A friend contacted me a few days ago saying that others had inquired about how I’m doing, but she really didn’t know how to respond to them.
We all know that I am a quiet, reserved individual...and that’s putting it mildly! My wife always tells people “if you stick around long enough and he gets to know you, he’s hilarious”. The only people I’m naturally & totally myself around are 7th Graders...because we have the same maturity level. I once overheard students talking to each other at a back-to-school night, and a previous student asked a new recruit, “Who do you have for math this year”. She said, “Mr Savage”. The previous student said, “You’ll love Mr. Savage. He thinks he’s funny!”
So, today being the 4th Anniversary of my battle with a Toyota Corolla, I decided it was time to pass on my story.
It’s November 1, 2016 at about 6:00 A.M. still very dark outside. I’m on my way to work...the 50 mile freeway drive...I've made for about the 5,000th time in 24 years. I love teaching math to 7th graders...the cutest, funniest, almost teens on the planet. However, today is the morning after Halloween, and I know like every other year, most of the munchkins will enter the building with a backpack filled with sweets. They’ve been mainlining sugar all night long and will be jittery all morning long, right up till lunch time when their supply will run out, and they’ll be withdrawlingly comatose the rest of the afternoon.
Anyway, I round a bend near mile marker 23, and there’s a white Pontiac Grand-Am upside down in the fast lane of the freeway. The wheels are still spinning and the driver is hanging upside down by his seatbelt. So, I slam on the brakes...scrubbing off most of my speed...coming to a stop with a hard bump into the upside down car. I turn on my emergency hazard lights and jump out of my car to check on the driver of the Pontiac. In the meantime, two other cars slow down and proceed around the accident in the slow lane. At this point, I’m bent at the waist trying to determine how badly injured the driver of the upside down car is. At this same point in time, a Toyota Corolla whose driver is distracted comes upon the scene, and realizes that he is going to slam into the previous two cars whose drivers have slowed to pass around the accident in the slow lane. He makes the decision to drive into the median of the freeway to pass the accident on the left. Unfortunately, he didn’t see me at all. And in the twinkling of an eye, I became a real-life Humpty Dumpty!!!
According to the patrol officers and the witnesses in the other cars, the Toyota struck me at 65 to 70 miles per hour. The impact took out my legs...flipping me up onto the hood of the car! My head & shoulder then plowed through the windshield. When the Toyota came to an abrupt stop, I was thrown about 25-30 feet back into the middle of the freeway.
Lucky for me, it was lights out upon impact. I’m told the poor 22-year-old kid who hit me was devastated & held my bloody head in his lap till the paramedics got there.
The first thing I remember was the sound of helicopter blades, but the paramedics waved them off and told them I was stable. About halfway to the hospital, I opened my eyes long enough to give them my wife’s and school’s phone numbers and asked them to tell my school they’d need to get a substitute...then I went unconscious again. Supposedly, my wife and son arrived about an hour later and talked with me, but I remember none of that. They’d had me through x-rays, MRI’s, and had wrapped my head with bandages. Only in Utah can your Orthopedic Surgeon & Anesthesiologist give you a Priesthood Blessing and tell your wife “He’s pretty busted up, but he’ll live!”
During the first surgery, they took care of me from the waist down, and a nurse spent hours irrigating and removing glass from my head...basically I had been scalped and they’d have to staple & suture it back in place. That first surgery lasted till about 4:30 that afternoon. I spent the rest of the day and night alternating between pain and hallucinations from the Fentanyl...I get kinda slap-happy & entertaining on painkillers!
Surgery the following day on my waist up took a good portion of that day. I spent 4 days in the ICU, and 21 days in the Acute Rehab Center. They had actually planned for 4 weeks of rehab, but let me leave the day before Thanksgiving if I showed them that I could transfer to and from the wheelchair to the toilet, shower, bed, and car seat.
All in all, my injuries included:
Multiple, compound fractures to both the Tibia & Fibula in my lower, right leg and injuries to the Ligaments and Tendons in my knee. For which I received a Titanium Rod which resides in the length of my tibia, and multiple plates & screws holding the rest together.
