Construction Worker Steamrolled by 25-Ton Machine
“All of a sudden it started coming and trapped my left foot under the wheel,” remembers Chris. “It dropped me to the ground kind of to where my waist was, and it made it all the way up to my chest. I started spitting up a bunch of blood. I couldn’t breathe.”
Chris was laying asphalt at a construction site. In the blink of an eye, he was fighting for his life when he was run over by a 25-ton rubber tire roller. His father Jason, who co-owned the company, drove to the scene as soon as he got the call.
“When I arrived, Christopher was on the ground and he was surrounded by firefighters. And I approached the firefighters and started calling out Chris’s name, ‘Are you okay? Are you okay?’”
EMTs rushed Chris to the E.R. in Amarillo, TX. Chris’s mother Nicole was already there when Jason arrived with the ambulance.
“We’re alone in there and we’re the first two. We hug, we pray. And we’re waiting. And then at that point family starts to come in. And that was really helpful. And that’s when it set it in that this is serious,” says Nicole.
After a few minutes, the trauma doctor came out to speak to Jason and Nicole.
Jason remembers it well. “And he shook his head and he said, ‘I’ll be honest with you. It doesn’t look good. I don’t think he’s going to make it.’ He said that, ‘We can’t handle this at this hospital. He’s going to Dallas or Lubbock.’ And at that moment, there was a crushing weight that just settles over you.”
“There was a moment of panic, when you hear the news,” says Nicole. “And then prayer immediately, and honest – calmness. I mean, it was Christ through us.”
Chris was flown to University Medical Center in Lubbock. Meanwhile, their prayers that began in the E.R. continued on the long 2-hour drive to the hospital.
“On the drive to Lubbock, we prayed together as a family,” says Nicole. “It was very quiet, a very quiet drive. Just reflection and preparing for whatever it is was going to happen.”
Orthopedic surgeon Mark Jenkins and his team were ready when Chris arrived.
“When he came in, he was in critical condition. One side of his pelvis was completely torn loose and kind of pivoted up and was caught on the anterior part of his sacrum. The amount of energy required to cause that injury usually leads to internal bleeding. We just don’t see those injuries because most people literally bleed to death before they ever get to the hospital.”
During surgery, doctors discovered Chris had six broken ribs, several severed arteries and ligaments, and serious damage to his liver. He also went through 30 units of blood.
“You keep giving blood because he keeps losing it,” says Dr. Jenkins “So we replace all the blood in his body times two to keep him alive.”
“It was a lot easier to give it over to God than I thought it would be,” says Jason. “We don’t imagine ourselves being in this situation. And if we do, we think how bad it must be. It was actually very easy to say God, ‘He’s Yours.’ Because we were completely powerless.”
In the meantime, Chris’s family had set up a “Pray for Chris” Facebook page.
“And being able to use that as a tool to get the information out to so many people and to have it shared and shared again and again,” says Jason. “Thousands and thousands of people were praying for a man they didn’t even know.”
After six hours in surgery, Dr. Jenkins spoke with the family.
“He came out and he said it couldn’t have gone better,” says Nicole.
“And from what I understand, what was told me, Dr. Jenkins went in there and performed that surgery of stabilizing those pelvis bones in record time,” says Jason. “It was almost perfect. But as we reflect on that, it was God’s hand the whole way.”
“To see the x-rays, before and after, is amazing. It’s an amazing feeling,” says Nicole “And just a sigh of relief. I mean now it’s the rehab part. But he’s alive, he’s put together.”
The doctors expected Chris to be in rehab for three months.
“He did the exercises he was told to do, and fought through a lot of pain,” says Jason. “The pain was pretty intense. And constant. We started seeing results from his physical therapy within just a few days.”
In two months, he was ready to go home. Everyone that knows Chris says his recovery was a miracle.
“I absolutely believe that it was a modern day miracle,” says Nicole. “I felt it. I saw it. I mean, the presence of God was all around it. It was amazing.”
“God put all of the things in place, almost perfectly, for Chris to have a 100% chance of surviving,” says Jason.
“There’s no other way to explain it,” says Chris “I thought about it and what I’ve heard from doctors, and they thought I was going to be in the hospital for months. And, you know, I got out in two and started walking. I can’t explain it. It’s just, it’s a miracle.”
Thanksgiving of 2014, less than 3 months after the accident, Chris was walking with a cane. Now the cane is long gone, and he’s thankful for all those who prayed for him.
“Thank you so much,” says Chris. “I mean there’s no words. I love you all and you helped save my life.”
“For me the miracle is seeing these patients come back to the clinic walking,” says Dr. Jenkins. “The miracle is that patient going on and further impacting other people around them. The miracle is that patient gets to continue to interact with his family and friends and go on and have an impact on other people’s lives. That to me is the bigger miracle.”
“I’d say the things I’m thankful for most is the more—the time I get to spend here with my family. The more time we spend together, the more I realize like how lucky I am to have them in my life,” says Chris.
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