“When snatched from the jaws of death, tooth marks are to be expected.”

-Hal Story, near-death experiencer.

Almost stepping over the line between life and death is probably one of the more surreal experiences I’ve had. Most people I explain this story to don’t really see how it could happen or they question how I survived. Let’s see what you think about this major experience in my life.

My cousin Kelsie, her daughter Ruby, my sister Alexis, and I were getting ready to leave for the YMCA. It was a normal day and we were planning on swimming. Kelsie was driving, Ruby was sitting next to me, and Alexis was sitting in front of me. We were all thinking about how excited we were to go and have fun but we had no idea what was going to happen next.                                                                 

 Before we got to the YMCA, we decided to stop at a Dollar General. We bought a few things that we thought we might need before we swam then started driving again. My cousin stopped at a railroad crossing and right before she was going to pass Ruby started crying. Kelsie got her to stop then she turned back around to face the road. While doing so, she sees a train coming at us. Since she was already on the tracks and there were cars behind us, she decided to try and speed past it but unfortunately she was too late. The train slammed into the side of our truck and none of us had seen it coming.

The train caused our truck to slide straight into a pole which had finally made us stop. The people behind us and the ones nearby rushed over to see if everybody was okay. My sister, cousin, and her daughter were all conscious except for me. Alexis and some other people got me out of my seat and set me on the ground while others called 911. While I was on the ground unconscious, I woke up for about a second to see people hovering over me trying to see if I was okay but I went straight back to being unconscious from all the damage done to me. Eventually, the ambulance came and took Alexis, Ruby, and Kelsie to the Kosciusko Community Hospital, while I had to be taken in a helicopter to the Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne.

My parents got a call from the hospital saying we had been in an accident. They didn’t know how to feel but they hurried to KCH as fast as they could. Once they arrived, they had realized I wasn’t there. They tried to ask people at the hospital but nobody would explain anything to them. Finally they found out where I had been taken and my dad sped down to Lutheran while my mom stayed with my sister.

I finally woke up when they were driving me to Lutheran in the ambulance after being flown in the helicopter. I had no idea what was going on. The first thing I did was look down at my hand. Blood. Why can’t I feel my legs I thought to myself. I asked a paramedic near me what happened. They explained to me that I had been hit by a train and that I was being taken to the hospital. I was so exhausted to where I couldn’t even pay attention. The paramedics kept me awake and would keep asking me for my name and birthday to make sure I was okay while they were doing everything they could at the time. Eventually we made it to the hospital.

They quickly rushed me inside and got me ready for surgery. I was still kind of confused on what was happening around me because I was so tired. While I was sleeping on the bed waiting to be taken to surgery, my dad arrived and came into the room. He sat next to me and we talked for a little bit. He kept saying he wished he could have taken my place so I wouldn’t have to experience all of this. I could tell he really felt bad and that was the first time I had ever really seen him cry. After a little bit, my dad walked next to me as I was being taken to surgery. They had to stitch my foot and ankle back together because there was only a few muscles and the bone holding them together.

While at Lutheran, there wasn’t a doctor experienced enough to do surgery on my femur because I had broken it and the ends of the bone had splintered off but the bone didn’t go through my skin. They had to use weights to counterbalance my muscles from contracting and making the two parts of my bone overlap. If it would have done that, I would’ve been in a lot of pain and I would be much more sore than I was. Since there wasn’t a doctor to do the surgery, they had someone hold the weights up to keep my leg from making the bones overlap and they put me in an ambulance. The paramedics took me to Parkview in Fort Wayne also and they had to do the surgery there. The surgeon screwed a metal rod into my leg so the bones could grow back together but I only had it for a year because the bones could have grown over the metal rod.

I spent a large portion of time in bed at the hospital. I was tired all the time and I didn’t eat because of all the medicine I had to take. Also, for a few days at Parkview, they couldn’t find a pulse in my foot and they checked everyday. At one point, the doctors told my parents that they might have to amputate it but luckily they finally found a pulse in my foot. Another thing that happened that made things worse was when they took the tape off my lower leg. They had a clear tape over my lower leg and they were draining it with a small pump so it wouldn’t get infected. After a few days they decided to take it off because I didn’t need it. The doctors and nurses didn’t know I was allergic to it and neither did my parents. My skin under the tape had blistered and when the nurse took the tape off, it took some of my skin with it. She said before she started to take it off that she would stop if I told her to but when I was screaming for her to stop because I was in a lot of pain, she wouldn’t. My dad was not happy with that nurse and he was trying to tell her to stop too.

When I finally got to leave after 8 days, I wasn’t able to walk so I was in a wheelchair. I had to wear a walking boot while in the wheelchair to protect my lower leg and to keep my ankle bent since the skin was really tight from being stitched back together. At school, some people would ask if they could push me when we had to leave the classroom. Also, I got my own lunch table where I could choose people to sit with me if they wanted to. After a while, I had to use a walker because when I tried using crutches, it was too uncomfortable to use. It was a difficult time for me but I managed to do what I could.

This accident has caused a lot to happen in my life like having surgeries and going through a lot of pain physically and mentally. I always thought that scraping my elbows or knees as a kid was bad but I quickly found out it can get much worse. It wasn’t the most fun experience I’ve had but I’ve learned to enjoy life while you can because it can be gone in an instant. Also, its allowed me to open my eyes and see how important everything is and that I shouldn’t take anything for granted.