It happened 7 years ago. My memories of the hours preceding the motorcycle accident are sketchy at best, but I am told I went to dinner with some friends, and left relatively early. Just a few blocks from where I had been parked, I apparently ran a red light, and slammed into the side of a mini van that had been turning onto the road. I wasn't going fast, and hadn't been drinking. I have no idea what happened. Maybe something distracted me for a moment, or perhaps I was daydreaming.
At any rate, nobody else was hurt (thank goodness). My bike was totaled, though. Fortunately I had all the correct gear on, and so it could have been much worse, but I shattered my left tibia and knee, broke my pelvis in 3 places, both wrists, 10 ribs, clavicle, c5/6 vertebrae and vertebral artery dissection, and punctured my right lung. The paramedics arrived within minutes, and I was rushed to the ER and directly into surgery. Because of a great deal of internal bleeding and rapidly dropping blood pressure, I received several units of blood.
I stayed in the ICU for 8 days, was moved to the trauma unit for a month, and then to a bone and joint rehab inpatient facility. I stayed there for 3 months, where I gained strength, underwent another surgery on my wrist, and leaned how to walk again.
I am so incredibly lucky to have had such prompt and amazing care from all of the medical professionals around me, and feel that I have gained so much s from this experience... patience, as I let my body heal in the time it takes to do so... determination to do everything in my power to help it accomplish that... letting other people help me... recognizing the abundance of love from family and friends I have around me...
But without the gift of blood that I received in that ER at the beginning of this journey, I wouldn't have made it through that first night. Though I could never fully express my gratitude for what CBS does, having since become an employee of the organization (and continuing as a proud whole blood and plasma donor), I’m now able to live in my gratitude every day, and hopefully I can help in some small way to enable others to provide and receive this tremendous gift.
