It was a cold and lazy day, 4th Jan. 1996. By 3:30 my day was finished at the work, and I was on my way home to Bruce Township. While coming up M 53, I decided to take the 27 mile cut-off onto Old Vandyke. I started slowing down and turned into the left turn lane. I saw that the light was green so I started across the intersection at about 35 mph. Half way across the intersection, out of the corner of my eye, I see the cab of a tractor trailer rig barring down on me hard and fast.

I knew for sure he had me, but it looked like I was far enough past that he would not hit the cab of the pickup. I thought if I can just gun the engine a little bit I’ll get far enough past him so that he might just clip me throwing me into a spin. But no such luck. The truck was hauling two trailers full of logs and he was traveling like a rocket sled on rails. He hit me full broad side, just catching the rear portion of the cab of my truck. It was like being hit by a runaway locomotive.

I thank God that I was not wearing a seatbelt , because I surely would have died that day if I had not been thrown from the vehicle. I went feet first, through the driver’s side window, after bouncing off the grill of the semi truck.

The impact made me lose consciousness for a few seconds, so I don’t remember going through the window, but I remember flying through the air and landing on my right side fracturing four of my ribs, in a whole lot of places, and deflating my right lung. My hand was broken coming through the window and I received cuts and lacerations all over my body, the worst being a three inch cut on the left side of my head which severed a main artery.

The next thing I remember a woman was kneeling over me applying pressure to the severed artery to keep me from bleeding to death. She said she was a nurse and she kept telling me to lie still so she could keep pressure on the wound. I could hear in the background a man making calls on a cell phone Then he asked if I was married and I told him yes. He then asked for my phone no. and proceeded to call my wife.

The semi fishtailed on the freeway, spilling both loads of logs all over the freeway. Fortunatly none of them landed on me. The Driver was treated at the hospital and released. With no apparent injuries.

At this point I wanted to see what was going on so I opened my eyes and raised my head to look back over my shoulder. For a split second I could see twenty or thirty people scrambling all over the place doing everything they could do to save my life, but when I moved my head the woman who said she was a nurse lost pressure on the wound and my eyes felt a burning and stinging as they immediately filled up with blood. About this time EMS showed up and took over the scene. The nurse quietly walked away without filing a police report or telling anyone her name. There is no doubt in my mind that if it had not been for her I would have bled to death before I made it to the hospital. Although I didn’t get a chance to meet her or thank her or even see her face, she will always be a hero in my eyes , along with the man with the cell phone, and each and everyone of the people who stopped to help.

As I lay there bleeding to death in the road I could hear the words and the music that old song from the ‘70’s called DOA, blasting away in my head. I calmly accepted the fact that I was going to die and I made peace with my God, but I was determined I was not going to give up easily.

Whenever EMS took over they slid a backboard under me and applied a rag on the side of my head where the blood was gushing from, however this didn’t restrict the blood flow. It just diverted the blood flow into my ear. My ear immediately filled up with blood and I could feel the warm blood running down my neck. They loaded me into the ambulance and headed for the hospital which was approximately 12 to 15 miles away . It was the worst ride I ever experienced. Because of the broken ribs and the deflated lung I could not lie flat. They had to prop me up with pillows to enable me to breathe, and every time they hit a bump it sent me writhing in pain.

We arrived at the emergency room a short time later but it seemed like an eternity to me. They rushed me straight into the emergency room and immediately started to stitch up the gash in my head. When that was done they tried to insert a central IV in my neck but were unsuccessful because of my upright position. Every time they would force me to lie flat my breathing would stop. After what seemed like an hour of trying with no success, the Dr. took a large bent shaped breathing tube at least 3/8" diameter and hammered it through my right nostril with the palm of his hand then he shoved it all the way down into my lung. The Dr. then inserted a smaller tube into the lung through the breathing tube and began suctioning the fluid out of my lungs. [The pain was unbelievable.] he then hooked me up to the breathing machine and started giving me oxygen. They ran x-rays, did all sorts of tests. He poked a row of holes about six inches apart, up the side of my body cavity to check for internal bleeding. This was extremely painful. He then made a three inch cut on the side of my chest and inserted a suction tube into my chest, to inflate my lung and suction the blood from my lung. The pain was worse than any nightmare you could have. Then they hooked me up to a cathater, and a heart monitor.

I laid and suffered like this in ICU Ward for seven days, unable to speak or move. The pain was so bad I couldn’t sleep. In the position I was laying the only thing I could see was the clock, and as each minute passed it seemed like a thousand years. After four or five days they decided that maybe I was going to live so they had a bone specialist set my broken finger, but he did a real sloppy job of it. For five or six days I didn’t think I would live, but I was determined to stay alive. Then after seven days they started to take off the machines one at a time.

After ten days they sent me home, but then I had a whole new set of problems to deal with. Without the breathing machine I could no longer breathe laying down, so I had to sleep for the next two months sitting up. With one hand in a cast and all my ribs broke I could not do anything for myself. I couldn’t dress myself or even go to the bathroom by myself. My wife had to do everything for me, hobbling around on her crippled leg.

My knuckle on my finger was set wrong, so after about seven weeks I had to go back into surgery to get the knuckle reset. They sawed the ball of the knuckle off and reset it in the proper position, using two stainless steel pins. Then I sat home for another month not being able to do anything for myself. Then I went through another two months of therapy for my hand.

Now after all this time I still have only about half the grip strength in my hand, and my right lung is smaller than the other one. Sometimes as I bend or move a certain way I feel a pop pop as my lung catches on my broken ribs, and my legs hurt all the time. I now have dizzy spells as a result of the head injuries, and it’s hard to concentrate some times. I get short of breath and find myself gasping for air every time I try to do anything. I still have back problems and the doctors wont let me do any kind of vigorous activities like heavy lifting, bending, stooping, golf or riding my bike. I have had severe headaches every since this the accident. When I told the doctor he just laughed and said they would eventually go away.

Now, a year and a half later I realize this was just another storm in my life, and of those we have many, however this one brought about total change in my life and being. Before the accident I always worried about what others thought about me and I was depressed a lot because of all the little problems that life bring, But now I praise the Lord every day that I wake up to a new day, because I know that it’s a miracle that I’m still alive. Regardless of the pain and worries or bad things that could happen I know that I’ll never get depressed again Because I have learned how precious life is. I have truly weathered the storm!

By: HENRY CHAFFIN

Published on the web- September 13’th 1997