How I became an amputee

[rbtsmith410]

This is going to be a little embarrassing to post.. but here goes nothing, maybe ill be made fun of, maybe i'll inspire people, I don't know where this will go but I've had a few people in the misc section ask me to share my story so here it goes.

Back on December 4th 2007 I was coming home from a girlfriends house, I was just cruising home. I proceeded to go down this hill, it was dark at this time because it was winter and the time was around 7:40pm. it was a dark back road with no lights what so ever. A car pulled out off a side street cutting me off because they did not see my headlights. I swerved to miss him then swerved back lost control of my car then flipped it 4-5 times while a 2x6 board impaled pretty much through my neck and out my back going through the car seat.

I don't remember any of this happening. The car pulled over and waived another car down to call 911 because he did not have a cell phone. Firefighters, Ambulance and Police arrived to the scene. They were trying to figure out how to get me out of the car with the piece of wood in me. I had to get medevac to Maryland Shock Trauma. I had well over 10 surgeries, I was in a coma and on life support. I had to get my left arm amputated to save my life because of an infection from the wood. They did not know if I was going to live or not. After Christmas I was off life support. I don't remember anything that happened I remember waking up to a voice and I tried to move my left arm but I couldn't I asked what's wrong with my left arm, they told me I did not have it anymore. I passed back out.

I was fighting a lot of fevers and infections, I had bags of ice on me to keep me cool. I finally woke-up to my mom being there and I asked her what happened and she told me.. I broke down crying. I fought long and hard through all of that. I had stitches all up and down my chest where they cracked my chest open and going to where my left arm use to be. I had a feeding tube in my nose, I could not have any liquids to drink, all I could do is chew ice chips and cotton swab of water. I could not stand up or walk at all either I was so weak. I was 270lbs going in and coming out I was at 196lbs. I finally started to progress and left ICU to go to another part of the hospital. I left the Hospital Jan 12th of 2008 and went to a rehabilitation center where I spent 10 days there trying to get my strength back. January 22nd I went home.

It was a tough process getting back to my old life.. I was weak, I had a wound vac on me and had to get dressings from my wounds cleaned out. It was a hell of a time and also depressing. I lost a part of me and thought what am I going to do now, everyone is going to think I'm different and I will get constantly stared at. I returned back to school and that's exactly what happened. Because of my accident I failed 12th grade and had to retake it. I cut myself off from the social world because I was depressed about everything, people making fun of me, some girl came up to my girlfriend at the time and said that's your boyfriend? and started laughing at me.

I finally regained some confidence in myself as months went by and started to adapt to life with one arm. I finally didn't care what people said about me I just wanted to live life, and I did. I went back to driving a 5 speed car, hung out with friends, did everything I did before just with one arm.

Now I am here, Married to a different girl with two beautiful daughters, living life, working for a fortune 50 company, trying to lose weight to live a healthy lifestyle. I hope you guys and gals enjoyed my story.. below I will post a picture of the accident and the documentary video Shock Trauma did of my accident. WARNING it might be very emotional for some so try not to tear up

[Howiester]

Stay strong brah

[Talason]

would kill myself if i ever lost anything on my arms, even just a hand

100% srs

glad you made it though, good luck on your weight loss journey

[KingKringe]

read the entire thing and all i can say is well done and keep up the good fight, maybe this will motivate one or two FA's or that guy raklrakfalf.

[ronnie09]

wow

keep your head up brah

[Nonsense916]

Holy **** crazy story brah.

[rjones416]

thanks for sharing brah. you are a very brave and strong man.

[TwoHumpChump]

Wow that's a crazy story. Thanks for sharing OP. Rehab must have been a huge struggle, having to regain strength from being on ICU as well as relearning everything with only one arm. Respect for having the will power and inner strength to come back from that.

[tank2003]

fuk man....

[rbtsmith410]

Thanks for the motivation brahs

[Fatkidwholifts]

Jesus Christ and here I am sitting at home with a broken ankle feeling bad for myself

[roko79]

speechless...wish you all the best OP. that's unbelievable. Keep your head up.

[Jcup]

inspirational bro. you're one tough dude

[Deezenutz]

Inspiring brah. Really puts things into perspective about how most of the miscers complaining about stupid chit on here are pussies.

You're gonna make it mane.

[dizzin9]

great job OP for making the best out of your situation. you hung in there and overcame adversity.

wish i knew who that bish was. would slap the chit out of her for you.

[Bando]

Incredible you made it through that alive, inspiring that you went through the after effects, got married, had kids and have a positive attitude. Now get after those fitness goals, they should be easy for a guy with your inner strength.

