June 16, 2022, was a day that I won’t soon forget, although I may not remember all of it.
It was the day in which a normal trip from Union to Newton to attend the Newton Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors meeting wasn’t so routine.
As I approached the intersection that has been all too familiar with other bad crashes in Newton County history, that’s where things changed. While the details are sketchy, I’ve been able to piece together that I evidently did not see a vehicle in time to stop on the hill on Hwy. 15 where Ledlow Road ends.
Things happened so fast that I literally had no idea what happened. The first thing I remembered was Sheriff Joedy Pennington telling me not to move and then they got me out of the car with a bloodied shirt that was originally white and put me into an ambulance on my way to Rush Hospital in Meridian.
After they stitched up and stopped the bleeding around my eye, they sent me on to UAB Hospital where I would spend the next two weeks and then another week and a half at Brookwood Hospital Vestavia recovering from the injuries I suffered in the crash.
Those injuries were likely made worse by not wearing my seatbelt that day.
It led to me having a fracture in my lower spine that required two rod and eight screws to stabilize. I fortunately didn’t have a torn ACL in my knee, but I had a partial tear of the PCL and partial tear of the miniscus.
After the brilliant doctors at UAB helped stabilize my spine, it began the long journey. They got me up to start hopping around a day or two later since I was not weight bearing in my right leg due to my knee.
Then as I got better, I was able to start weight bearing again and then could begin the process of physical therapy.
It’s a long process that still is somewhat ongoing until this day. It’s probably something I will have to keep working on for the rest of my life.
I’ve had a bit of bad luck as I lost my replacement car to a severe thunderstorm that brought down two trees, a pine and an oak on my car, but I feel like things are headed in the right direction.
One bit of advice that I’d give to you is to wear your seatbelt. I got a ticket from that accident from not wearing a seatbelt in addition to my injuries. I hope you don’t have to go through what I went through.
And even if you do get a ticket for not wearing a seatbelt, please remember it could be much worse than that.
But I am so glad to be here today. I know many of you sent cards or texts. I apologize that I was not able to send out thank yous like I should. I hope I can reach out to you personally and tell you thank you at some point, but I can’t tell you how much it meant to me to see and feel the love and prayers from everyone.
Brent can be reached at bmaze@newtoncountyappeal.com.
