Car Frenzy

By Dannyy Alamo

Senior Staff Writer

I was with my friend at the time and we decided to go for a drive it was really late and my grandmother always told me once I got home I shouldn’t step back out when it was past midnight because that’s usually when bad things happened. Whenever my grandmother said things like that I got annoyed and believed that it was all superstition. It was the fall of 2009 September to be exact, I was living in Killeen, TX and I had just left my  the movie theater.

I didn’t listen to my grandmother and still went for the ride with my friend. I was driving down a road that was 50 mph and wasn’t paying attention to the road; I was listening to music and laughing. While I was driving I got way too distracted and didn’t see that there was a cinder block in the middle of the road. When I got close enough to see it I tried to go around it but do to the speed of the road my car swerved and lost control. I spun around three times, went through a nearby gate and crashed into a building that was behind the gate. My motor came into the front seat and pinned me in my car.

At first I didn’t realize what happened I was sort of in a daze and didn’t realize that we were in an actual accident. I remember sitting straight and feeling the throbbing of my head  because when the airbag deployed my head hit the door frame. I look over to my friend to see if she’s ok and realized that she’s also pinned in her seat. I realized that I had to control my emotions and behaviors so not to frighten her.

I asked her was she okay?  She looked herself over and replied, “yeah I’m ok.” I decided to try and get out of the car but noticed that my door was jammed due the impact. I decided that I needed to throw my body against the door in an attempt to try and pry it open.

I was able to open my door but I couldn’t get out. I remember smelling the gas, the fire and the burnt rubber. I remember seeing the smoke and the flames. I heard the crackling of the fire and the engine still going. My engine pinned me in the drivers seat on my right thigh. I tried hard to pull my leg out of the space but my leg was really stuck. I quickly searched for my phone and when I found it I dialed 911 to get in contact with the police. When they answered I tried to remain calm and explain the accident, the location and how badly we were hurt. I started feeling this excruciating pain go up my right leg from the tip of my toes to my hip bone. It felt like a strong surge of fire with a pop at the end shooting up my leg. After about 15 minutes the police, ambulance and transporting helicopter came and got us out of the car and into ambulances.

I arrived at the hospital and was rushed into surgery. I don’t remember much about the moments before that besides the doctor telling me to recite a color, a number and a letter he was going to say to me. I remember being told to count back from 100 and this cooling feeling going through me, then I felt as if I was asleep. I remember that during this sleep like phase I was really cold and felt like I was being ripped apart. Then I felt warmth and I was being woken up by the doctor.

I awoke to see figures in front of me and my vision was very unclear. I blinked a few times to process what was in front of me and saw six faces 1 that I recognized  and five that I didn’t. I recognized my grandmothers face and stared at her while in confusion. I tried to speak but my mouth felt so dry. A man in all white gave me a cup of water to moisten my throat. I asked what happened because I couldn’t move my foot.

The doctor explained that I had gotten into an accident, broken my right femur bone and had to go through immediate surgery to have a metal rod inserted into my thigh to replace the broken bone. I started to cry because of the fear that maybe I wouldn’t be able to walk again. The doctor told me that there was something else that he needed to tell me. I said,” OK”, and he replied,”During the surgery, your heart stopped having a pulse.” I looked at him a little confused and he said,” Mr. Alamo during surgery you died and we had to bring you back to life, I don’t know why but we have ran some test to figure out if it was something from our part.”

Again I began to cry, to hear the words you died was just crazy. After processing everything that happened, I started to have flashbacks of my grandmother telling how I need to pay attention when I’m driving and that I shouldn’t go back out for a ride after I already got  myself home and was preparing to go to sleep. I realized that even though I didn’t permanently die I could’ve and that that was God’s way of telling me listen to my elders.