I had buckled my daughter in her car seat and drove the short drive over to the Medcenter One Emergency Room as fast as I could.  I parked my car outside the bay doors where EMT ambulances park with the blessing of a security guard who was waiting at the front door.  I was trying to stay calm for my daughter’s sake, but nerves were beginning to get the better of me.  I texted her parents and mine when answering machines came on. 

As I waited in the waiting room three other familes were there: one with a 5 year old in a two casts up to her hips-one yellow, one pink- another family whose elderly mother had suffered a fall, and a father and his friend who were waiting on results of a cat scan due to his youngest son suffering a seizure at daycare. 

After what seemed like an eternity, a nurse and EMT finally came into the waiting room.  The EMT began talking about how our car insurance covered the cost of moving my wife to the hospital when I cut in, “FUCK THAT!! WHAT HAPPENED?? IS SHE CONCIOUS?? DID SHE HIT ANOTHER CAR??”

The nurse and EMT both blinked and looked at me and calmly replied, “no, her car rolled”

“Is she ok though??”

“yes she’s fine, their just patching her up now”

“Can I see her??”

The nurse looked down the hall as the EMT handed me a form to fill out stating that “his duties had been obligated and he had hereby released from blah blah blah” or some such.  By the time my John Hancock had been left on the page, she quickly waived to me and ushered me to the front door of the Emergency room where the doors open and I saw three people working on my wife who was laying in a bed. 

I felt a lump develop in my throat as I saw the condition that she was in: She had what looked like a black eye on her right eye…part of her left ear, a small triangular cut was missing, but a nurse/doctor was working on gluing it together…another doctor was putting water on her hair and was in the process of removing small chunks of glass from her hair with the aid of a small flashlight….she had some nasty cuts up and down her forearms on both arms…but she was alive and awake.

“Hi Honey” she said in a breaking voice

I think she saw the look on my face and was trying not to cry herself.  If Liana, our daughter could talk at that point, the expression on her face would have said, “Mommy??”.

The next few moments speaking with the doctors and nurses about what had happened is a blank, but the next thing I knew, A North Dakota State Highway Patrolman was standing in the doorway and talking to me.  He began to fill me in when I saw a gigantic needle being inserted into one of Val’s giant nasty scars on her left arm and I asked if we could take the conversation out into the hallway so I didn’t turn into a crying mess in the ER. 

He began to fill me in on the details out there: somewhere between the Luther’s home and Mandan along Highway I-94, one of the tires on her car had blown.  The scary thing about this is that the speed limit in North Dakota is 70 mph.  So when the tire blew, her first instinct was to overcompensate and steer the wheel in the other direction.  A short moment later the other tire blew and she ended up rolling the car onto its hood.  What followed next can only be described as providence: an off-duty sherrif’s deputy was behind her when the accident happened and he immediately helped.  A surgeon with the V.A. in Fargo (he was on his way there) was the next car that came along and he stabilized Val while the deputy called for help and waived down the EMT’s. 

“We checked for signs that she may have hit something, but from what we can tell at this point, we are ruling this as ‘Catastrophic Technical Failure’ ” he finally concluded.

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“It means that their was an engineering failure in the brand of tires that she had on her car” he told me. 

I let that sink in for a moment while my daughter gave him the ‘googly eyes’ “. 

The Highway patrolman withdrew a deputy sticker and handed it to my daughter which she then inserted into her mouth and began sucking on it. 

That elicited a long laugh.

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After all the stiches, poking, prodding and tests had been run, Val was released from the hospital and I took her home.  The doctors and nurses told me that while she had only a mild concussion that I need to watch for any nausea, dizziness or other symptoms of a concussion and to bring her in if she does. 

When we got home, my dad had called and we ran through everything that had been explained to me.  He asked me if she had anything that looked like “Racoon Eyes” or bruises behind her ears.  When I saw what looked like one, he told me to get her back to the ER to get checked out as she may have internal cranial bleeding.  When the nurse at the ER checked it out though, she showed me that the bruise was actually from the seat belt holder when Val’s head had hit it (it was in the shape of it). 

After calling my dad back and telling him and my mom that all was well, and Val’s parents all was well we finally had a chance to lay down and rest.  Val was healthy enough two weeks later to fly out with the rest of us to a family reunion in South Carolina and after about a month we finally had a response from our insurance agency that the car was a “total loss” and they cut a check for the worth of the car (post damage). 

What was unsettling to me was when I saw the car, the entire hood of the car was crushed and the worst area was where my daughter’s car seat would have been if she was in there. While its been 5 years since that day, there is not a time that goes by that when my wife goes out in her car- with or without our children – that I feel a sense of dread in my stomach.  I know that they will be well, but still that feeling comes even as I hear the garage door closing.  I always make sure that everything is right with her car down to the wiper blades she uses.  

The takeaway that I got from this entire situation is that you always treasure the time you have with those closest to you.  Take more time with them, hug them a little longer, check in with a “thinking of you” text…because tomorrow is never guaranteed.