Chapter 4 ER Experience

Safety Tip:

Check Your Belts And Hoses: Modern automobiles are remarkably reliable - they will absorb a lot of neglect and abuse and still get you to your destination. The weakest links in the reliability chain are coolant hoses and the belts that convey power to alternators, water pumps, and other components external to the engine. These too have improved dramatically, but they should be checked periodically.

Chapter 4: The ER Experience

The ambulance slowed and pulled into the emergency entrance at the hospital, and I was instantly reminded of the devastating pain as the stretcher was lifted down to the ground and rolled inside. Immediately, I was thrust into the frantic pace of activity in an ER of a major city hospital on a Saturday afternoon. Everything seemed to be a blur as I listened to the EMT communicate to the hospital personnel my condition and as much information as he had. I was wheeled into an open bay and quickly surrounded by people asking questions and connecting lines to me. 

It seems as if I was asked the same questions at least ten times by different people. Sometimes someone who had just ask me the list of standard questions was still standing there when the next person walked in and starts asking the same questions. I honestly felt like saying, “Ask that guy, he has all the answers.”

“Can I get something for this pain in my leg?” I asked. “We are going to get you something in a few minutes sir,” someone said.  “Are you allergic to any medications?”

 When Dr. Peck arrived and started examining me, he explained that he had just completed setting my son’s wrist. “He is a brave young man,” the doctor said.

“Is he doing ok,” I asked. “Yes, he should be done shortly”.

 “So he will not need to be admitted?”

 “No, he will be going home tonight.  Let’s see what going on with you.”

During the next ten hours I was x-rayed, CAT Scanned, prodded, poked and rolled around the hospital more times than I care to remember. My diagnosis was multiple fractures to the right pelvis and a possible dislocated right femur.

Next Week: The Joy of Traction

Chaper 3 Rescue Part II

Safety Tip:  Alternate Drivers If Necessary: Traffic accidents common to vacation travel can often be traced to fatigue and being in unfamiliar travel environments. Stay fresh, trade off driving, take breaks and get some circulation going. If you’re fresh and alert unexpected events or situations will be less likely to cause confusion or dangerous reactions.

Chapter 3 Rescue part II

My wife later informed me that she arrived at the accident scene just as they were putting me into the ambulance. Arriving from the opposite direction of the route we were traveling, she pulled her car to a stop on the far side of the six lane street. Not knowing what to expect, she worked her way through the crowd praying silently as the firemen were still working to get my son out of the car. Men using the “Jaws of Life” tool were at work sawing away at the crushed metal on the right side of car. At first the decision was made to cut-off the rear passenger-side door in order to free him, but the workers met with more resistance than expected.  Eventually, both passenger doors were removed and my son was lifted out of the wreckage.

At the same time, I lay bracing myself and listening to the siren blare as the ambulance rolled and bumped its way toward the hospital.  The emergency medical technician (EMT) asked me a series of questions and filled out a form as we road along, “What’s your name? Do you know what day it is? What happened? Where is the pain?”... I tried answering his questions as quickly and as calmly as possible when I realized that I was still holding my cell phone.

 It only had one power bar when I made the initial call home following the crash and I wondered if it still had any power left. I activated the phone and dialed my wife’s number. To my surprise it worked.

 “Hey dear, they are taking me to Fairfax hospital.” I said and I gave her the street address of the hospital as the EMT relayed it to me.

“OK,” she said.” They just got David out.”

“Is he alright?” I asked,

“I don’t know. They are putting him in the ambulance now.  They’re taking him to the same hospital. OK, I’ll see you at the hospital. I love you,” she said sounding as if she was out of breath.

I turned the phone off and relaxed as best I could.

“There’s some road construction going on up ahead so it’s going to get a little bumpy.  We will be there in a few minutes,” the EMT said.

I almost did not care. My wife had just given me the news I was looking for. My son was free and out of the car and though she was not clear on his condition I suddenly felt much better. 

Next week: ER Experience

Be SAFE on the Road!

Hello, I decided to use safety as the focus of my blog because I was recently in a motor vehicle accident. I count myself as blessed and I realized that but by the grace of God things could have been much worse for me and my family following this sudden tragic event. This accident proved to me that anything can happen at any time to anyone. However, knowing and following basic safety procedures on the road can help to mitigate the negatives. I will use this blog to avail readers of auto safety tips that may someday prove useful. Along the way I will tell the story of my personal experience and how it has changed my life.

SAFETY TIP: Take An Extra Key: Not many experiences are more frustrating than to be 300 hundred miles from home and to lock yourself out of your car. New automobiles can be a real challenge to enter, even by pros, when they are locked. Placing or hiding a key somewhere on the exterior of the vehicle will turn a potential nightmare into a minor inconvenience.

Chapter 2: The Dramatic Rescue

The quiet went away as quickly as it had started, and I was immediately fully aware of what had happen and the grave situation that we were in. I tried again to move and found I couldn’t. I ask my son again if he was ok and he said, “I think so,” this time holding his right arm and showing pain on his face. I struggled to find my cell phone in one of the cargo pockets of my shorts and manage to get it out. I remembered that it was down to its last bar of power, but I knew I had to call home to let my wife know what happened. I dialed the number and when she answered I blurted out the information as clearly as I could. I could hear the distress in her voice, and I knew what she must be feeling. She said, “I’m on my way.”

