The Beginning - February 14, 2007

It started as a normal snowy day (6-8 inches) on February 14, 2006 but ended with a life changing accident. Terry, who always went out on snowy days to see if anyone needed help, was taking his grandson - Warren - to the grocery store. Warren was going to cook lasagna for his girlfriend for Valentine's Day. Terry also stopped by his daughter's house - Arlyne - to make sure she could get off her road and go to work. After getting Arlyne off to work and Warren back home to start cooking, Terry goes home. On his way home he sees a car in the median about 1 1/2 mile from his home. There is a young lady and her baby stuck. He parks his truck in the parking lot of a motel right there. Then he walks across the street. By that time the young lady's uncle had also arrived. They were discussing how they were going to get her out, when a car going westbound on 40 lost control. The young lady and her uncle saw the car. She jumped in the back seat with her child and the uncle jump out of the way. Terry did not see the car as he had his back to it. The car hit him with its rear quarter panel and threw him up in the air. He landed on the back windshield. The young lady's uncle had EMT experience and started working on Terry right away (this definitely had played a big part in saving Terry's life). Around 10:15 to 10:45 Lynn heard a siren going past the house. She prayed for God to be with the emergency whatever the need. She called Terry to warn him that there might be an accident he would have to go around. When the phone was answered it was someone else not Terry. At that same time, someone was knocking on the front door. The lady at the door said there had been an accident and Lynn needed to come with her. The lady told Lynn that Terry had a severe leg injury but that he was still alive. She tired to calm Lynn down (who was hyperventilating). She drove Lynn to the accident site. The rescue workers had put Terry in an ambulance to work on him. Mike Rapp was there at the accident scene and told Lynn that Terry had recognized him. Terry was Life Lined to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis. Lynn was taken to the hospital by Mike Rapp. Terry was kept in the emergency room to try and get him stabilized before performing any surgeries. All of Terry's family and friends (sons, daughters, nieces, nephews, in-laws, pastor, friends) were waiting and moving from room to room as they grew in numbers (the final total came to about 45 people). Finally the hospital staff came and told us that they were taking him to radiology to inject a dye into him to help with the blood loss. After that procedure, they moved him to ICU. At that point in time they told us about all of Terry's injuries - a broken pelvis, broken back, broken left arm, severed left leg, and a collapsed lung. He had lost a lot of fluid and blood. They did say that his heart was strong but that he was on a respirator for breathing. After a while they showed Lynn, Michael, and Grant his x-rays and cat scans. They said he would need a external fixator (metal rods to help stabilize the broken pelvis because there was a lot of internal bleeding coming from the broken pelvis. They would wanted to put it on that evening but they needed Terry to be more stabilized before the surgery. His blood pressure was very low. At one point in time we were told they would not be able to do the surgery but later that evening around 10:30 they said they were doing it. They only had about an hour to do the surgery. During the surgery, they also worked on his amputate leg - taking it above the knee and cleaning it up. After the surgery, Terry was taken back up to ICU. They would have to wait until he was more stable to operate on all his other injuries. New Life arranged for a room at University Place for two nights.