Jerk caused by a jerk
When I write about this right now I’m having a smile on my face. But that was not the condition when I faced the situation. Yes it was bloody Jerk caused by a jerk. I met with an accident last year , but not so old that the memories are not there. It happened on December 23 ,2010 at US Interstate highway I75 in Atlanta.
If I look back all that happened was all because of bad time, because all that happened that day look like it was supposed to happen that day. I was working from home and felt a little bored , since it was the Christmas weekend and I felt I was missing the fun happening in the world outside my house. So was planning to go out after some days. Then got a real need for help situation when my friends where planning to go to Las Vegas and they had their flight that night. Since I had my another friend’s ( Shyam) car with me those days as he was in India for his wedding, I thought I’ll take a ride in that for that one day and drop my friends at airport. My friends requested me to drop them at the nearby railway station which will take them to Airport, but I offered that I’ll drop them at the airport. Just was thinking in mind that I’ll take a ride in car and feel the Christmas holiday.
Picked them from their house @ around 7PM and was riding through the Interstate highway 285 towards Airport, though that’s not the shortest route, we prefer that normally when we expect the shortest route to have more traffic and specially during the Christmas Holiday time. But still 285 interstate was also crowded, but the traffic was smooth. Had a nice chat with them all the way to Airport. Now the clock is ticking, since i remember all that what happened from this point till the time when the accident occurred, because this was unusual from whenever I go to Airport. In the road to check in area, inside the Airport compound there was a long queue of vehicles…Which I never experienced whenever i went to airport. this led to a waiting time of more than 15 mins until i dropped them and off loaded their luggage from the car. nice drive , nice time talking to them after a long time.
I remember starting back from airport around 8:10 PM- 8:15PM. was following the GPS and it showed me the road to I85/I75, which is the shortest route. I thought of following that as I thought traffic back from Airport would be less and I had enough time to reach back home. Had carried my Ipod with me, but forgot to take it out from the glove box before i started from the Airport. So I didn’t try to take it out and play it while driving , since its not a good option to do all those settings while driving alone and that too at night in a highway. Was following the GPS and was really enjoying the Christmas holiday mood and the night when i could see a unusually big Moon. I diverted from I85/I75 N to I75N and my next exit was around 5 miles more ..i was literally enjoying the night drive..calm , quiet, and the flashy lights around.
Creeeechhhhh..There goes my car forward more than the speed I was driving and then it started turning around..I had my hands on the wheels and for a moment I was not able to understand what just happened. Did i do something wrong, did the car got some problem, what is happening? Now my body is turning towards the right and the entire car is turning in anticlockwise direction…I could now see the pattern of headlights that I saw till now in my rear view mirror, through my front wind screen…I realised now, my car is in a wrong direction in the lane, just like a position in racing video games, where they show “Wrong direction”….Ok now its turning more and but this time I’m not able to see things properly…everything is going very much like a flash and between i could see a white car passing by. some more jerk ,could identify where from it came , but then the car stopped rotating..it came to a stand still.. I had my hands still on the steering and my seat belt was intact. But this time my body is on the left side and in fact my face has gone towards the left back more towards the side of the seat belt side wall hinge..My face was sticking on to that hinge..it took me couple of seconds for me to realise that its sticking on some area near to my eye…Fear started building up..Is it sticking on to my eyeball…Oh no!!!
With a half mind of escaping from the car and the half mind of taking the sticking part , I decided upon taking the sticking part of my face from the hinge. The scary part. I used my left hand to push my face out of the hinge and the blood started coming out. My spectacles where complete broken….This happened really..”I switched on the emergency lights”..I don’t know what made me think about that at that point of time…but I did that…and I could see a old lady knocking on my window and asking whether I’m fine..Another couple of seconds, before I could answer to her and i opened the door..I’m still not sure whether my eyeballs where sticking on to the seatbelt wall hinge or not.
The blood is dripping, since my spectacles were broken , my vision was little blurred…but not able to analyse whether i got more vision problem on my left eye than on the right eye or not..All vehicles halted behind the accident scene and there were these two couple who helped me..At first I was not in a condition to check what happened to the car..i called up my roommate who was actually organising his office project party and told him the bad news….No one expected and between us , we realised the more complexity that is awaiting us. I was worried about my eye still and i asked those people who was helping me to control the blood flow, whether i got injury on my eye or not..They were not giving me proper response, which made me think more in a negative way that, its really on my eye, thats y they don’t want to scare me…I was asking them again and again and they told it seems to them that its not on eye, but above the eye.. Still not convinced I started asking them to touch the portion on my right hand eye side to identify the corresponding area where it caused in left eye. They told its some where near to the eye lid and they don’t see any issue inside the eye. People got down from their car and started picking the things that went out of the car..oh ya the car…what happened to that…..Crap…the trunk portion has gone half way inside …ok so all these caused because some jerk hit me from behind…the back lights are gone in fact the trunk door is almost in the same shape but the actual trunk volume got reduced by 50%. there was this basket ball of my friend, his chair, his skating shoes and what not..everything fell out of the trunk due to the impact and the rotation.
