My name is Jacob. I’m 30 years old and live in West Palm Beach, Florida. In a nutshell, this is the story about a defining moment in my life.
February 4, 1982:
Born in West Palm Beach, FL.
January 26, 1999:
Just like any other day, I arrived to homeroom 5-10
minutes late. All I heard was noise as the teacher, whose name I
couldn’t recall if my life depended on it, reamed me out for being late
to class, again. I could hear her perfectly fine, but chose not to listen to
the noise coming out of her mouth. I was a 16-year-old junior in high
school, who could have cared less about high school… I was more
interested in my new girlfriend and my hockey game that coming weekend.
And just like any other random day, after homeroom ended 2 friends and I decided to cut class 2nd period, as we’d done many times before. I’ll call the driver “Mike” and my other friend “Ryan” to explain the story. We
often parked in the faculty parking lot, so getting on and off campus
was a breeze. We decided to go to my house because nobody was home during
the day except my older brother. After playing Nintendo 64 for over an
hour (007 multi-player was sweet back in the 90′s), I had to get back to
school for a math test, which I had studied zero for. All 3 of us loaded
up into Mike’s 2 seater Ford F-150 (no extended cab) and headed back to
school, which was only 2 blocks away. At the last minute Ryan decided he
wanted to go home instead of school, so we dropped him off at home 2
blocks away.I vividly remember pulling up to his house and letting him
out of the truck. What I don’t remember is what happened shortly after. I
had hopped back into the car, and within 60 seconds my life was changed
forever, in an instant.
Mike and I were close, like brothers. Out of all my
friends, I trusted his driving skills more than anyone. But, on this day,
2 blocks away from our high school, he made a mistake, which ultimately
left me paralyzed from the waist down.
I honestly don’t remember a single thing about the
car accident, absolutely nothing. I don’t remember being in pain, or
afraid, or bloody. Nothing… I learned later about what had happened from
eye witnesses on the road. Picture 2 lanes going each way. We were in the
left lane, cruising at 55-60 mph in a 45 mph zone. Witnesses stated our
car was riding extremely close to the rear bumper on the large flatbed
truck directly in front of us. Driving this close resulted in limited
vision around the sides of this flatbed truck. Mike then
decided he wanted to pass the slow flatbed in front of him. So he looked
in his right side mirror to see if he could get over into the right
lane. He didn’t see a single car next to him, so naturally started to get
into the right lane…. BANG!!! He slammed into a huge double entrance
community transit bus, which was stopped up ahead in the right lane
picking up passengers.He never saw the transit bus because of how close
he was to the flatbed directly in front of us in the left lane.Traveling
around 55 mph, the front right corner of our F-150 slammed into the
back left corner of the stopped bus.As a result of the impact speed, the
F-150’s front right tire was sheered off the axle. Mike
was wearing his seat-belt and had an airbag, while I had
neither.Furthermore, all the impact from the crash was on my front
side.The F-150 cabin was covered in blood, and all of it was coming from
my face, which had multiple cuts from slamming the windshield.The
impact was so great that the dashboard moved toward my chest, pinning me
between the console and my seat back. Keep in mind, the F-150 was not
an extended cab, therefore my seat-back couldn’t go back any further.
Mike says I was conscious and scared, throwing my arms around trying to
get loose. To keep me from further injuring myself, Mike wrapped his arms
around me to limit movement. I lost conscious shortly after.
When paramedics arrived they had to use Jaws of
Life to slice open the damaged door. Once cut open, they are able to pull
me free. I was told months later by one of the rescuing paramedics that
they thought for sure my right eyeball was somewhere in the car, and
they spent time looking for it.I was Trauma Hawked (helicopter) to
Delray Medic Center. On the way to the hospital my heart stopped, and
needed to be resuscitated multiple times.
Once at the hospital, they realized I had
internally torn my descending aorta from the blunt impact of the
crash. Very few people live through a torn descending aorta. Therefore,
the doctor began preparing for surgery prior to my parent’s arrival and
consent.
As soon as I was positively identified my parents
were contacted. They were told “Your son has been in a horrible car
accident, please come to Delray Medical Center immediately!”… This phone
call is absolutely every parent’s worst nightmare. I can only imagine
the fear that came over them. Keep in mind, the police officer who
contacted my parents said “your son”, never using my name. At the time,
my older brother had graduated high school and was still living at
home. I was supposed to be in school that day. My parents hung up
the phone thinking it was my older brother who’d been in the car
accident. The entire ride to the hospital they were paging my beeper
(yes, I thought I was cool and carried a beeper in the 90′s).
