I've just recently come back home from a nice stay at our regional Medical Center's ICU, preceded by a 25 minute flight in an ambulance type of helicopter, preceded by being trapped for approximately 3 hours in my upside-down, no longer viable, Kenworth truck. This was preceded by me spending about 25 seconds exploring whether it is humanly possible to remain viable after you lose control of your truck and go spinning madly off the side of the road. I felt somewhat like an agitator, in the washing machine, on the "Spin" cycle.
I won't go into detail about what happened, how I wrecked, and all that stuff. Suffice it to say that when the dust settled, it was 3 am, on the wrong side of a curve, beside a little 2 lane road, about 3 miles east of the nearest town, which has a population of about 50, not including dogs, or cows. I was sort-of upside down, caught by my left leg, which was trapped between the steering wheel, and the driver's seat. The rest of me was laying comfortably on the broken glass, on what had once been the roof of the truck, within easy reach of the front hole-where-the-windshield-used-to-be. Oh, did I mention that the diesel tank had ruptured, so I was getting a steady flow of fuel pouring down my body? And the power was still working. Everything you need for a nice fire; a source of fuel, Air, and a nice trapped person to burn. I threw my cigarettes, and lighter as far as I could!
Then I lay there, praying that God might find it within Himself to save me, as I'd left a lot of loose ends, and couldn't seem to extract myself from this mess. This lasted a good few minutes. Then, after about 10 minutes or so, a nice man stopped, and wondered if anyone was still in there, so I said yes, and would he call 911? He did. Thankfully cell service was working in the area at the moment, because it doesn't always. Then he asked me if he could call anyone else for me, so I had him call my dispatcher, then my son. At least that way, they'd know what was going on. Then he shined his cell phone in the truck, and I got my first look around, sort-of. Well, truthfully, my face was pretty well mush, and when he saw me in his cell-phone light, he dropped the phone, and said "Oh My God!" This is a wonderful confidence inspirer for those of you who may find yourselves helping people trapped in overturned wrecks. It didn't bother me, I knew I was pretty messed up. I couldn't see the damage to myself, but I could certainly feel it. After that he stayed back a
good 20 feet or so, until the Mineral Wells Fire/Rescue people got there. About 20 minutes.
The first one of them I met was a man named "Jerry". He introduced himself to me, got my assessment of the situation, passed that, along with what he could see and his much more professional assessment back out to some other people around us, and told me, "We're going to get you out of here, as soon as we can, and no matter how long or short a time that is, I'm right her with you, ok?" Jerry was my constant companion throughout the rest of my entrapment. Every time they'd get ready to cut, or pry on the truck, Jerry'd be laying over me, spreading his bunker coat, telling me what was happening and that it'd be ok. At one point, I told Jerry I liked him, but he was going to have to ease up or go on a diet!
The other fellow who was pretty much in constant attendance to me was Chris. I'm assuming Chris is a Paramedic? Anyway, he's EMS, and he started an IV on me right away, and got me some Oxygen to breathe. Before they got me out, I went through two and a half bottles of Oxygen. It was a tight space but I was always in physical contact with one or the other of them throughout the rest of the ordeal, and at times, both of them.
The first thing they did was crack the passenger door open. I'd seen the safety triangle box, which weighs about 10 pounds, hanging between the door and the passenger seat above my head. I pointed it out to them before they popped the door so that maybe someone would move it? Jerry assured me they'd get the box out of there then he put a blanket over me to protect me from flying glass and debris, then they popped the door open with the "jaws of life". This was the only time Jerry went outside and of course I got hit by the box. Oh, well, it only fell a couple feet, so I figured at this point, no big deal. Later, I found out I had a 6" gash on the left side of my scalp, and my skull was cracked. My left leg was really going to sleep by now, so I told them about that. They cut out the gear shifter, and that gave me some relief. Then they cut the steering wheel off, and with them pulling me, I was able to straighten up somewhat, but found to the dismay of all, especially me, that my leg was still trapped between the dash-board and the driver's seat.
They began the next part of the rescue by trying to push the dash away from my leg, but as they got it away from my leg above the knee, it gouged into my shin. Kind of like a see-saw. No luck there. So, after some observation, and a little consultation, they decided the best thing to do would be to cut the seat away. The only problem with that was there's a back wall the seat was up against. So, they
stabilized me and the truck, which was in serious danger of rolling completely and crushing Jerry and I, as best they could and then proceeded to cut away the back wall of the cab. Most of this time, I was lying as quietly as I could, talking with Jerry and Chris. Jerry was holding my hand, and Chris was taking my heart-rate, and blood-pressure, and just trying to keep me calm.
Finally they got the back wall out, and were cutting the seat away from the back of my leg. As we were talking, Jerry was telling me what they were going to do and what I needed to do in order to help; I overheard Chris say something about the "helicopter". On asking, I learned that I was to be care-flighted to John Peter-Smith Hospital in Ft. Worth. This is the County Hospital, so I made sure they knew I had insurance! And! I wasn't really that bad, was I? Chris told me no, I wasn't that bad and that the reason for JPS wasn't because they're a county hospital, but that they have the best unit for compression/confined space injury. This was when I realized I'd been partially crushed, but not to what extent yet.
So, that's what they were worried about! They told me that confined space injury, or long term compression resulted in erratic heartbeat, and blood-pressure problems, in addition to the cuts, and abrasions. Chris told me that I could go wherever I wanted, of course, but he recommended JPS in this instance. I had to agree with him, sometimes you just have to bow to the experts, and these guys hadn't stepped wrong with me in over 2 hours.
So, they finally got the seat out from under my leg, rolled me onto a buckboard, got me all taped and tied down, and carried me to a waiting ambulance, where they took off my boots, and belt, and began cutting off my clothes, and assessing the injuries they'd only been able to see dimly, if at all, before. On the way to the Ambulance I asked if anyone had taken photos, and asked for a copy of them. I wish I’d gotten them.
The final total of injuries? Well, let’s see. Face torn, with broken maxillary bone (That’s the one that holds your nose in place, and protects your sinuses,) sinuses permanently damaged. Cracked skull, on the left side of head. Left arm severely lacerated, (that is: severe cuts, and tears) left rib-cage crushed (that means the ribs broke in the front and the back, both) with bruised left lung and heart, bruised and compressed intestines/ colon/ stomach, bruised left hip, severe lacerations to left knee and lower leg, compression injury just above the left knee, severe damage to right knee, and last but not least, two vertebra impacted, C-5, and L-3 with resultant burning pain in my legs, and numbness/loss of sensitivity in my back and legs.
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