One of the Most Important Moment in Your Life

The terrible car accident occurred to me ten years ago threatened my life, only a few flashback memories are what is left in my head. It was summer in June and a Saturday night; the rain was pouring like I have seen very few times before. I had just left my mother’s house after a delicious meal along with some of our homemade red wine. In getting ready to go to work I realized that it was late, my Jazz music band, was supposed to start to play music at 10pm in a nightclub twenty miles west from my house.But the pleasant dinner, and mostly the wine, inadvertently caused me to be extremely late. Once on the highway I tried to reduce the lateness by increasing and maintaining high velocity, in several occasions the speedometer was above 130 MPH.

When the crash happened I was not wearing the seatbelt; in fact I found myself on the passenger seat. The windshield and the side glasses were reduced in thousands of pieces, many of which were all over me. The absence of glass also facilitated the rain getting inside the vehicle and created more discomfort.The front of the automobile, where the engine was located, had been pushed so much inward that it almost reduced the length of the car in half. I was so furious about the damages that I didn’t even care of my health conditions. The car went down the side of the highway; it was hidden by trees and quite difficult to reach. In fact, the police report stated that I had been unconscious for more than half an hour before someone found me.

When I came to senses I did not remember anything, not even what day it was, or why I was in the car. As minutes went by I began to consider the gravity of the situation, as my despair as well.Fully awake and angry still I could not move, my shoulder was hurting and something was obfuscating my sight and it was not the rain—I later discovered that it was my own blood. At some point I turned my head to the right and saw an old man standing right outside my car’s broken window pushing a piece of fabric against my head. I guess he was trying to stop the blood flow. Thanks to this person, who despite the difficulty, came down almost 30 feet to reach my car I was found, and thanks to this man I was able to receive immediate assistance from the paramedics and be carried at a nearby hospital.Nevertheless, sadness embraces me when I think of him; unfortunately I missed the chance to express to him my gratitude.

That night he simply vanished in the darkness. Once the paramedic took me off the car, the race to the hospital was almost pleasant. In the ambulance I will never forget the beautiful face of a relatively young female doctor who gave me the first aid—she came very close to my face several times in order to check my eyes and wounds on my head.At the destination, I was transported in the emergency room where other people immediately started to cut my clothes off with a pair of scissors, in order to check the integrity of my whole body. Even though it was summer I recall being very cold in that room, and thirsty as well. The numerous and small pieces of glass inside the upper-part of my body required an extensive amount of time to be taken out. During this long procedure—conducted by only one doctor—something funny happened.

One of the nurses approached the surgery table, came close to my face and said, “Today boy is your lucky day. “Why? ” I asked, “Well, at the moment the plastic surgeon is still at the hospital, he was supposed to leave an hour ago but something happened and kept him here” was her response—a couple of days later it was explained to me that these specialized doctors are not found frequently in the emergency room. Usually, generic doctors perform these surgeries with significantly poorer results. “He will fix your ear so well that you would not even notice the scar” she added—I had a deep cut behind my right ear, which fortunately enough did not damage any nerves.After those loud nurse’s last words, the anesthetic took over because I don’t remember anything else. As a result, every time I go back with my thoughts to that night I realize how irresponsible I acted. During the days prior to the accident I had a very poor sleep; that combined with the high speed and heavy rain caused the crash.

This traumatic and unique experience will always accompany me. Still, today those memories affect my decision-making processes in order to prevent similar circumstances from occurring again. In the end I surely admit to have learned my lesson.