This past Friday the good Lord above tested our family...and he tested us to our core. On Friday night, Ryan was in a pretty bad car accident. Before I go further, he is FINE. I was home, about 9:30pm, enjoying a movie with my husband when I got a phone call from Erin. All she could tell me is that she heard from one of Ryan's friends that Ryan is in a car accident and that he had to be cut from the car. I immediately jumped up and raced out of the house, headed to Greeley. I made it to Greeley and walked in to see my little brother with cuts all over his face from the glass, blood that had soaked the entire back of his shirt, and blood all over the room. I deal with seeing blood and guts for a living...it doesn't bother me; but when it is your little brother that you see in that hospital room, everything changes.
I found out from his two friends that were up there the gist of what happened. Ryan was driving westbound and a girl was going to make a left hand turn from the eastbound lane. She obviously didn't see him, and hit him in the middle of his back driver side door. Ryan was going 45 mph, and we still don't know yet how fast she was going. The way she hit him caused him to go sideways and pushed his car about 30 feet until his car went sideways into the street light pole-literally wrapping his car around the pole. There were apparently a dozen or so people who saw the whole thing happen and stopped to help Ryan. Although I see ugly everyday, I do still believe, and this confirms that there are still good people out there willing to help out someone they don't know. They called 911 and called as many people as they could to track us down.
Because mom and dad were at dinner, we couldn't immediately get in touch with them. We finally got in touch with them and they made their way up to Greeley to see Ryan and bring him home. Ryan had a CT scan and everything came back as normal, and ok. No broken bones, no trauma to the brain, no strains to his neck or back...the only injury, aside from the glass cuts is a 6-7 inch gash on the back of his head. The gash was so deep that it went to the bone...yes - you could see his skull if you peeled back his head. He received 15 staples in his head to heal that. Ryan's nurse was guessing that it was the rear view mirror that caused the injury, but Ryan's friends and I didn't think that it could have been possible. We left the hospital in the wee hours of the morning and made our way home.
Because Ryan's apartments keys were on his key ring, we knew we needed to get up there and get the keys, along with anything else he wanted out of the car. And because none of us could really wrap our minds around what exactly happened, we decided to go up and look at the car. I had been thankful for Ryan's health up to this point, and prayed thanks in him walking away from this accident with only the head wound, but after seeing Ryan's car, I am so truly thankful and believe that the Lord was looking out for him and his friends that night. If Ryan had a passenger in his car that night, his passenger would have died instantly. The force of the impact of his car against the light pole literally caused Ryan's passenger seat to be folded in half like a taco. Ryan's car hit the light pole where the front passenger door meets the back passenger door. It pushed the car so far inward it is truly shocking. It also caused the roof of his car to buckle upward and inward, and you guessed it...it was the roof that caused the gash to the back to Ryan's head. Ryan had papers from his student teaching job in the back of his car that we tried to get out, but couldn't get them out because they were pinned in there so badly. If the driver of the other car had been a second earlier, it would have hit Ryan directly in his door and who knows what would have happened.
After looking at the car, we headed out to the scene to see what we could see. There was a significant amount of glass still all over the roadway, and the tow truck driver told us it took over an hour to clean up the scene it was that bad. After seeing the car and the scene it is pretty clear as to what happened, and where it happened. While we were out there, we found Ryan's gas cap cover (yeah from the car!) sitting in the grass...we figured it would be a good souvenir as to his poor Saturn and what she went through for him. While we were out there, Ryan also found one of his figurine toys laying in the street. We took that as well.
To the girl who hit him, I know that it was an accident, and I am positive that she will learn from this experience. I know that the court case will come and go, and that this accident will stay with all those involved for life. I have said it a lot - I am so thankful that God was looking out for Ryan....that we as his family know that he still has work to do on this planet.
WARNING
BELOW ARE THE PICTURES FROM THE HOSPITAL, CAR AND SCENE - DO NOT GO FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.....
 |
| This is how he looked when I got to the hospital. |
 |
| The backboard he was on for an hour and a half. |
 |
| Ryan with his head wrapped right before he was discharged. |
 |
| This is from the rear of his car looking in - to show how far the car went around pole. |
 |
| The black line towards the top of the picture is what he cut his head on. You can see that his head hit the roof of the car a second time too. |
 |
| Ryan holding his souvenirs from the scene |
