Love Life

LOVE LIFE

When I was 25 years old an unexpected event changed the way I viewed life forever. The day was June 11^th, 2013. A group of friends and I all had the day off from work, we decided to take a day trip to Los Angeles, for site seeing and food tasting. We left early in the morning my friend Anthony drove myself, Matt and Jessica to Los Angeles. When we got to Los Angeles, the group decided to walk around Chinatown’s swap meet. I loved the hustle and bustle of Chinatown’s streets, the organized chaos of people walking, riding bikes and buses screeching down the streets.

As I roamed the alley ways I could smell pho in the air, fresh duck hang from the steel rack, lit up by heat lamps. We stopped at a pho restaurant and indulged in spicy beef pho. My friends and I were rushed out when we noticed our meter was running out, as I walked out of the restaurant parking enforcement had already place the yellow ticket on Anthony’s windshield. We attempted to dispute the ticket, but the officer was not budging, we accepted the ticket as we drove off tires screeching down the road. As a group, we decided to head back to Camarillo and watch a movie at the Roxy Theater.  We watched “Now you see me”, I don’t remember much of the movie that due to me being extremely tired from the long day in Los Angeles. I vividly remember speaking to Anthony and Matt at about 1:00 am, telling my friends I was exhausted and wanted to drive home but I didn’t have my glasses. That morning I left my glasses at home and without them I struggle to drive at night. I remember my friends worried about my safety urged me to stay the night in Camarillo with them. Me being stubborn, I reassured my friends I can make it home. At the time I lived in Fillmore, California with my dad. Fillmore was located about 25-30 minutes away from Camarillo, a long and lonely drive at 1:00 am.

As I drove off I told Matt and Anthony, “I will text you when I get home” I then drove off into the dark overcastted night. Prior to this event, I made

a lot of decisions without thinking twice about the consequences they had on my life. With that being said on this night, it was dark, foggy and I could barely see a few feet in front of me. With no glasses on I began to drive up a huge mountain called Grimes Canyon. This mountain is a two laned winey road, with lots of twists and turns. When I reached the peak of the mountain there was a thick layer of fog, so dense my headlights only made the fog worsen. As I came to a blind left turn at the top of the mountain, another vehicle was in both lanes attempting to turn right. To avoid a head on collision I slightly turned my vehicle to the outside lane touching the dirt edgy mountain. Once on the dirt portion of the road, my vehicle fish tailed off the right side of the mountain. The driver of the other vehicle made the right turn and headed back down the mountain, with my car fish tailing I am able to get all four times safely on the pavement. The mountain quickly turns to go back down, I was not able to turn quick enough and my vehicle went off the top of the mountain at roughly 25 mph.

I was going down my car was smacking against the mountains rocks and dirt. I don’t remember specific thoughts, just fear of when my car was going to stop and was I going to be smashed to death. My car finally stopped about 150 feet down the mountain, I was alive and in one piece. The windshield to my car was broken, all side view mirrors were broken off and to top it off, I was unable to open my driver side door, luckily my sunroof was opened. Just before jumping out my sunroof I searched for my cell phone, the mountain was pitch black and I had no clue how far down I fell. I located my phone shattered under my seat. Right then I knew I was going to have to climb back up the mountain. Due to the fact that my doors would not open, I climbed through the sun room and began making my way up the mountain. At that point my adrenaline was in high gear; I felt no pain and was in complete denial to how severe my injuries were.

            Once at the top of the mountain, I began to walking down because I saw no cars in sight. Around five minutes later, a man stopped and asked if I was ok. Like I said earlier, “I was in denial about how serious my injuries were”. With that being said, when he asked if I was ok, I responded with yes, I asked for a ride home and if I could use his phone. On the way home, I called the highway patrol and informed them of my accident, the second phone call I made was to my father. I arrived home and the adrenaline was wearing off. I dropped to the floor and then realized I needed to go to the hospital. On the way to the hospital I fainted twice and felt like I wasn’t going to make it.

            I finally arrived at the hospital in Santa Clarita. I could not walk, so the nurse grabbed me a wheel chair. My dad informed the nurse I was in a car accident; I was then immediately rushed to the trauma center. The trauma center was like nothing I’ve ever seen, it felt like I was on an episode of ER. Several doctors and nurses surrounded me, I could hear several people speaking to me at one time, “where does it hurt”, “what’s your name”, “what happened”. At this point I couldn’t think straight and I was now starting to freak out.  The next thing I remember was being transported to a room where x-rays and CAT scans were given to me. The doctor came out and gave me the scariest news of my life, that moment I was faced with a decision that was going to change my life. The doctor informed me,

Doctor: you have 4 broken ribs, a lacerated spleen and massive internal bleeding. If you waited any longer, you could have died from loss of too much blood.

Doctor: with that being said, you have two options. Surgery now to remove your spleen, or wait it out and see if your body can heal your spleen and your blood count rises.

Me: I chuckled a bit, and asked the doctor what do you think I should do?

Doctor: you’re a healthy young man; your body has the potential to heal itself.

Me: ok, I will wait doctor.

Doctor: the doctor then told me, I’m going to have to put you on a catheter because your kidneys shut down, due to the massive amount of blood you have lost.

Me: ok, but as long as a woman is the one touching me.

            The doctor laughed and walked away. I stayed in the hospital for six days and with each day my hope from being healed dwindled away. I was not able to eat for six days, just in case I needed to be rushed for surgery. On the fifth day, my kidneys began to work again and I was taken of the catheter. By the six day, the doctor walked in and informed me “your blood count has risen to a normal level and your spleen is healed, you get to go home today”. That was the happiest day of my life. I was thankful for life, I was thankful for all the people that visited me (family, friends, co workers). I realized how much I had taken life for granted, my life could have been taken from me that quickly. My life didn’t only affect me, I saw in that hospital bed my mother in pain, my grandmother in pain, my girlfriend in pain. I wasn’t the only one in pain, I wasn’t the only one crying and emotional, every day I saw my pain through the eyes of the people that love me.

            Since my accident, I’ve learned to think about other people and take their feelings into consideration. I’ve learned to think about the consequences of my decisions and are those consequences positive or negative worth the behavior. I still think back to the night of my accident and reflect on what could have happened, I could have died in my car that night. A few days after my release from the hospital, I minimized the accident. Until the day I was taken to the yard where my car was being held. My car was completely totaled, right then I realized I was lucky and do not take any day or anybody for granted.  This event was significant in my life because it taught me to value your friends and family and I have a lot to be grateful for.