Ok. I told myself I wasn't going to write much about the accident or how it has affected our life. Well, I will touch upon it, because I often feel that the terrifying tragic accident that occurred on March 14, 2005 is like the proverbial large 'white elephant' that stands in the middle of the living room always waiting, waiting to be noticed. And though you try and try, you can never just wish it away...it refuses to leave.One day I received a phone call from a young college student that there had been a horrible accident where one of the college vans had hit the one in front of it, and shoved it into the path of an 18 wheeler truck, head on.
That van that was struck was the one carrying 3 of my family members, my 8 year old twin sons, Jackson & Jeremiah, and my husband, John. Apparently, when the van was hit, Jeremiah was thrown out of it and tossed 30-40 feet through the air and across the gravel highway, while my other son, Jackson was pinned underneath the van after it flipped from the impact.
My husband was knocked unconcious after slamming into the windshield when the other van hit them from the rear.
John still remembers nothing from a few moments before impact, until after he'd been in the hospital for more than 24 hours.
Jackson and Jeremiah believed that their Daddy had been killed.
Liberty University flew a private jet down to Alabama, and stopped on the way to pick me and my daughter up. When we arrived at the hospital the scene was a Mother's worst nightmare.
Jackson was asleep, drugged, in a hospital room, his head and arm wrapped. John was unconcious, his face, arms, hands and leg bloody, bruised and battered. Jenna was terrified of her Daddy and wouldn't go near him until I had bathed all the blood away......
Jeremiah was in the ER still getting stitched....and stitched...and stitched....over 75 stitches to his face, wrists, legs........this is where I lost it and broke down. My baby's face was mangled and raw like hamburger meat...tore to pieces....and he was screaming...in pain.
It was too much to bear and I cried like only a Mother can cry.
Because my sons are identical twins and they love being identical twins, the images of one of my twins' face being so horribly disfigured was even more painful......one of the first words out of my dear Jeremiah's mouth, was "I'm not identical to my brother anymore, am I?"
Oh God!
Jeremiah still has gravel next to his eye that needs to be removed, but the trauma was too much for him for a long time. Soon he will be ready, though.
He also had a 4" long wound on his ankle that required 4 months of twice daily wound treatments to heal it. He really needed a skin graft, but he wouldn't allow it. He was too traumatized.
Even 2 weeks after the accident, a hair cut, and several hair washings Jackson and I were still removing chunks of imbedded glass from the back and sides of his scalp.
Jackson had wounds on his face and arms that required stitches, but his major injury (well what we knew of at the time) was a broken arm. The inattentive hospital not only missed the fact that he had 5 broken ribs(!!), which we found about 2 months later while at our local Dr office doing a cast/arm check-up, but also that they put a plastic brace on Jackson's arm, as if he were a 80 year old woman sitting still for 3 months, and not an 8 year old active little boy.
Needless to say, when we got home and visited our Dr., Jackson had not healed at all....even 2 weeks after the accident. So, our wonderful Dr, placed Jackson in a cast, and for most of the summer of 2005, Jackson healed his body.
John wasn't as lucky. He suffered a Traumatic Brain Injury and a torn elbow/arm tendon which had become unattached during the violence of the accident. Both of these injuries required countless hours of missed work, stress, depression and resulted in elbow/arm surgery and brain surgery to install a shunt in John's brain to stop the fluid from filling his brain and causing swelling.
And during all of this, we were trying to sell our house, because with all of the post-traumatic results of the accident, we couldn't afford to live in the same house or area anymore. We needed to sell the house and move back to our other house in New Mexico.........and this proved more challenging than we had believe it would be. I will explain more later.
