jag;
Top of the morning to you sir, I hope the day's a bit less smoky in your part of the world and this finds you and yours well.
While I've mentioned this before on the 'Fire, I seldom talk about it - or much else of this nature as it's not exactly a comfortable thing for me to do.
Nonetheless, as briefly as I'm able it went like this.
When I was 15, I was tightening the traction bars on my car which I had suspended in the air above me on a chain hoist. It was Feb. 01st and the temperature outside was -40°F.
The double hook on the chain slipped and the car came down, hitting the back of my head which then was smashed into my right knee. The force smashed my 11th and 12th vertebrae, bruised my internal organs and damaged/bruised most of my ribs. As well the muscles in both knees and my lower back were torn at the time.
Since I couldn't breathe when I was under there, I yelled/prayed/pleaded, "God get me out of here, I'm going to die".
While I emphatically did not see anything lift the car off of me, something or some one did, because I straightened more or less up and watched the bumper return slowly down.
Immediately I knew I was in trouble because from mid chest down I couldn't feel anything, my legs didn't work and from mid chest up I felt like I was being boiled alive more or less.
Since I was alone, I attempted to crawl to a telephone and was moving scrap metal so I could get around a machine when I was found about 20 minutes later.
We were very rural - roughly 45 minutes from the hospital, so rather than call an ambulance my brother called a neighbor who had a station wagon. It wasn't plugged in, but started despite the cold which was highly unusual.
My brother and cousin slid me onto a partial sheet of plywood and then into the station wagon. Although my brother drove very quickly into the hospital, it didn't freeze up which the neighbor said it was prone to.
Upon arrival at the hospital, they did a battery of x-rays and got the local specialist out of bed to come have a look.
Doc Rocket has explained to me the medical term, but more or less as I understand it, because of the internal damage the white blood cells began attacking my red blood cells, which in addition to the other peripheral damage caused the doctor to say to my family that I was about to cross over and they'd make me comfortable for the trip.
Obviously I didn't die, but came reasonably close and did have enough damage that it meant 7 weeks in the hospital mostly in a Stryker frame, then a body cast and a lot of rehab after that.
That's my story anyways jag, certainly the closest I've come thus far.
Thanks for the thread, thanks for those who've responded and all the best to you all this fall.
Dwayne
Wow Dwayne. That was a serious situation. Glad you made it!
