Surviving a Drunk Driver - my true story - part 2
I found out that 4 hours after the accident that the drunk's BAC was still way over the legal limit. It took the 4 hours because the Drunk wouldn't submit to the test so a Judge had to be woken up on Christmas Eve morning to sign the paperwork.
I woke up from my coma after having over 10 surgeries which included a rod in my left femur, knee to waist, staples in my chin, my scalp, my left butt cheek where they put in the rod, and stitches, stitches, stitches. I was awake but everything was foggy and I felt like I was in a dream...or nightmare. I hit my larynx in the crash so my voice box was swollen and I could only speak in whispers for several weeks. My vocal cords became stretched from screaming from the pain from everything. My vocal cords are still stretched and certain sounds don't come out so I have to try to think of other words to say "on the fly". I was stuck in ICU this way for several weeks as I was having other surgeries to do more repairs. 7 weeks of this before I was transferred to Rebound Rehabilitation at Independence Regional Medical Center in Independence Missouri. Rebound was a specialty rehabilitation center for head injuries in the main hospital. I had a closed head injury from hitting the rearview mirror. When I arrived at Rebound one of the nurses noticed I had a bladder infection so I was seen by a urologist. That doctor found that I had a torn urethra, which was where most of my pain was coming from. He stitched me up and a lot of my fog lifted. I was able to think more clearly with less pain and less pain medications. I spent 4 weeks at this hospital where I had occupational & physical therapy to learn how to walk and use my hands properly. I had speech therapy to try to improve my talking but I was still too swollen for it to help much. I finally got to go home but I had outpatient therapy for several more weeks. I was picked up everyday by a van and taken on a 30 minute drive to Rebound Outpatient for more therapy's 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. I finally could use my hands a lot better and I went from a wheel chair to crutches to a cane. I also started getting my missed assignments from school. I had to catch up four months of classes while rehabbing. A teacher from my high school would come to the house after school got out for the day and would spend an hour with me to answer any questions I had on the homework. One month later I was back in school & out of rehab because insurance wouldn't pay any more. I went back to school and was only greeted by a few friends. Most people just looked down and walked away which really confused me. I was victimized by the drunk and now I was being victimized by supposed "friends". My high school had 2000+ students and only 15 or so were talking to me. That number went up some after a week or so but it was still far less than pre-accident. Many of John's friends would come up and talk to me but people that I had known for 8 or 9 years still ignored me. Even in marching band, that had a couple hundred people, there were very few that would say more than hello in passing. I was already depressed from the everything else so this just piled on. This is when I found out from a very close friend that the girl I was dating, that kept visiting me in the hospital, that told me she was pregnant before the accident but mysteriously wasn't afterward, was screwing around on me with many others!!!
(I will write more later...I've become too emotional right now, sorry)
BAC = Blood Alcohol Content ... just in case you were wondering
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