How many times have you heard that or actually said it yourself?  Well, for me it was almost a reality. Some of you already know this story, but many of you do not.  Exactly 4 years ago today, my life was almost cut short at the age of 38.

On October 29th 2005, (a Saturday) my son Eddie (he was 6 at the time) and I had been fishing on my fathers ranch and catching more fish than normal, so we decided to stay a little longer than we were supposed to.  Little did I know but that decision very well could have saved all of our lives.  I know what your thinking. “How many guys can say that fishing actually saved their life”?

After catching and releasing the last Largemouth, I loaded Eddie up and drove home a little faster than normal. Deb was expecting us home by 5:30 so I could fire up the grill to start dinner, well it was already after 5:00 and I had a 30 minute drive, not to mention I had to take a shower to wash all the fish smell off before I started cooking dinner.

You see, normally we sit down at the dinner table between 6:00 and 6:30 pm but because I stayed to take advantage of a good evening of fishing we were running about 45 minutes late. As Deb and I were standing in the kitchen discussing the day and preparing dinner we both heard tires screeching and a loud crash.  My first thought was someone was driving to fast and hit a parked car, the instant I turned away from the back of the house to go outside and see what had happened, is when my life changed. 

There was a tremendous explosion and feeling that I almost can not describe, it happened so fast but at the same time seemed like slow motion.  A Jeep being driven by a 15 year old girl at 70 miles per hour while being chased by a police officer had lost control of the vehicle, jumped the curb, crashed through my neighbors tree (the loud noise I heard), our privacy fence, our back deck and into our home through the dining room,(this is the spot that all of us would normally be sitting to eat. I have no doubt at all that all of us would not be here today if we had been on schedule and sitting at the spot where the Jeep entered the house) all the way through the kitchen, the utility room and coming to rest on top of me with the nose of the jeep sticking out into our garage!

I was laying face down in almost complete darkness with a Jeep and debris from the house on top of me.  I was literally attached to the under carriage of the jeep by debris that had entangled itself in my clothes and the jeep, of course I did not know what had happened, all I knew is that I was in serious pain, I couldn’t breathe very well and didn’t have a clue if my wife and son were alive or dead.

Much to my relief the next thing I can hear is my wife screaming. I’m thinking, ”at least I know she is alive”.  The worst experience of my entire life is hearing her scream my sons name over and over again and not knowing what she is dealing with, not being able to move to help her was the most helpless I had ever felt.  It seemed like an eternity but I could hear other voices (neighbors) helping Deb and I could hear someone say “I’ve got him, he’s ok”.  Thinking about it today, still literally sends me in a panic unless I can go check on Eddie and see that he is ok.

My neighbors and Deb’s attention then turn to me.  I can hear debris being moved and a little light is starting to come in, I try to yell but it came out as a whisper.  I didn’t know it at the time but I had several broken ribs and one of them had punctured a lung, making it hard to breathe.  Finally I can see feet, it’s funny what you remember at a time like that but I remember seeing someone wearing black tennis shoes and thinking “who wears black tennis shoes”, anyway the first person to get under the Jeep with me was my neighbor Gary Morgan, I tried to prop myself up but immediately fell back to my chest.  I informed Gary that I thought my left arm was broken and that I could not move it.  Gary did an excellent job of keeping me calm until paramedics could get there to get me out.  As it turns out Gary loves to hunt so we surprised him with a Whitetail hunt in Illinois, you can see the story here.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSrokuQVp7o

Once paramedics and rescue arrived, they were able to get me cut lose from under the jeep on to a board and evaluate me in the yard.  I eventually made it to the hospital where I stayed in ICU for 4 days and then on to a regular room for another week.  My injuries included…

• Broken Ribs
• Punctured Lung
• Liver, kidney, gallbladder and spleen damage
• Paralyzed left arm (Nerve damage from the impact)
• Severe damage to my right foot
• Knocked out 4 teeth
• Numerous cuts, lacerations, and bruises
• Since the incident happened I have had a total of 6 surgeries, the last one just a year ago. 

Now before you start feeling to sorry for me with my injuries, I have to tell you about my unbelievably tough wife.  The night of the incident we were taken to the same hospital where she was examined and treated for her injuries then told she could go home.  Umm, we didn’t have a house to go home to.  During my entire stay in the hospital Deb had to deal with finding us a place to live, getting it furnished, hire a contractor to board up the hole in the back of our house, find a restoration company to repair the damage, start the clean up process, take care of our two kids, check in on me at the hospital, all while dealing with her injuries, not to mention all the stress that came along with it.  She is an incredible person and the foundation of our family, I am so lucky to have her in my life.

Deb and I are so thankful for all of our neighbors/friends that helped us through this process.  Gary, Keith, Greg, Mark and Bobby all literally risked their lives to help me and my family, not only was the jeep still running inside our house but the impact had ruptured the natural gas line to the house.  These guys crawled over all the debris and had to throw a brick through the back window of the jeep to be able to get in and shut the jeep off.  While all of this was going on other neighbors like Cheri,Lisa, Jennifer, Sean, Amy and I am sure many others were taking care of Deb and Eddie. 

We had over $70,000 worth of damage to our house and it was over 6 months before we were able to move back in, fortunately our neighbor directly across the street had just put her house up for sale and allowed us to rent it from her while ours was being rebuilt.  During this time neighbors and people we did not even know were bringing us meals, hung Christmas lights, my brother in law Richard and my buddy Steven stayed in our house, in the complete darkness to make sure nothing happened  and numerous other acts of kindness that we will never forget.

When this happened I was working for a company that required me to travel close to 90% of the time, I basically saw my family on weekends and that was it,  not to mention I had started my Outdoor Connection franchise and would now work it on the weekends.  It’s funny how something like this makes you reevaluate what’s important and how something good can come out of something so bad.  I’m now running my outdoor consultant business fulltime, it’s been a challenging transition but things are going well.  I am now home when I want to be, set my own schedule, see my kids on and off the school bus, take them hunting and fishing to some pretty cool destinations and spend more time with Deb, in fact probably more time than she wants.  I am very thankful for my family and friends and thankful to be here today to tell this story…  Life’s Too Short!

You can see all the pictures from the crash here Warning some of the pictures of my injuries are pretty graphic so if you have a weak stomach you might not want to see them.  http://www.facebook.com/video/?id=1261614093#/album.php?aid=15194&id=1261614093