TWENTY YEARS AGO TODAY … I broke my neck in a car accident which rendered me a complete quadriplegic for a short while. The only reason I am alive today, with relatively full functionality, is thanks to some stranger who saved my life and then disappeared without a trace.
On Leap Day 1988 in San Mateo, California I went on a BMW test drive. The salesman was driving. He was showing off the handing capabilities of the car on back roads. He lost control as we approached a turn which resulted in us plowing into a dirt embankment at what was estimated at 63 miles per hour. I was in the rear seat behind the driver – in a seatbelt, without an airbag.
While my seatbelt secured my body, my head continued to travel forward at 63 miles per hour. This resulted in a C2 spinal fracture (the same break that Superman’s Christopher Reeves experienced). I ended up sitting there in the car – each hand resting palm down on each leg, perfectly placed. Unable to hold my head up, I starred towards my lap fully aware we had crashed and to boot realized I was totally paralyzed and unable to breathe (as my hanging head blocked my wind pipe).
I had always wondered as a kid what would be the final minutes of thinking if you knew death was imminent. So there I sat staring at my hands slowly changing color from that of the living to that of the dead. And so it seemed this day would end my 23 years of Earthly habitation.
I do not know how many minutes I was forced to witness my slow death … more than a few minutes for sure and less than six for sure.
My door flies open, and only my door. An Asian man leans into the car and looks up into my face and says "Can you breathe?" I lip synch "No" … three times. He says "Do you want me to lift your head?" So, I lip synch "Yes" once. He proceeds to hold my head up in a hyper-extended fashion with perfection … as if medically trained. Once my head is extended I find I can breath. Move? No. Breathe, yes!
He holds my head in position with his arms fully extended for nearly thirty minutes until the ambulances arrive (heads are heavy and the fact this person could maintain this position for so long is in itself a miracle). Had he tried to rest or settle my head to assist the others in the car I would, without a doubt, be dead or a quadriplegic today.
The paramedics step in and take possession of my head.
Then … poof this savior disappears! No sign of him. No witnesses, no reference in the police report. Nothing.
The doctors told my parents I would most likely be paralyzed for life. No one told me that though … and so, despite this prognosis ... I recovered.
And recover I did - over the next four or five months, although not fully. To this day, I suffer from a very rare condition called Brown-Sequard Syndrome. In short, the center of my spinal cord in the vicinity of the C2 vertebrae is now dead. As a result, the right side of my body has a very lower ability to sense hot, cold, and pain. And the nervous system on the left side of my body is hypersensitive and I have a noticeable degree of muscle atrophy on the left side as my brain does not talk to all of those muscles anymore.
Lucky? Yep.
Does such an accident reorient one to the value of life and priorities? True, although oddly this new think only lasted about six months!
What are my thoughts about death now? Every day since February 29th, 1988 has been an extra day.
Regrets? I only wish I could locate and thank the person who saved me. Maybe he wonders what came of my condition and if he had done the right thing. My parents, my children, my girlfriend, and I would like to convey our thanks.
Dear Mr. Stranger: Thank you.
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Amazing story, especially the part about the disapearing hero. I bet it changed your perspective on a few things....
Posted by: Michigan Accident Attorney | April 25, 2011 at 01:45 PM
Wow! That a was a great story. Did you get to see his face? Do you remember?
Posted by: Carol | April 30, 2011 at 09:20 PM
Jeff, I'm coming at this totally cold; found you while researching Gen. Patton's car wreck and broken neck cause my dad just got one falling over his stairs. He didn't have all these problems but just makes me feel possibly how unusual that was after reading yours and some of your commenters stories. Dad just got up and walked back in his house - complained of neck pain 3 weeks later they found his break then put him in C-collar; said would have put in halo but did I mention he's 92 so they wouldn't. But I just think what if he'd been in your situation and couldn't have gotten up? I shudder - nobody saw it happen. Someone made a comment about your visitor - not to say - but I do believe God does sometimes send angels - maybe he would have or maybe he did - is that how dad got up? either way great to know about your full recovery!
Posted by: Donna | May 08, 2011 at 10:07 PM
Blessings happen everyday, and everyday is a blessings!
You were touched by an Angel.
You have been given a gift to share your event. Nothing happens by accident. Events happen to each and everyone of us. Thank you for sharing your experience. :)
Posted by: Linda | May 15, 2012 at 06:20 AM
I also was in a car crash, in the passenger seat, an old alfa romeo with no air bags. The driver was going far too fast and so we never went round a sharp corner we just rolled back into a ditch and then bounced back onto the road and went into a tree on the other side. As often the case, I now know, the driver was fine but for me I took the full brunt of the tree. I sat there very still somehow knowing that something was very wrong . However I wiggled my toes and hands but I did not dare move. Then an off duty fireman came by and opened my door and undid my seat belt. He asked if I could get out of the car and I said yes. He then said he had to rush off to unplug the battery otherwise the car could explode. At this point I thought I must summon every bone, tissue everything in my body to move and I got out of the car. I kept complaining that my neck hurt but the driver was more worried about loosing his license so I was rushed off to the cricket club house. No ambulance called, no police nothing. Later on I went the A & E but they said they had too many heart patients and could not see me until after midnight. So I returned to London. Anyway to cut a long story short, after 9 1/2 years finally they spotted what the biggest problem was, not the fragmented C5 to C8, the compacted jaw bone where fragments actually came out of my gums later on in time, but it was a C2/C3 fracture 8mm wide. I had it operated on at Kings College (David Bell) at the end of November last year. The spasms have gone and I feel more confident with walking. It feels like a miracle happened. I still have pins & needles but that is nothing in comparison to how it was. The pain was terrible but it has now reduced from being 9/10 to about 4/10.
Posted by: Melanie Mosselmans | April 23, 2014 at 07:04 AM
I'm so glad you lived to tell the tale! I guess the guy who saved you was a paramedic, and he only saw it as his duty, nothing more. But I'm so grateful people like him exist. I sure hope I'm able to help someone in need, though I'm not trained in first aid. But I hope I'm able to help in such a situation.
Posted by: Ann | November 22, 2015 at 07:57 AM
A similar story: www.nytimes.com/2016/06/08/us/good-samaritan-helps-boy-survive-internal-decapitation-in-idaho-car-crash.html
Posted by: Jeff Jonas | June 08, 2016 at 05:57 PM
Nice blog post.
Posted by: Sports Injury treatment | July 29, 2017 at 04:46 AM