Those two families where giving me paper napkins to hold it on the injured area and was continuously talking to me to make sure that I’m not falling unconscious, because they feared it might happen as there is this impact on head..As i was speaking to them where I went and all I was asking them what happened to me..It turns out that this jerk was driving recklessly and he/she made them also go off the road because of his rude driving and ultimately he/she hit my car from behind…According to their narration, I wouldn’t have got a chance to see him in the rear view as he was that fast. So the delay in the airport was for me to become the victim of that jerk. They called the 911 and eventually the paramedics . the police officer came and those families where explaining them what happened. They asked my license and insurance..I had my license with me and the insurance but there was a little complexity with the insurance..that still need to sort out…So in between i analysed the damage to the car..there was nothing visible inside the car other than things messed up around…like Gps went to rear seat and all..
Where is my Ipod?
Haha!!! this was the funniest part..in that condition i was searching for my Ipod, obviously not to hear music, but that’s something valuable. i had my contacts and details in it.It was no where visible and I asked the families who helped me to search for it…they were asking me to sit calm and they started searching, but in vain. When the police office came to take the insurance detail from glove box, I asked him to give my Ipod if he see it somewhere 
. In fact he got it and gave it to me when i was waiting for the ambulance to come and iwas lying on the paramedic board on the road.
Ya, the paramedics came and they applied bandage around the wound and my head..my head started paining by the time they came …realised in hospital that there was a small cut on my left side of head..very minor..their bandage caused most of the pain I guess . Waited for the ambulance to come for another 20 mins in the cold weather on road…After it came a series of moving from one stretcher to another and all the pain..They took me to the hospital and realised another pain of a patient in emergency condition when they ask you “which hospital you want to go?”. how come i know that..I’m not a hospital researcher .. I told that guy take me wherever u can make things straight..i was feeling better by that time…taken away from accident sport and to make sure that i don’t go unconscious at any time i was speaking to that guy till i reached hospital..All about BP, pulse monitor …blah blah…he was pretty impressed to se my medical knowledge…thanks to the medical engineering subject.
Emergency Care …zzzzzzz
That was another surprise for me to see a emergency care in a big hospital to work like …hmm ya…like a restaurant where I just gave an order for original mango milk shake on a winter season…An experience where in which the waiter comes to you every hour and tell that we have found a tree where we can get Mango during this season..would have appreciated at least if they nurse/doctor visited me at least in one hour…once i got in ,they literally parked me in that bed and then got my details and then put a tag around my wrist..That’s the first step…Ok..that’s pretty fast..but everything happened after that went like a art film . Felt like dressing my wound myself..they identified that i got wounded on my left eyelid , eyebrow and a small cut on the side of head..ok.After this they parked me along with the other patients in emergency care on the aisle…Thank god..They parked me on a bed.
10 mins…20 mins…ok there come a nurse, who is asking me what happened…Ok i told her…the blood is still flowing very slowly thru my face. I thought she will try to wipe it of..Nope that didn’t happen until the doctor came 2 1/2 hours after i was admitted to the hospital. i was feeling thirsty…i thought they would ask me for water…but that didn’t happen until I asked the nurse…i told her that my pain is increasing around my head…she gave me two pills of pain killer and water..her job is over…My roommates came there in the hospital and he came to my bed side..I told him what had happened and what the hospital employees are doing…meanwhile called my cousin and told her the situation..as she is a doctor , she told me not to get surprised by how Emergency care works in US. i was feeling hungry and asked my roommate to get something for me..When he got something for me…the nurse had doubts whether I Should have it before the doctor checks me..OK…no dinner then… Doctor came and examined me after around 2 1/2 hours and then cleaned the dry blood stains..there after every one hour they will visit me and put the adhesive on the wound, check my eyes and then tetanus.. .blah blah..between all these free time , i managed to type what happened to me on that day in the Ipod notepad..funny.By the time they finished all there night lazy drama with me..it was around 2:30AM and we started back to Home..reached home @ 3AM
Funniest moment of the day
Back at home, i just checked my iPod for any emails while i was in bed, before I slept..there is my friends email , who had that day night flight to Las Vegas, whom I went to drop at airport. Email goes like this “
Hi KC, Did you reach safely and on time? we boarded on time and in flight now. Thank you very much for dropping us
ROFL ..
Update: I’m feeling fine now..not much bruises , Thanks to God and people who helped me..especially my roommates and my friend, who went to India for his wedding , who responded in a very calm way when he heard this news, by the way his wedding was on 25th December , 2 days after the accident and subsequent car crash
Read this article in CNN about Emergency care experience in US hospitals:
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