[SmackBang77]

crazy story broski, holy fukk that first pic, lucky you didn't get decapitated man. (no trolling I legit bert stared at the pic because of the size of that board)

Btw, how do you adapt to having only 1 arm ? I read things about rehab and stuff but from your point of view what are some of the daily things that need 2 arms that you had to learn to do with 1 arm with some tweaking ?

[straightflexing]

cot damn...repped for your strength brah..

[Flapjacko]

Damn, and I can't even get a girlfriend.

[bjjruinedmylife]

wow thats insane

how fast were you going that you flipped the car so much? i know you dont remember but they must have estimated it or something? do you remember yourself before being a somewhat fast driver? i mean i think thats a toyato in the thumbnail of the video, and those cars dont flip easily, its not like some s.u.v., they are planted.

was the accident considered your or their fault? obviously they pull out on you its their fault but i mean were you drunk or speeding, etc?

have you had a lot of support from people around you?

[marcus03svt]

damn you're one strong MF'er to go through all of that

[dbluevette]

You are awesome man! Thanks for sharing your story.

[proudmanlet]

good job brah! sorry u had to go thru all that but awesome and inspiring how strong u have been! keep it up, stay strong!

[biggestmuff]

How the hell do you fap and use a computer mouse? Da fuk? My left is my fap hand.

When I had a kidney stone, I got to keep it. Did you get to keep the arm?



srs, though, that must've been tough. How did your neck, chest and head NOT get an infection from the wood, but your arm did?

What happened to the girlfriend you had during/after the accident? She couldn't cope?

[peasandlove]

thanks for sharing your story
makes you appreciate your health as your life can change so quickly

also note you were 270lbs and had a girlfriend
that should inspire some of these losers

[motilynn]

Incredible! Much love and wishes 4 a happy & healthy future sent your way..

[MatSalleh]

Mirin brah. Can you aware me on how you drive a car, type on the computer etc.. if you only have one hand?

[m1n2v5]

fuark, how did you survive that board impaling you?

[rbtsmith410]

Thanks everybody! I really appreciate it the words and motivations. I need to find a workout plan that's 1 arm friendly with arm exercises maybe you guys can help me on that!

crazy story broski, holy fukk that first pic, lucky you didn't get decapitated man. (no trolling I legit bert stared at the pic because of the size of that board)

Btw, how do you adapt to having only 1 arm ? I read things about rehab and stuff but from your point of view what are some of the daily things that need 2 arms that you had to learn to do with 1 arm with some tweaking ?

You just learn to adapt to things when you have no choice and you're the only one home to take care of yourself that's how I started to adapting to my current lifestyle. I can drive a manual car just fine without a problem, I actually own one lol its my fun weekend car, putting pants up buttoning them, dress shirts, belt, socks on, changing the babies diaper, I also play xbox one just fine I have to use my lips to move around though but I am pretty good at games, tying trash bags, I mean the list goes on brother, when you're put in the situation you just have to figure it out.

wow thats insane

how fast were you going that you flipped the car so much? i know you dont remember but they must have estimated it or something? do you remember yourself before being a somewhat fast driver? i mean i think thats a toyato in the thumbnail of the video, and those cars dont flip easily, its not like some s.u.v., they are planted.

was the accident considered your or their fault? obviously they pull out on you its their fault but i mean were you drunk or speeding, etc?

have you had a lot of support from people around you?

I wasn't even going fast I was doing like 5 over the speed limit I'm always a careful driver on back roads and everywhere else, insurance gets expensive if you have points. That was actually a Honda CRX so it was a very small car. They ruled it to be my fault which I don't know how because the guy clearly said in the police report he did not see my headlights. But I was not drunk at all. I've had a lot of support but others would just point and laugh you know how society can be today. The reason why the car flipped was because when I swerved back I went down a little hill sideways and hit another hill that was going up it was like a little trench.

How the hell do you fap and use a computer mouse? Da fuk? My left is my fap hand.

When I had a kidney stone, I got to keep it. Did you get to keep the arm?



srs, though, that must've been tough. How did your neck, chest and head NOT get an infection from the wood, but your arm did?

What happened to the girlfriend you had during/after the accident? She couldn't cope?

Lol, that I don't know the would cut off blood circulation to my left arm. We stayed together for almost 5 years, constantly cheated on me but I felt like I was good enough so I kept taking her back because I loved her and thought no one else wanted me. Then she got pregnant by another guy while we were dating but I didn't find out til a month after we broke up.

Mirin brah. Can you aware me on how you drive a car, type on the computer etc.. if you only have one hand?

Just have to learn to adapt to situations when you have no choice but to do it brother, I guess its like a survival kind of thing, I drive a manual and I play xbox one

fuark, how did you survive that board impaling you?

Man I don't even know, weird thing is, the board looks like praying hands

[SmackBang77]

Man I don't even know, weird thing is, the board looks like praying hands

its God's way of testing your will, go through life with that handicap without swaying your faith