Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Don't drink and drive


On Saturday night, Sa was on his way home from having dinner with his brothers and sister. We spoke before he left the restaurant and he insisted that I go to sleep, that he'll be home soon and that he loves me. About 20 minutes before he should have been home, I recieved a call from a strange number at 11:52pm. "Is the molly? Your husband's been in an accident. Please talk to him". She gave Sa the phone and all I could hear was his pain and he kept trying to tell me he loved me. It killed me to hear him crying out for me and I wasn't there for him. I started panicking. I'd heard something about "crouching lion", which is a restraunt by my folks house, so I ran accross to a neighbors house to borrow a phone so I could call my mom with out hanging up with Sa. Finally the ambulance arrived, the woman took the phone back and explained that the crash was by the Coral Kingdom, which is in the opposite direction of crouching lion, and then she hung up. I called mom back, got her headed in the right direction. Thank heavens for a wonderful neighbor, Tupu, who I called and she came running to be with the kids as the slept so I could go to the accident.
When I got close, the line of cars waiting was so long, I had to park and run to the accident. It was the most horrific sight. I couldn't even recognize the car Sa was driving. The door was ripped off, the bumper was on the road and firemen we cutting the car apart so that they could get my husband out. They wouldn't let me near him, wouldn't let me go in the ambulance, and they didn't really tell me what was wrong with him.
For those who aren't familiar with our island, where Sa and I live there's just a little two lane road in and out. The ambulance headed off to the hospital, going towards Kaneohe. In that direction, it would have taken them about 1/2 hour to get to the hospital. However, they wouldn't let me through the reckage to follow the ambulance. My folks and I had to run back to our car and drive the other way around the island...a drive that's almost 1 1/2 hours...
I called my sister mindy and she took her family up to my house to watch the kids. I had no idea how long this may be, and although I really wanted her there, I knew that I wouldn't be able to solely focus on Sa unless the kids were with family.
By some miracle, Sa made it out with only a broken arm and some lacerations. The nurses confirmed that he was hit by a drunk driver, driving an SUV. Sa was in a little civic. He had his seatbelt on and his airbag deployed and it saved his life. Over the next few days at the hospital, some nurses would comment on how they couldn't believe how minor his injuries were.

Thank you all so much for all your help. Thanks mom and dad for getting there first and then helping me handle the horror of it all. Thank you Tupu for waking up and coming. Thanks Min for waking up your whole family in the middle of the night to come watch my kids. Thank you Mikey, becky, Peter, jolena, Joanne, and Dai for watching my kids so that Sa could come home to a quiet house and rest for a few days. Thank you to all the friends and family who came to the hospital to check in on us. Thank you all for your prayers on his behalf.

I know with out a doubt that we have been SO blessed. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father preserved my husband's life. I am so grateful that my kids still have a father and I still have a husband. I can't even describe the gratitude that I feel.

Here is the airbag that helped save my husband's life

This door was cut off, as well as part of the roof so that they could get Sa out. They've had to tie it back on so they could transport the car.
Can you believe that he made it out of here with just a broken arm and a few lacerations??? I'm telling you, it's a miracle.

Here's a link to the article that was in the paper. However, I think they got the description of the other car wrong because it was an SUV that hit him and it's been confirmed that it was alcohol related.

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090628/BREAKING01/90628016/Two+seriously+hurt+in+head-on+collision+near+Kualoa+Ranch