central IV in my neck but were unsuccessful
because of my upright position. Every time they would force me to lie
flat my breathing would stop. After what seemed like an hour of trying
with no success, the Dr. took a large bent shaped breathing tube at
least 3/8" diameter and hammered it through my right nostril with the
palm of his hand then he shoved it all the way down into my lung. The
Dr. then inserted a smaller tube into the lung through the breathing
tube and began suctioning the fluid out of my lungs. [The pain was
unbelievable.] he then hooked me up to the breathing machine and
started giving me oxygen. They ran x-rays, did all sorts of tests. He
poked a row of holes about six inches apart, up the side of my body
cavity to check for internal bleeding. This was extremely painful. He
then made a three inch cut on the side of my chest and inserted a
suction tube into my chest, to inflate my lung and suction the blood
from my lung. The pain was worse than any nightmare you could have.
Then they hooked me up to a cathater, and a heart monitor.
I laid and suffered like this in ICU Ward for seven days, unable to
speak or move. The pain was so bad I couldn't sleep. In the position I
was laying the only thing I could see was the clock, and as each minute
passed it seemed like a thousand years. After four or five days they
decided that maybe I was going to live so they had a bone specialist
set my broken finger, but he did a real sloppy job of it. For five or
six days I didn't think I would live, but I was determined to stay
alive. Then after seven days they started to take off the machines one
at a time.
After ten days they sent me home, but then I had a whole new set of
problems to deal with. Without the breathing machine I could no longer
breathe laying down, so I had to sleep for the next two months sitting
up. With one hand in a cast and all my ribs broke I could not do
anything for myself. I couldn't dress myself or even go to the bathroom
by myself. My wife had to do everything for me, hobbling around on her
crippled leg.
My knuckle on my finger was set wrong, so after about seven weeks I
had to go back into surgery to get the knuckle reset. They sawed the
ball of the knuckle off and reset it in the proper position, using two
stainless steel pins. Then I sat home for another month not being able
to do anything for myself. Then I went through another two months of
therapy for my hand.
Now after all this time I still have only about half the grip
strength in my hand, and my right lung is smaller than the other one.
Sometimes as I bend or move a certain way I feel a pop pop as my lung
catches on my broken ribs, and my legs hurt all the time. I now have
dizzy spells as a result of the head injuries, and it's hard to
concentrate some times. I get short of breath and find myself gasping
for air every time I try to do anything. I still have back problems and
the doctors wont let me do any kind of vigorous activities like heavy
lifting, bending, stooping, golf or riding my bike. I have had severe
headaches every since this the accident. When I told the doctor he just
laughed and said they would eventually go away.
Now, a year and a half later I realize this was just another storm
in my life, and of those we have many, however this one brought about
total change in my life and being. Before the accident I always worried
about what others thought about me and I was depressed a lot because of
all the little problems that life bring, But now I praise the Lord
every day that I wake up to a new day, because I know that it's a
miracle that I'm still alive. Regardless of the pain and worries or bad
things that could happen I know that I'll never get depressed again
Because I have learned how precious life is. I have truly weathered the
storm!
http://henryslureworld.com/accident.html