“You were involved in a motor vehicle accident on March 6, 1979 at 5:53pm. You were alone in the vehicle, no one in other vehicle was injured…” This is the note that was on my chest when I awoke in a hospital bed at Millard Fillmore Hospital in Amherst, NY on March 8, 1979. Suffering from short term memory loss, I could not recall the accident or how I ended up in the hospital. That took close to three years. What I came to remember is I was a junior at the University of Buffalo and was helping coach winter track at Williamsville East High School. That evening I was heading to the awards dinner and sitting at a light when I was hit from behind.
I remember looking up at my rear view mirror and saw a car coming at me at a very high rate of speed. The next thing I know my car is in the intersection and I have blood streaming from my forehead. I get out of the car in a daze and amazingly, an Amherst police officer was on the scene immediately. He came up to me and asked to see my license, registration and insurance card. Honestly, I don’t remember if I ever produced those documents. The woman who hit me came walking up and the officer asked her what happened. She said “I guess I wasn’t paying attention”.
Side note, she was intoxicated and not a scratch on her. That could have been because she was driving an El Dorado and I was in a ’69 Chevelle. Both were solid cars and she put my bumper in my back seat. With a stroke of luck the head rest was up which probably saved my life. When she struck my vehicle my forehead hit the steering wheel and the recoil was so great my head snapped back against the head rest which save me from breaking my neck. It didn’t hurt that I had a 19 inch neck at the time.
The office told me to have a seat in his squad car. I was surprised by this and responded “I didn’t do anything wrong, she hit me.” He was extremely patient and responded “I think you may have a concussion”. I started to say I was fine and remember beginning to fall. The office caught me and while I was in and out of consciousness I remember him putting me in the back of his squad car and the sound of the sirens as he rushed me to Millard Fillmore Hospital. Immediately upon arrival the ER Staff put me on a gurney and started checking me for injuries. Laying on the gurney with the ER as a backdrop, I recall seeing a beautiful nurse who looked like an angel with her long blonde hair and bright light around her head. That was the last thing I remember before waking up.
Within seconds of my awakening, the staff rushed in and started checking vital signs. I was in a daze and kept looking at the note on my chest and asking what happened. But because of the short term memory, I kept forgetting what I had just been told. I was frustrating one of the nurses because I kept asking what time it was and she kept responding “I just told you”.
Later that day a young man walked into the room and started talking to me. After about 15 minutes he asked me if I knew who he was and I responded not a clue. Turns out he was my roommate (Ed). What I also didn’t remember at the time was Ed and I had a pretty intense argument just before I left the dorm for the banquet. It was about the amount of time his girlfriend was spending in our room. Pretty silly.
I was eventually released and returned to the dorm. I tried to resume with my classes but everything from the semester was lost. The professors were extremely supportive of my situation and went above and beyond to help me succeed.
Eventually the details of the accident returned and I began thinking about that angelic, blonde nurse working in the ER. It just so happens our team doctor was on staff at the hospital and I asked him if he could find out who that nurse was in the ER. He did some investigating and said he spoke with everyone who was on duty in the ER and they did not have a blonde nurse on duty that evening and I must have been dreaming. To this day I believe she was my guardian angel.
On this 40th anniversary of my rebirth day, a shout out to the Amherst police officer who was first on the scene (I apologize I do not know his name), the ER and hospital staff who were nothing short than amazing, my professors at UB, and of course, my guardian angel.
Thank you all for your incredible support!