The date was August 20, 2004. The time was approximately 10:30 a.m. The location was Hwy. 31-E just a bit toward Glasgow from Barren River Lake, pretty much on the Allen-Barren County line – a fact which would play an important role in what happened.
We lived in Henderson and my husband, Tim, was a Director at the Evansville Courier & Press and was at a going-away luncheon in Evansville, as he was leaving to accept the Publisher’s position at the Glasgow Daily Times. I drove our Trailblazer to Glasgow and was with a Coldwell-Banker Realtor, Sybil Leamon, in her SUV looking for a house to purchase. She had shown me several that morning near the lake and we had just left one on Hidden Cove Road to head back to town. It had been storming off and on all morning so I was happy to be heading back, as I had always been terribly afraid of storms. We came to the end of the road, stopped at the stop sign to make a right turn onto 31-E and that is where my memory stops for weeks, except for bits and pieces. Bystanders, emergency personnel and later hospital workers and family members helped fill in the missing weeks. After I started recovering, Tim and I met with all the people we could find who played a part in helping save my life – heart-wrenching meetings full of tears.
Sybil and I turned right, toward Glasgow, and it was, I’m guessing, no longer than 10-15 seconds that a pickup truck traveling toward the lake came around a curve and lost control, sliding side-first into the SUV we were in and pushing us back into the rock wall. Unfortunately, Sybil passed away on impact, according to the Barren County Coroner, but he assured me it was so quick she did not suffer and I know she is in Heaven now..
Remember that Allen-Barren County line… there was basically no cell service there, and the first people on the scene were unable to get out 9-1-1 calls and when one finally went through, dispatch couldn’t decide which county should send responders so they sent them from both counties, fortunate because the Jaws of Life from Allen County wouldn’t start when they arrived. An incredible guy, his wife and his mother were heading back from moving a mobile home (his job) when they came upon the wreck. He got out and checked, realized Sybil had passed, then came to the passenger side. I was slumped forward, not breathing, but he saw my eyelids flicker, so he slid his hand between the door and the door post, tilted my head back and I started to breathe. He stood there in a puddle of gas, holding my head so I could breathe, keeping me alive, until Barren County EMS arrived. His wife was with him and he made her go back to their truck because, in his words, “I don’t want our kids to lose both parents at once” in case the gas caught fire. It was then the heavens opened up and rain poured down, helping alleviate that one concern.
The incredible EMTs kept me alive until we arrived in Glasgow. I had left my purse and ID in our truck, so no one knew who I was and the fentanyl I was given for pain had me concerned about picking up my kids from school… I have no kids, so that added to the confusion. The hospital soon realized they could not help me and called for LifeFlight from Vanderbilt. Vandy helicopter crews are trained to not ask about details of their “missions” so emotions don’t enter into the situation, and despite the horrible weather, as the pilot was checking the radar, a corridor opened up and he said, “I think we can make it – if they can get the patient to the airport instead of the hospital.” So I was stabilized as best they could and transported to the airport and transferred to LifeFlight headed to Nashville.
Once there, I spent three days in their Level 1 Trauma Center where there was a bomb scare and the unit was on lockdown when Tim arrived, so he could only see me five minutes every four hours. The number two orthopaedic pelvic surgeon in the world happened to be on rotation there and he put my left pelvis back together with wire mesh, a surgery they were not sure I would survive. Another surgeon inserted a titanium rod the entire length of my right femur. I had a broken right wrist and thumb, right ankle, and a severe laceration on my head where I hit the sunroof of the SUV, another fact which saved my life. A metal roof would have snapped my neck. A Trauma nurse was convinced I did not have on a seatbelt and told Tim that… a fact for which he later had to apologize (I ALWAYS wear my seat belt!) because I simply did not have enough blood left to make a bruise. I later was found to have a broken radius and ulna on my left arm and the bones fused back together so I had additional surgery to chip away the excess bone.
After 10 days at Vandy, rehabilitation was next at a facility in Paducah, close to my family for assistance and support, and I was not allowed to take a step for three months. There were trips via ambulance between Paducah and Vandy for regular check-ups and visits with my pelvic surgeon, and he finally agreed to release me to see if I could still walk. The rehab staff and administration stayed late to wait for me after my Vandy appointment. They put me in a walker and I took my first step – I don’t think there was a dry eye in the building!
I still have a slight limp, more pronounced if I’ve been standing on concrete for long periods of time, but I go to the gym six days a week, wear heels and am no longer terrified of storms. After a Beth Moore “Daniel” Bible study, I find I agree with her three scenarios of living with integrity… the wreck is my “fire.” She said, “We can be delivered from the fire and our faith is built. We can be delivered through the fire and our faith is refined [my case]. (or) We can be delivered by the fire into His arms and our faith is perfected [Sybil].” God just wasn’t finished with me yet!
-by Twila K. Hurst
