Journey Part 1: The Accident that Changed My Life

I ventured out into the night…

It was a cold January evening as I ventured out into the night. I didn’t think much about the roads or the winter conditions outside—it had been a typical cold winter month in Calgary.

It was dark and snowing when I was driving home from seeing a friend. There was a slight left curve and while the road went left my car went straight. Once my front tire caught the snow bank, I couldn't turn out of it. My right leg was locked straight on the brake which did not slow the car as I slid head on into a tree that stopped my car dead. After the impact, it was dark inside the car as snow covered the entire windshield. I felt pain in my right arm and leg but was in shock and didn't realize how bad it was.

Why didn't I call 911?

I opened the door and pulled myself from the car falling onto the snow covered sidewalk using the car door frame. As I lay on the sidewalk, I looked down and could see blood flowing from my right pant leg and melting the snow on the sidewalk beside me. As I lay on the sidewalk broken and bleeding, I called my wife and told her I was in a car crash… that was when I saw a police officer approaching. Why didn't I call 911? I don't know, I knew I was injured but I didn't know how bad and she is who I had to call.

"I didn't think you were alive…"

As I came to learn the following day, when the officer came to visit me in the hospital - he just happened to be passing by on an adjacent street and caught a glimpse of the wreak. He doubled back and had an ambulance there within minutes. I remember being lifted into the ambulance and then woke he following day in the hospital hooked up to a bunch of machines. The officer told me that as he approached the wreak "I didn't think you were alive".

Luckily, I was alive and no other car, or person, was involved.

The bad news was I had multiple injuries to contend with: a broken arm and a shattered tibia and fibula in my right leg .