Then I heard voices outside the car asking Are you ok? Are you hurt? Someone tried to open the driver-side door from the outside, but couldn’t. “Can you get out,” a man’s voice asked? “No,” I answered. The man responded, “Just sit still. Help is on the way.” I could see the man using his cell phone describing the incredible scene to the person on the other end. I then start to notice other people crawling out of cars in front of the Uhaul truck. One person was trying to sit down while another assisted him. It was then that it began to dawn on me what had happened. Not only had I crashed into the back of this truck, but the truck crashed into the vehicle in front of it and that vehicle hit the one in front of it and so on. There was a total of five vehicles involved in the accident. I wondered if anyone else was injured.

My attention quickly turned back to my son and our situation. I ask if he could get out and he tried his door. “No,” he said, “the door won’t open.” The smell of the chemicals from the deployed airbags started to fill my nostrils as my heart began to race. I tried my door and it was stuck also. I reached over and turned the key in the ignition, thinking that because the car had power locks turning the engine on would allow me to unlock the doors. I tried opening the locks again from the driver-side panel. I leaned over and bumped and push the driver-side door with all my might. Finally it opened. I could feel the cool air rush in as people on the outside pulled the door open wide. Still I couldn’t move. It was like my right leg was dead weight.

The car had somehow stopped partly off the roadway onto the shoulder of the road. It felt as if the passenger side of the car was elevated a little and I wondered if my son could crawl out the driver-side door. By this time he was starting to rub one of his knees, but I was still not sure how badly he was injured. I decided to work my way out so that he could come across and exit the same door. I found this was not a simple task. Every time I tried to move, the pain seemed to get worse. I realize that the longer I remained there the more it would hurt to move, so I just began to pull my body toward the door. I shifted and turned and tried to ignore the pain. When I was able to get my left leg out I used the door to help lower myself to the ground. At first I found myself lying on the roadway with my right leg still hanging in the doorway of the car. People start to help me while telling me to just stay where I was and wait for the emergency crew. I continued to try moving but then realized I couldn’t. The pain was too great. I rested for a while and then pulled again to get my right leg free. The pain of moving the leg down from the car to the ground was almost more than I could imagine. I started to ask the people gathered around could they help get my son out.

“Are you ok? Just lie still.” I looked up and recognized the fireman’s uniform as a man was asking me questions and started to assist me. “I’m ok, can you get my son out,” I asked.

“He’s going to be ok. They are working on it now. Where are you hurt?”

“I’m ok. It’s just my leg; can you get his door opened. He said he couldn’t open the door.”

“Ok. Ok. We’ll get him. Just lie still.”

The next thing I knew they were slipping a neck collar on me and rolling me onto a backboard.

I noticed that traffic had come to a stop on both sides and people were moving around all over. The sound of sirens filled the air and the crowd seemed to enlarge by the second.

“We are going to get you in the ambulance sir, so that we can further check you out.”

“Have they gotten my son out yet,” I asked.

“They are still working on it. We will not leave until they get him out.”

After being lifted into the back of the ambulance, the one of the EMS tech said, “T hey have your son out of the car, but he will be transported in a separate ambulance. You are both going to Fairfax hospital. It will be about a ten minute ride.” I said ok with a sigh of relief and I tried to position myself on the stretcher to reduce the pain in my right leg.

Check in next week for the: Trauma in the Emergency room

Introduction to Safety on the Road

“The Big Bang” SAFETY on the Road!


Hello, I decided to use safety as the focus of my blog because I was recently in a motor vehicle accident. I count myself as blessed and I realized that but by the grace of God things could have been much worse for me and my family following this sudden tragic event. This accident proved to me that anything can happen at any time to anyone. However, knowing and following basic safety procedures can help to mitigate the negatives. I will use this blog to avail readers of auto safety tips that may someday prove useful. Along the way I will tell the story of my personal experience and how it has changed my life.

Safety Tip of the Week: Your GPS Isn’t Infallible - Buy And Carry A Good Road Map: That new GPS may be addictive, but they are not foolproof in every situation. For example, a bad accident stalls traffic for hours on a major highway and has you stranded in unfamiliar country. A good map may provide a feasible escape route, and will often provide an alternative to an official detour route that is much faster if you are in a standard passenger vehicle (official detour routes have to accommodate large trucks and busses).



The game changer!

My fifteen year-old-son and I had just spent the day touring the monuments and wondering through museums in Washington DC on Saturday a few weeks ago. The family and I had been planning our summer vacation for months and we were looking forward to the next week of relaxation and fun. I had schedule time off from work. My wife, who is completing her master’s degree online, had been working for weeks to get ahead on her class work and free up time for vacation. My daughter adjusted her work schedule to free up time. She was due to register for the fall semester at NVCC the week after we returned. My son: he was just enjoying the summer and trying to make it last as long as possible.

We had driven to the metro station, which is less than a mile from our home and hopped the train into DC on the spur of the moment. This, I’ve found, is one of the great things about living in the National Capital Region; you could spend the day viewing the sights and still be home for dinner. After eating lunch at the Smithsonian we headed for home, picked up the car at the metro station and were on our way. We were talking and listening to the radio when my son picked up a newspaper that was laying on the dash. Flipping through the pages he found a photo in a story that talked about the high temperatures in the area. “Hey, dad we just saw this painting...” I looked over at the paper. You’re right we saw that at...

At that point the Game changed! I looked back at the road and traffic as I slammed into the rear of an Uhaul truck stopping at a traffic light. At this point things seemed to happen in slow motion but with extreme violence. The noise, the jarring reaction to my car stopping in its tracks while traveling at 40 mph. Objects flew through the air. And then it was still. I could see my son with a shocked look on his face. He was grimacing with pain. I asked if he was ok and he said “yeah,” but not convincingly. I then felt the shooting pain in my right leg and noticed that the airbag had been deployed on the passenger side of the car. I tried to move but found the pain was too severe.

Check in next week for more safety tips and the next chapter of my story: The dramatic rescue.