My Second Life Changing Event, part 2

(More hiking planned for this weekend, but here's another chapter in my life changing event)

I had a Ford Escort...the ones with the automatic seat belts. Sometimes I wore the lap belt, too. Sometimes I didn't. It wouldn't have mattered that day. The automatic seat belt wasn't adjustable and it lay across my neck and upper torso. The seatbelt broke my neck.

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The car finally stopped spinning. I was in the ditch across the street and down the road a bit. My car was upright and I was still alive. By the time the car stopped spinning, I was calm. I knew immediately that my neck was broken. I don't know how I knew, but I knew. I knew that I needed to sit absolutly still and wait for help. I sat bolt upright in the seat. I felt no pain...had too much adrenaline to feel any pain. I sat and realized that my car was smoking and that I smelled gas. I stayed still and turned the key off. I waited for help.

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I realized, almost with a sort of detachment, that my head was bleeding. I saw the man who lived in the corner house come running with a first aid kit. He told me that the police and ambulance were on the way. He wanted to put pressure on the cut on my face, but I was afraid to let him touch me. I told him that I believed my neck was broken and that he could injure it more by putting pressure on the cut. I asked him to wait for the paramedics and asked him to call my parents. He did.

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The police arrived at the scene quickly. I explained what had happened and one of the officers crawled into the car, in the crumpled backseat. He stabilized my neck by holding it against the headrest. That was a relief for me, because the adrenaline was starting to wear off and the pain was setting in. My father arrived soon after that. He was understandablu upset and here was a lot of chaos. I totally lied and assured my dad that I was fine and that they were only holding my head as a precaution, to make sure I didn't hurt my neck in the accident. I asked him to go pick up my mom and meet me at the hospital. He agreed and the ambulance arrived soon after my dad left.

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The neck stabilizer/collar that they put on me was the wrong size. It was too small and would not fasten appropriately. But I was in a lot of pain, so they chose to leave it on and stabilize me on the backbord and get me to the hospital as soon as they could. Except that I was in pain. And I was tired. Nobody had given me anything for pain and didn't until waaay after I was at the hospital. Every single bump hurt like hell. I cussed them out and told them that they needed to slow down and drive more carefully. I told them that if they couldn't do anything about my pain, they damn sure needed to not make it worse!

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When we arrived at the hospital, it was busy. It was always busy. There were no rooms available. I had to wait on the stretcher, on the backboard, with the too small collar, in pain, with no pain meds...in the hallway. I thanked God that I wasn't actually dying at the moment, but prayed that they would get to me soon. I remember crying in that hallway. My parents hadn't gotten there yet and I hurt really bad and nobody would pay attention to me.

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I got to the hospital by 10:15 or 10:20 at the latest. I had x-rays and a CT Scan done. After the X-rays, people started listening to me. I was given pain meds and began to have a little bit of pain relief as the doctor told me that I had broken my neck. I told him that I knew that, but was hoping I didn't have to wear a halo. The doctor smiled, but said that I would have to wear one, even though they do look wierd. They did the CT Scan to see more details of my injury. This time, the doctor looked more serious when he came back in. Much more serious.

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"You have a C2 burst fracture," he explained. "When the seat belt caught your neck, the vertabra exploded. You are fortunate in that none of the fragments has penetrated your spinal cord. You will most likely have to have surgery to repair the vertabra and should expect a long recovery here in the hospital. You are lucky to be alive."

(To be continued)