My wife, myself and our close friend and neighbor, Christine Lyn Watts, would commute to work from our homes in Manteca, California (in the Central Valley... an hour south of Sacramento) to the Bay Area at 4:00 a.m. every morning. Like any other morning, we got into our Jetta GLS and drove to work. I was driving, my wife, Liz, was in the front passenger seat and Christine was behind me. Due to the medication I was on in ICU, I don't remember this morning, the nine days after it or the night before. The California Highway Patrol report stated we were traveling down 580 East and got "in line" on the 680 South on ramp. It is at this point a truck driver fell asleep at the wheel and swerved into our lane and hit us at a stand still at 65 MPH. He was full loaded at 75,000 pounds and literally crushed the Jetta in half. Sadly our very dear friend Christine was crushed to death and killed instantly.
Details don't matter at this point. What matters is we lost a very close friend who we miss sooooo much. It's hard for me to even type this out because I think of how much I miss her. Even harder to accept, she, like my wife, was pregnant. So we lost two people that day. Fortunately, my wife faired the best and had serious injuries but was released from the hospital four days later.
For me, I faired worse then Liz. I broke three ribs in the front, three ribs in the back, three vertebrates, right collar bone, three deep and long cuts on my head, shattered my left arm (the humor), both lungs were punctured and filled with blood (65% of my lungs were filled), and deep cuts to my left leg and knee. I was in ICU for nine days and it was unknown if I was ever going to walk again or even survive the first three days. At one point, my nurse told my sister in-law that she didn't think I was going to make it on the third day and she was very nervous to look into my room the next day. She said that she was very surprised I had made it through the night. I was in serious bad shape. It was told that I should have died in the accident, died on the way to the hospital, and died at the hospital on two different occasions. But God is Great! He and the prayers of so many people (I'm talking hundreds to thousands!) kept me alive! I was truly a miracle.
While in ICU, they gave me medicine that "removed" my memory to relieve the shock. So, I don't remember anything of those days in ICU or the accident or the night before. I feel cheated that a part of my life was taken from me. My wife tells me I'm lucky I don't remember anything. She said the car was just too hard to believe and she doesn't like to talk about Christine. Yes, I'm glad that I don't remember that, but I wished I could remember all the people who came to visit and spend time praying with me. The odd thing is that I can remember my dreams I had, all very odd, but with those who stayed with me in ICU the most where in them. My parents, my wife, my brother and his wife, Liz's sister and her husband and my nurse. They were all in my dreams. You can read about them in the Dream's section.
Any ways, I was transferred to Manteca Doctor's Hospital nine days after the accident and stayed there for another seven days. After the first night of bizarre dreams, I asked to be taken off the morphine. I was told the pain would be too great for me to sleep but I didn't want anymore odd dreams. They were right, I rarely got more then an hour of sleep.
After coming home, I was working via telecommuting three weeks later. I wasn't projected to go back to work until about a year... six months at the earliest! Everybody, including my doctor, was amazed at my speedy recovery. They had to put in a titanium rod in my left arm to avoid having a cast on it since I'm left handed and I would lose 10% of its functionality everyday they would wait to put the rod in. So they did on day four of ICU. While in therapy, my therapist was amazed at how fast I was progressing. I did in three weeks what most take eight to ten. He just couldn't believe it. At the end of two months, my movability with my arm was better then average! Praise God!
On the side bar are links to newspaper articles and a TV report on the accident, the trial, an article on Liz and I and our faith and how it got us through all this. You'll also find pictures of the actual accident.