Current Mood: Sad

January 7th, 2010
My husband got hit by a car yesterday. As a pedestrian. While crossing the street. While I am not at liberty to go into details of the accident, I would like to share the aftermath.

He got struck in the lower back, his head hit the windshield, he flew up and bounced on the pavement, twice. He blacked out for a moment, then got up. He was extremely disoriented. His first thought? “Call the wife, she needs to know.” So he called me and said “I just got hit by a car.” Me: “Oh no, are you okay?” Him: “I think so, I don’t know.” Me: “I’m on my way!” Then he wandered around in the street, trying to figure out how to get out of it. Thankfully one of his coworkers was there to help guide him over to the side of the street and dial 911. That’s when hubs realized his head was bleeding. The ambulance showed up and carted him away, where he blacked out a couple of times. They were asking him basic questions such as his address and phone number, but he wasn’t able to answer them because he didn’t know. While this is common with a concussion, it’s still very frightening to not know this basic information.

The hospital had called to tell me that he was there and that he seemed to be just fine, but was going to get a CT scan just to be sure. By the time I arrived to the hospital he had been sent for the CT scan, from his head down to his pelvis. I was escorted into an empty trauma room (it’s kind of spooky to be sitting next to a crash cart) while he was getting the scan. I paced around then decided to at least fold up his clothes for him… until I saw that his shirt and sweater had been cut off of him. I glanced over at the trash can and saw bloody things, and I just about freaked. They wheeled him back into the room and he was wearing a neck brace and was laying on a back board. While I knew that it’s standard procedure to put on a neck brace, it was still very disconcerting to see.

He was relieved that I was there, because he was very confused, in pain, and had been carted around in an ambulance and wheeled around and stuck into a CT scan tube, and it’s welcome to see your spouse in all the madness. I saw that his head had been bleeding, but considering that they hadn’t talked much about it, I figured it wasn’t anything too terrible.
The scan results came back that he had a concussion, a large hematoma (a “knot” on his head), and bruised lungs. Pretty lucky, considering he’d gotten hit by a car! The doctor got rid of the spinal injury equipment that was attached to him and sat him up to check out the back of his head. There was a pretty nasty laceration that needed to be stapled together. I get squeamish about things like that, so I stepped out of the room while the doc cleaned it up and put him back together.

He got released, we came home. He was in a lot of pain, so we dropped by the drug store to pick up his prescription for Percoset. After taking one of those he felt a lot better.
Last night was very bad. Every time he turned over he was in pain, his hips were really sore, he couldn’t lay on his back due to his head injury, and he had an overall bad night. The next morning he was very, very sore. His lower back where he got hit was sore, his neck and shoulders were sore from whiplash, his scalp was sore. He lazed around most of the day, but around 5pm his head started hurting very badly and he got lightheaded (while on pain meds). After a couple of very bad bouts of pain, we decided a trip to the hospital may be in order in case of possible brain bleeding or swelling. He got another CT scan, they said he was fine, and the doctor said he was okay to shower and wash his hair. So when we got home he took a shower, which made him feel much better. Do you know how icky it is to have blood matted in your hair and you can’t do anything about it?

So the moral of this story is: Pay attention to your driving. Being hit by a car is no fun.

And in response to the same strange repeated question: We assume the driver was sorry. It’s not like they had malicious intent. It’s not like it was someone that thought they were playing GTA or something.

Update
Due to lawsuit proceedings, I was unable to post this until today. The accident was January 6th, and we had to keep all mentions of the accidents out of the public eye until the lawsuit was paid out, which just finished. We are now at liberty to divulge details, as well.

He was walking across the street from his bus stop, on a walk light, in the crosswalk. The driver wasn’t paying attention and made a left on him. It was approximated by the police that she was going 35mph. She was turning east-bound in the morning, into the sun, and claimed that there was a glare on the windshield and she couldn’t see him. While it’s easy to shout, “She couldn’t see so she shouldn’t have turned!” the human part of everyone realizes that we’ve all been guilty of that… driving when we couldn’t see 100% clearly, either blinded by the sun, fog on the windshield, or whatever.

The lawsuit, as you can see by the dates, was long and a giant pain. They tried to say that he wasn’t watching where he was going (he had the right of way, and is always cautious in that crosswalk), that he was against the crossing light (even though it was stated in the police report and corroborated by two witnesses), and that “maybe he’s not that injured.”

Let’s revisit his injuries. He got 13 staples in his scalp, and a doctor wanted $70 just to get in for an appointment (we have no health insurance), so we decided to do it ourselves. Removing staples from flesh is not for the faint of heart, but doable. Look it up on the Internet like we did. He had a concussion, which made him irritable, confused, unable to concentrate, and unable to sleep. Most of that is gone away now. Above, where I talked about his sore back, it was found later by his chiropractor that he got two bulging discs in his lower back from the accident… We know he didn’t have the issue before, because he’d always been very strong, able to lift a lot without much effort. This was by far the worst of his injuries, and he will have it all of his life.

He can no longer lift anything, including his child. Twisting hurts. He can no longer mow the lawn. He can no longer spin his fire staff, which was a love of his. He can no longer play much baseball. Standing for long periods hurts. Riding the bus and hitting bumps hurts. He’s going to have to visit a chiropractor for the rest of his life.

As far as the settlement… The insurance company paid out the driver’s maximum policy, which was state minimum requirements. It covered his bills, barely. It’s not enough to cover many more trips to the chiropractor, the pain relief things that he needs now such as meds, a portable tens unit, lumbar support, etc. It’s also not going to pay for the movers that we will have to hire any time that we move. It’s not going to pay for any surgery that he may need later. And research has revealed that going after her would be useless… She’s already got multiple judgments against her.

All of this because she was in too much of a hurry to pay attention to the fact that the way was not clear before going. And, not only is he still scared, nearly seven months later, to cross at that intersection, which he does every morning, but he has drivers rush at him, honk at him, yell at him to get out of the road… because they are in a hurry. They can’t wait an extra couple of seconds for him to finish crossing the street. What if he’s got places to be? Just because he’s using public transit and crossing the street, it’s not like he is some bum out looking for a bottle of booze; he’s saving gas, commute headache, and carbon dioxide being belched into the environment. He’s on public transit for three hours a day. The last thing he wants is to deal with some jackass that is in too much of a hurry to wait a few moments while he crosses the street, because pedestrians the right-of-way.

We’ve discussed his wearing a bright orange reflective vest, carrying a crossing guard stop sign, blowing a whistle, but I still like his idea the best… carrying a crowbar and smashing the hoods of cars that do this. Not that he would… I don’t think.

The point is… People need to get out of their own little worlds and pay attention to what’s around them. Others have just as much right to be where they are as you do. He’s got just as much right to be walking across the street as you have driving. Get off your phone, stop fiddling with the radio, and pay attention. There’s nothing that is so important for you to be at that you should risk the life of someone. If you’re that late… perhaps you should have left earlier. And it’s no one’s fault but your own.

For locals: He got hit on Olive Blvd, at the intersection of Tempo Dr, just west of 270. A nasty street to cross.