Jo and I escaped with our lives last night when I lost control of our car as we returned from an afternoon trip. I had just left the Interstate and was on a little road on our way back to our motor home when a low divider appeared in the road. I swerved but couldn't avoid bouncing the front of the car over the divider (a six-inch high hump in the road). That action seemed to cut off our brakes and we hurtled into the Florida underbrush.
It felt as though we were accelerating instead of slowing down as we flashed past sawgrass and a big melaleuca tree. We sheared off the tree and that seemed to bring us to a halt. The whole windshield was smashed in and Jo'd side of the car was pretty well demolished.
I was gasping for breath and Jo said she was cut on her right arm. Blood streamed from her wounds. I tried to reach for my cellphone but that was pretty painful. I swung open the door and got my feet on the scrub grass. I called 911 and was amazed when I was connected to the emergency services of the county we were in. I was amazed because our cell's number is out of Connecticut, 1,000 miles to the northeast. I told the operator about our situation and she asked me to give my location. I did the best I could but she wanted a cross street so she could triangulate on me. I told her I knew of no cross street and asked if she could not locate me via the GPS in my cell. She managed to do that (ain't technology grand!)
She said EMTs (emergency medical technicians) would be with us in three minutes.
Jo and I saw in the car, surrounded now by mosquitoes as large as seagulls. They seemed interested in Jo's blood and generally in just getting under my skin.
A passing driver spotted our lights and stopped to ask if we needed assistance. I thanked him and asked if he could stay by the road with his flashing lights so he could guide in the EMTs.
They arrived as I was pulled Jo from the car through the driver's side. Her door wouldn't open. The EMTs supported me as I came up to the road, then they secured me on a back board while they took our blood pressure. Mine, amazingly, was close to normal. Jo's was 200+ over something equally outrageous.
We drove off just as the Florida Highway Patrol officer arrived and he said he'd catch up with us at the emergency room of Manatee Memorial Hospital, about 10 miles away.
They moved me into Orthopaedic Trauma and they put Jo in Emergency Triage. A doctor ordered a CT scan on my neck because he feared it might be broken even though I said all the pain was in my lower back. After a couple of hours, the Highway Patrol officer stopped by to give me the report number which he said I'd need for insurance purposes.
He said we both would have been dead had I been speeding but said it was pretty clear to him we were not exceeding the speed limit. He said he thought the car was pretty much a total loss. His report showed an outline of a car with a request that the officer mark an X on any area that was damaged. He had marked an X on every possible place and also noted the windshield had caved in. The two airbags had not deployed, however.
My doctor and a nurse came over with my discharge papers and helped me swing my legs to the floor. When I stood up, however, I let out a scream because of the excruciating pain in my back. It was infinitely worse than four hours earlier. They and another nurse grabbed me and laid me back on the gurney. A nurse shot some magic juice into my thigh and I felt my pain ease while the doctor who now seemed to understand that my pain was not in my upper neck set up another CT scan on my lower back. This showed a compression fracture of my T-12 vertebra. This led to a series of X-rays of my spine which confirmed the fracture.
Now I was going nowhere. They brought Jo to me so I could hand over our cellphone. money and other stuff. Her arm was bandaged. She had bitten her tongue and she also had cuts on her neck. Otherwise she was in pretty good shape. The hospital arranged for a taxi to take her home while I was rolled upstairs.
I spent a restless night - mostly because the guy in the next bed seemed to be in worse shape than me and kept calling out or grunting through the wee, small hours.
Jo returned in the morning and we contacted our auto insurance company where it was confirmed that we are not protected for the damages. But we are covered for the first $10,000 of medical bills before our health insurance kicks in.
We arranged for Jo to rent a car for a week so we can assess our situation and look for a new vehicle.
Jo has to get with an orthopaedic surgeon on Monday to have the chunk of tree removed from deep inside her arm. The emergency room people didn't want to dig too deeply.
The nurse came in to see me this morning and gave me a shot of morphine. This was followed by my usual doctor who told me I would be fitted with a clamshell cast to immobilize my spine. Then a neurologist came back and he confirmed that approach and said I would be able to leave as soon as it was built. Might be a problem to accomplish this on a Saturday, he said. So we'll see what transpires.
We'll keep you apprised of developments.
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