My upper, right leg had a football-sized hematoma from crushed muscles in my outer thigh. They were surprised that my Femur was not broken, but determined that my lower arm was crushed between my thigh and the car.
The lower, right arm’s bones were broken above the wrist, below the elbow, and fractures in between. They used multiple plates, straps, and screws to stabilize the lower arm.
My upper, right arm was broken above the elbow with tendon and ligament injuries. The upper right arm was also broken diagonally from mid-arm through my shoulder ball joint. I have a plate and screws around my elbow, and a large plate with 11 extra long screws connecting my arm to my shoulder. Part of the shoulder was shattered so that I’m missing a section at the top of the shoulder joint.
My right Clavicle was broken in 2 areas, and kept popping out of position during physical therapy. They finally just left it and it’s a little deformed.
My right Scapula was broken which the Orthopedic Surgeon says is unusual and he very seldom sees that.
I had 6 to 7 ribs fractured on my right side...a couple of which fractured into my sternum along with a small puncture in my right lung. Amazingly, the only injuries on my left side, other than some road rash was 2 fractured ribs and some scarring on my lungs.
I had a small piece of my C5 vertebra chip off. They elected to just let it float as long as it doesn’t cause any problems.
As I said, my head was basically scalped on the left half of my skull (starting in the middle of my forehead, back about 2/3 of the way on top, and then down on the left side toward my ear) along with a crack in the middle front of the skull. I have an awesome Harry Potter scar with a small horn along the way!
The nurse did a fairly good job, but during my first year of recovery I had a few small chunks of glass work their way to the surface.
So, how am I now?
Well, I have about 6 feet of scars on my body and required another surgery to do some bone grafts in places that were not healing well.
Outside the house, I walk with a cane for safety. However, I couldn’t even tally how many times I’ve fallen and usually have a lot of scrapes and bruises. I’m stubborn, and do a lot of things I probably shouldn’t.
I have some range-of-motion issues in my elbow and shoulder. Because of the plate and screws, my shoulder can only move up to about 90 degrees from my body, etc. I’m definitely not going to pitch in the World Series anytime soon. I can kind of throw side arm to the dog, but he’s definitely not getting much exercise from me.
I have a great deal of nerve damage in my arm and leg. Most of the time they have very little feeling...basically numb. Then suddenly, the neuropathy starts and pain shoots down like electricity, feeling like my toes are going to explode.
Often, if I try to stoop down, my kneecap will pop off to the outside and then I have to rub it around and push it back in place.
The most debilitating issues come by way of a TBI. I experience constant Vertigo & Severe Tinnitus, frequent Migraines, and the worst...Short-Term Memory issues. My wife is in charge of my medications because a few minutes after taking them, I won’t remember if I’ve taken them or not! Words and speech get hung up in my brain. I can see it vividly in my head, but I can’t explain or express it with my voice. If I need to read directions or something, I have to read them out loud and then say it over & over to myself until I accomplish the act. Otherwise, within a few seconds, I totally have no idea what I was doing or thinking.
It’s fun to stand in front of the mirror on my way to church, and realize that you can no longer remember how to tie your tie! Every time, I have to pull up a diagram on my phone and follow the pictures. Even then, I sometimes get frustrated and give up.
My students referred to me as the Human Calculator, but there’s little math coming out of this brain anymore...which makes me want to cry!!! And you don’t even want to know how many hours it took me to write this all down.
But in the end, I am still totally blessed to be here, and to spend more time with my grandchildren! By all accounts from the patrol officers, paramedics, and doctors, I should no longer be residing on this planet! Because no one ever survives such an accident!
I’ve attached a few of my inner snapshots, below, taken by the medical staff...the last 4 years have been one H-E-Double Hockey Stick’s of a ride!!!!
I’m no philosopher, but I think life is all about how you view and handle your adversities...because we all have them! I have a long list of items to be thankful for!
Each day brings new rewards & challenges...as it should...
You just do the best with what life hands you!