My girlfriend at the time was best friends with Mike’s (the driver’s) older sister. She
was a freshman in college, while I was a junior in high school, so we
attended different schools. She came to the hospital immediately once
she received word of the crash. My parents were already there,
frantically worried. They had seen me briefly while being wheeled into
surgery. Prior to surgery the doctor told them I had only a 3% chance of
survival. My girlfriend and mother began to cry when they saw each
other. While hugging, my mother said to her “Where is Jacob, why hasn’t
he returned our phone calls?!” It was in this moment my girlfriend
realized, my mother thought my brother was in the car accident, not
me. With tears in her eyes, my 18-year-old girlfriend had to clarify what
had happened.“ Janette, it wasn’t Brian who was in the accident, it was
Jacob.”
After the surgery was finished security had to
clear the halls, which were cluttered with friends and family who had
received word of what happened. My girlfriend and best friends were
waiting in another branch of the hospital, away from the crowd. By
chance, to avoid the large number of people gathered in the halls, the
nurses decided to wheel me directly by my girlfriend and best
friends. Although I must deal with pain from a 1st person
perspective, I wasn’t conscious that day, and I can’t begin to imagine
the sadness they felt having to see someone they cared about in that
condition.
January 29, 1999:
To perform the surgery I
was induced into a coma. Although the surgery itself lasted only 69
minutes, the coma lasted 3 days longer. In my mind I was asleep, at a
happy place deep in dreams…I remember thinking softly to myself, “This
is such an odd dream” as I chuckled. In the dream there were stickers and
wires all over my body. The wires were hooked up to monitors, and the
monitors were beeping.“Beep… Beep”. In this dream state I was amused,
therefore I proceed to remove the stickers from my chest. The next time I
arrived in this dream state my wrists were tied down. Keep in mind I was
unaware of the car accident, therefore unaware this was anything other
than a unique dream.
Surrounded by family and doctors, I regained consciousness 3 days after surgery. Like it happened yesterday, I remember the doctor asking me “Can you touch your fingertips to your thumb one at a time?” To which I replied, “Of course I can doc”, mirroring his hand movements spot on, almost mocking him. And like it was yesterday, I remember when he asked me “now can you move your legs for me?” My brain began to reply, “Of course I can doc”, but my legs remained silent and motionless. I was told of the accident the same moment I began to realize my legs didn’t work.
As the truths began to
hit me like a ton of bricks, I subconsciously went to a safe place. I
detached to an asylum where the raw pain couldn’t hurt the last bit of
innocence I still had as a child. For the first few days I didn’t cry
once, emotionally unaffected by the trauma.I would smile, telling myself
it would “all be back to normal in a month or 2 tops”. Between the
doctors, family, and friends there was no time to reflect because I had
so many visitors each day. As hospital days slowly passed, it was the
silent nights alone I began to dread….
February 4, 1999:
I was transferred to Jackson Memorial Hospital for 30 days of in-patient physical rehabilitation therapy. During my stay at Jackson I learned the necessary textbook fundamentals of my new life in a wheelchair. Then, during my 8th night at Jackson Memorial I broke down emotionally. Alone in my bed, in the still silence of the night, I realized what had happened. Of all the things lost, the one that could never possibly be given back was innocence. I could close my eyes and dream about running again, but my innocence was taken forever. Then, 30 days later my stay at Jackson Memorial Hospital had come to an end. I remember being terrified as I slowly rolled my wheelchair toward the exit for the final time.March 4, 1999 to Present:
-Returned to high school senior year and graduated with my class.
-Accepted to The University of Florida.
-Studied international business in Valencia, Spain for 2 months while attending college at UF.
-Graduated with a 4-year degree in Business Administration from The University of Florida.
-Started a profitable business dealing in residential and commercial real estate.
-Purchased a house in my hometown West Palm Beach, FL.
-Met and married my wife Ana (aka “Ana Banana”).
I’ve been rambling on, probably boring whoever may
have gotten this far.I guess what I’m trying to say is, I made it. The
pain and fear could have easily swallowed me, alienating me from friends
and family, but I made it through. I dare you to rise to the challenge
if you’re a green (new) paraplegic and/or new to a wheelchair. Hopefully,
this blog can serve as an informative hub for anyone new to a
wheelchair.
His blog is How i Roll and if you made it this far you definitely NEED to give it a look.
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